The program guide TVtäglich, jointly published by Ringier and Tamedia, is launching its own TV guide on the Internet. It offers a daily selection of TV tips, a TV channel overview and a search and category function, as the two publishing houses announced. The TV guide lists the TV channels with the highest reach from the print edition. Viewers who already receive digital television can switch on 30 additional TV channels. A total of around 70 TV channels are available. Current movie ratings complete the offer. The program guide TVtäglich is published once a week and is included with twelve carrier titles. According to the publishers, it reaches around one million readers.

 Swiss television also suffered a year-on-year loss in market share in March: It reported an all-day average share of 32.2%. This corresponds to a drop of 1.6 percentage points compared to the same month last year. In the main evening time slot, SF lacked the highly popular "MusicStar" final compared to the same month last year, according to a statement. Thanks to the ice hockey play-off games and the international soccer match between Switzerland and Germany, the late evening market share of 29.3 percent was maintained. SF also lost out on the annual average compared to 2007: from January to March 2008, it was 0.9 percentage points down on the previous year with an average of 32.6 percent.
The declining figures for traditional TV consumption are offset by the increasing use of the Sf.tv portal. For the first time, SF is reporting video views on Sf.tv and Youtube.de/schweizerfernsehen. In March 2008, around 1.9 million videos were accessed, which corresponds to an increase of over 64 percent compared to March 2007. Downloads of podcasts doubled in the same period: SF recorded around 363,000 downloads in March 2008. "SF Meteo" was the most visited service on Sf.tv in March with 1,810,100 visits.

 
The agency Blue Spirit Communications has two important innovations to announce. Firstly, the Schlieren-based advertising, trade and marketing company is expanding its activities and opening a second branch in Lausanne with immediate effect. The expansion into French-speaking Switzerland is part of a gradual expansion strategy and is linked to current project mandates in the region, Blue Spirit announced on Monday. The branch will be managed by Olivier Tekinli-Grangier. He was most recently responsible for Trade Marketing at Nestlé and was previously Key Account Manager at Dell. 
Secondly, Blue Spirit has become the lead agency for the perfumery chain Marionnaud. The agency is now responsible for all of the company's marketing communications in Switzerland and also manages international projects in collaboration with the Altavia agency network. With 115 stores, Marionnaud Parfumeries Switzerland is the largest provider of high-quality fragrance and care products in Switzerland.

 The intensely courted search engine operator Yahoo is approaching the stubborn bidder Microsoft, at least verbally. Yahoo's top management wrote in a letter to Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer that they would not oppose a deal with the software giant if it was in the best interests of their shareholders. However, the price must reflect Yahoo's value. Microsoft increased its pressure over the weekend and gave Yahoo's management a three-week ultimatum to accept the offer of 31 dollars per share. Otherwise, the company will turn directly to Yahoo shareholders in order to complete the largest takeover in the industry.
Most recently, Microsoft had assured that most jobs and Yahoo's headquarters in Sunnyvale would be retained in the event of a takeover (see
).

 The Zurich agency Angelink has secured the mandate for the online communication of Feldschlösschen Fresca. This beverage innovation aims to refresh young and young-at-heart people who are less fond of the taste of hops and malt with yuzu-lemon and grapefruit-cranberry fruit juice, according to the agency. Angelink has created a Flash microsite as the first communication measure for the new product. The Feldschloesschen-fresca.ch site will also serve as a hub for further promotional activities.

 The submission deadline for this year's ADC of Europe Awards is now open. Works can still be submitted until April 30. All creations that have already won awards in the national ADC competitions are eligible to enter. The jury will select the winners of the 22 categories on June 7 in Barcelona. Further information and the guidelines for registration are available at Adceurope.org

Gossip magazines have long since discovered them, the pictures of stars and starlets without make-up. For the edification of the viewer, because without make-up Pamela Anderson can sometimes look like Keith Richard's blonde sister. The women's magazine Annabelle also focuses on unadorned facts in its new issue. Instead of blurred paparazzi photos, it prints pictures by photographer Martin Schoeller, who usually takes pictures of people like Bill Clinton, George Clooney or Cate Blanchett. For Annabelle, he photographed prominent Swiss women, including Christine Egerszegi, Maria Becker, Fiona Hefti and Stéphanie Berger. However, the editorial team had to do a lot of convincing before these ladies came in front of his lens, writes editor-in-chief Lisa Feldmann in the editorial (in which she doesn't forget to mention sponsor Vichy). But the results of the photo campaign are impressive. Only entrepreneur Golmar Abivardi seems to have cheated: She wears what is known as permanent make-up and is therefore never completely without make-up. But Nadine Strittmatter looks better without eyeliner and lipstick than we do after a make-up session lasting several hours. How unfair life is.

