PresseTV and Ringier are considering filing a lawsuit against the SF program «Kassensturz» for breach of license. The consumer magazine reported on Tuesday that Ringier TV is being paid by the Swiss Cancer League for the «Krebsgala» fundraising show: Every year, the Swiss Cancer League transfers 400,000 Swiss francs to Ringier, most of which reportedly consists of donations. Of that amount, 250,000 Swiss francs are earmarked for the production of the ’Krebsgala.’ Ringier donates 30,000 Swiss francs but receives many times that amount from the Cancer League, SF reports on its in-house news portal. The publisher-owned television station PresseTV has now described the ’Kassensturz« report in a statement released Thursday as »one-sided and biased.« It claims this has discredited the program’s producer, RingierTV, and PresseTV by accusing them of dishonesty. PresseTV suspects that »Kassensturz«—and by extension, Swiss Television—is abusing its »monopoly position« for its own benefit. SF is thereby disparaging PresseTV, an »unwelcome competitor.« »Kassensturz« had accused the publisher-owned television station of receiving compensation from the SRG. However, it failed to disclose that seven-figure sums were flowing back from PresseTV to Swiss television for production contracts.
RingierTV is accused of profiting from donations made to the Swiss Cancer League. The fundraising program “Krebsgala” is a joint production of “Gesundheit Sprechstunde,” RingierTV, and the Swiss Cancer League. The press release goes on to state that the costs of the “Krebsgala” are shared by RingierTV and the Swiss Cancer League as part of their collaboration. PresseTV is not involved. Ringier does not make a profit from the “Krebsgala.”.
PresseTV goes on to report that Swiss television is not at all willing to provide a time slot for «Krebsgala» in its programming. The Cancer League is therefore «forced» to switch to the private slot on the publisher-owned channel PresseTV on SF zwei. No comment was available from Swiss television on Thursday evening.

 Espace Media Group launches the Espace.Card, a customer loyalty system that helps subscribers to earn bonus points with local businesses and retailers. The card will be sent to around 140,000 annual subscribers to the Berner Zeitung, Thuner Tagblatt, Berner Oberländer, Solothurner Tagblatt and Bund newspapers on November 30. Cardholders will receive a bonus of between 2 and 20 percent off the retail price at over 300 businesses in trade and commerce. Although they pay the normal price, the bonus value collected is credited once a year to the subscription bill or transferred to an account. The more bonus points subscribers collect, the cheaper their newspaper subscription will be in the end, according to a press release. It is quite possible that subscribers will be able to refinance the cost of their daily newspaper. With this offer, the partner companies will benefit from free entries in the business directories. They also receive additional advertising opportunities. Experience from German newspaper publishers has shown that such a card brings new customers into the businesses of the bonus partners, writes the publisher of the Berner Zeitung. The offer is being implemented together with the German provider Concept Card.

 Due to resentment about free newspapers lying around in the Valais municipality of Sion, the town is now limiting the number of distribution boxes and making their installation subject to a charge. According to the SDA, the boxes may now only be installed in the area around the train station. Private individuals who set up the distribution boxes on their property will have to pay CHF 500 per year. Joseph Crisci, director of the free newspaper 20 minutes in French-speaking Switzerland, is preparing an appeal if the city sticks to its tax decision. Crisci said this in an interview with the newspaper Le Nouvelliste. François Mudry, Mayor of Sion, is confident in this regard, stating that the measure is based on the polluter-pays principle.

 After it was already known which Swiss agencies were among the category winners at this year's Epica Awards, the silver and bronze winners can now also celebrate. The category winners were Publicis, Advico Young & Rubicam and the Walker advertising agency (see ). AY&R also won silver for the Leica poster campaign "Zoom" and bronze in the film category with "Electric Fan" for Citterio. Fasttrack won silver for the "Supernanny" spot for its client 3+. Ruf Lanz is among the finalists four times: the agency received silver for the "La cucaracha" spot for VBZ and for "Prince Charles" for Sport Factory Outlet, bronze for a Hiltl poster campaign and for the "George W. Bush" ad for Sport Factory Outlet. Saatchi & Saatchi Simko received three precious metals: silver for WWF in the "Press" category and bronze for the poster campaigns for Groupe E and Accessorize. The Walker advertising agency was successful in the film category, winning silver for Fleurop and bronze for Amnesty International. Finally, Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett won bronze for the "What if" ads for the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.

 The SRG Assembly of Delegates (AGM) elected Jean-Bernard Münch as Chairman of the Board of Directors (BoD) for a further term of office and confirmed Elisabeth Veya, Managing Director of the "Science and Society in Dialogue" Foundation, as a member of the BoD. Lucy Küng-Shankleman, lecturer in media and communication management at the University of St. Gallen, was newly elected, according to a press release issued on Thursday. Lawyer Hans Lauri and Ulrich Gygi, CEO of Swiss Post, were newly elected to the BoD by the Federal Council, and the DM also acknowledged the granting of the license by the Federal Council, according to the press release. It welcomed the fact that the existing range of programs was fully secured and that HD Suisse, a new four-language television channel in HD quality, could be launched. However, it does not agree with other provisions. This applies in particular to the provision according to which persons who hold leading positions within SRG are not eligible for election to the Board of Directors. The DM had therefore decided to make a formal reservation.

The Zurich agency Ruf Lanz has won gold at the Midas Award. This prize is the international award of the New York Festivals, which honors the most creative campaigns for financial service providers and insurance companies worldwide. Ruf Lanz won gold for the Suva and BFU bicycle helmet prevention campaign. The agency dramatizes the advantages of wearing a helmet on the bike helmet itself. The most recent example is the "Wear a bike helmet. Or pray", which was used this spring. Ruf Lanz made it to the final with a total of five campaigns for Bank Coop and Suva.

Advertising was not always what it is today. The Swiss Milk Producers SMP are now demonstrating this with a pictorial journey into the advertising past to mark their 100th anniversary. The first milk advertisements were seen in the 1920s: The advertising department, then still unabashedly called the "propaganda center", put up the first street poster. The message was clear: "Drink milk! Eat Swiss dairy products!". The journey continues with a militant-looking poster from 1935, on which a black figure against a red background offers a glass of milk, with the claim "Milk - refreshes and nourishes". The commercial from the 1960s, which tries to sell us milk in a glass of red wine with the statement "Milk makes up for some things", is amusing to the eye of today's viewer.
Then, in the 70s, purist-patriotic subjects that emphasized the "CH" in milk. The 80s brought the fascination of the milk girl contest - the lucky winner wore a contemporary perm in 1983. Finally, in 1992, the story of the dairy cow Lovely began, who has undergone an evolution from soccer player to tap dancer to today's yoga fanatic. More pictures of the milk journey
to see.

 Ochsner Sport and Adidas will sponsor the coverage of Euro 08 on the private radio stations of the Swiss Radio Pool. The service package of the private broadcasters includes three service sections per day during the entire Euro finals with results and background reports, according to a press release issued on Thursday. In addition, there will be specials on the Swiss national team and possibly live broadcasts during the matches. The partnership will kick off with coverage of the group draw at the beginning of December in Lucerne. The Swiss Radio Pool includes Radio 24, Radio Zürisee, Radio Basilisk, Radio Basel 1, Capital FM, Radio BE1, Radio Pilatus, Radio Argovia, Radio 32, Radio Aktuell/Toxic.fm/Radio Ri, Radio Lausanne FM and Radio One FM.

 In Europe's major cities, cut-throat competition from free newspapers is causing a major waste problem. In Switzerland, too, the mountains of waste caused by free newspapers are beginning to have an impact (see ). The question arises as to what will be left of the growing mountains of waste paper and what impact the free titles could have on the market for paid-for newspapers. Michael Haller, a communications scientist from Leipzig, has examined market developments on the basis of five country studies (Switzerland, the UK, Austria, France and Denmark) and has come to conclusions that at least partially rehabilitate the poor reputation of free newspapers. The success of free newspapers is not automatically to blame for the sales problems of paid-for newspapers. In Germany, where the free newspaper phenomenon has not yet played a major role, the decline in the reach of the regional press has been roughly on the same scale as in Switzerland, for example. Haller concludes that well-made daily newspapers would lose practically no readers to free newspapers. According to Haller, the refusal of young people in particular to read newspapers has more to do with a crisis in the cultural technique of newspaper reading. Free newspapers could certainly play a positive role when it comes to teaching young people to read newspapers again. According to Haller, they could entice young adults to read and even contribute to a transfer of readership in favor of the paid newspapers. However, bad free newspapers could also have the opposite effect and create an aversion to the newspaper genre, warns Haller. In the long term, Haller sees the free newspaper as a transitional medium because its core target group, the twenty to thirty-five-year-old Urbans, will fill their morning commute with mobile offerings. In ten to fifteen years, he estimates that free newspapers will either go online together with their advertising customers or become paid newspapers.