Toni Wachter, the show director of Swiss television, is retiring. He worked for the television station for 38 years. His successor is Sven Sarbach, as reported by the Sonntag newspaper. Although Sarbach has often been seen working alongside Wachter in recent months, few people at Leutschenbach really know him. It is known that Sarbach has done a decent job as a producer of major television programs, the Sonntag continues. The programs "Pisa - Kampf der Kantone", "Music Star" and the Mister Switzerland competition are cited as examples. Trained advertising assistant Toni Wachter, who turns 62 at the end of the year, was responsible for some of the most successful entertainment programs on Swiss television, such as "Die grossen Schweizer Hits" and the "Swiss Award". He has also been responsible for the Grand Prix of Folk Music and the Eurovision Song Contest for many years.

The last word has not yet been spoken in the dispute between the EU and Switzerland over the Swiss advertising bans on alcohol, politics and religion. Both sides are looking for a solution and talks between Bern and Brussels are continuing. This is the result of a meeting on the media agreement in Brussels on Friday. Meetings were agreed between broadcasting law experts from Switzerland and the EU, as the head of the delegation and deputy director of the Federal Office for Culture (Bak), Marc Wehrlin, told SDA. The talks are to begin "very quickly". Wehrlin emphasized that these are not new negotiations. The EU Commission and the EU member states had waved goodbye to the subject of renegotiations. Wehrlin does not rule out the possibility that there is some room for interpretation within the EU framework law "Television without Frontiers", which is linked to the Media Agreement.
Because of this directive, which is to apply from 2009, the National Council and Council of States rejected the agreement in December last year and instructed the Federal Council to seek solutions with Brussels in order to save the Swiss advertising bans. From this date, the regulations of the country of origin will apply to advertising in the EU and no longer those of the recipient country. Television advertising windows aimed at Switzerland will then be allowed to advertise alcohol and the like.
 

The airline Swiss and Jung von Matt/Limmat announced in December that they would be ending their collaboration at the end of March 2008. Since then, the airline has been searching for a new agency by means of a pitch. At the end of last year, Swiss wanted to announce within a few weeks which creative agency would be awarded the contract. Now, however, it is apparently taking its time: the decision has been postponed until mid-May. "Various agencies have presented us with their concepts. In a first step, we selected five of them. We are currently in the process of whittling down this shortlist again," explained Swiss spokesperson Jean-Claude Donzel at the request of Werbewoche. Who will be awarded the budget will be announced in mid-May. According to rumors, Wirz, Publicis, Draftfcb/Lowe, Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett and Advico Y&R are on the shortlist.

The time of the Tamagotchi is probably over for good. After all, who wants to spend their time looking after a chick when they can look after a cute little baby? The publisher Dtp Young must have thought so too and created a Nintendo game that is all about just that: in "My little Baby", "big sisters, babysitters, pregnant women and all other women of all ages can lovingly look after a cute baby", the manufacturer is quoted as saying in the Sonntagszeitung. And as life goes, the sex of the baby cannot be chosen - it just comes as it comes. Nevertheless, just like in a sperm bank, the appearance of the parents can be determined - so babies with different skin, hair and eye colors can be created. And it wants to be fed, learn to speak and be rocked to sleep. Just like in real life. "But above all, of course, you have to give it love, because that's the only way to make it really happy: stroke your baby, play with it and talk to it so that it recognizes your voice," reads the product description. However, other things only work to a limited extent as in real life: "If you want to make it laugh, you can also tickle it or close the NDS briefly, open it again and then call cuckoo". Well, that's brutal. If that's not a strategy for putting a smile on a child's face in real life - a real school for life for big sisters, babysitters, pregnant women and so on.

 In the "Swiss Awards" broadcast on Swiss television on January 12, VW cars and Omega watches were allegedly advertised improperly and the sponsors inadequately declared. As a result, OFCOM was hot on the SRG's heels (see ). Now, after examining the sponsorship contracts, OFCOM has opened supervisory proceedings against SRG. The SRG has until the end of April to respond, as reported by the Sonntagszeitung. According to Bakom spokesman Bernhard Bürki, possible sanctions could include SRG taking measures to ensure that legal violations are not repeated, or it could hand over the revenue to the federal treasury.