 The BZ prizes for local journalism go to women this year. The jury for German-speaking Switzerland awarded a special prize of equal value to Barbara Achermann and Regula Tanner. Achermann was honored for her report "At home in frail Basel", which appeared in the Basler Zeitung. Using the example of seven individual fates, the author has succeeded in presenting the ageing of the Swiss population and the problem of care financing in an unsentimental and exemplary way, writes the jury. Tanner portrayed animals and their people in the Kleine Bund. The ambiguous and original portrait series is excellent and intelligent entertainment. Joëlle Favre from 24 Heures received the 1st prize for French-speaking Switzerland. Her reports on farmers and the homeless are authentic and sensitive, yet free of pathos and pity. The 2nd prize of the French-speaking jury went to Madeleine Joye. In La Liberté, she published an investigation into the takeover of public institutions in Fribourg by the Turkish community. Taking up this topic shows courage.
Further prizes in the photography category went to Bruno Voser, Michael Sieber, Christine Bärlocher, Pierre Albouy and Sylvain Savolainen. The jury assessed a total of 1841 images from 134 photographers. The best pictures will be published in a catalog and can be seen in the traveling exhibition "Swiss Press Photo 07" at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich.

Sport The European Football Championship is getting closer. The group draw will take place in Lucerne on December 2 and will be attended by European football celebrities. The exclusive meeting will also be exclusively advertised. The Schmid Riesmann & Partner agency has created a poster campaign in which the guests of honor are greeted by name. Details of the ceremony are also known. Ex-Miss Switzerland Melanie Winiger and ORF sports presenter Rainer Pariasek will host the program. Spain's star tenor José Carreras will take part in the show. The event takes place in Lucerne's KKL.

 The SF Image Study 2007 shows encouraging results for Swiss television. The study evaluates the program areas of information, sport, entertainment, culture, feature films and series. In a survey, 1008 people were asked about their first choice channel for each of these areas. If the three channels SF 1, SF 2 and SF info are taken together, Swiss television comes first in almost all categories. When it came to feature films, the public preferred Pro7. 
The survey results in detail: In the area of information, SF 1 is the first choice for 66 percent of respondents, followed by SF 2 and SF info for four percent each. 12 percent put Arte and 5 percent RTL at the top in terms of information.
For sport, 43 percent put SF 2 top, 28 percent SF 1 and 13 percent Eurosport. In entertainment, the order is as follows: SF 1 (32 percent), RTL (19 percent), Pro 7 (10 percent), Sat.1 (8 percent), ARD (6 percent), ORF1 (4 percent) and finally SF 2, also with four percent.
In terms of culture, SF 1 was again the favorite of the respondents, with 42%. This was followed by Arte (14 percent), 3sat (7 percent) and SF zwei (5 percent).
SF did not make it to first place in the feature film category: Pro7 (19 percent) came top of the list, followed by ORF1 (14 percent), RTL (15 percent) and SF1 (11 percent). SF 2 was named as the first choice channel in this category by 5 percent of respondents.
Finally, 21 percent see RTL as the top channel for series, SF 1 received 15 percent, Pro7 13 percent, SF 2 10 percent and ARD 8 percent.
The study also asked about the quality of the programs, which the respondents rated on the basis of various quality characteristics. According to SF, the majority of respondents gave higher ratings than in the comparative year 2006.
Finally, the 2007 image study asked about the importance of leading Swiss institutions. SF came in fifth place, followed by the Swiss National Bank and Swisscom. Agriculture came top, followed by Swiss Post, SBB and the watch industry.