Swiss Sports Television (SSF), which broadcasts on U1 TV, and A1 Team Switzerland have entered into a partnership for the remainder of the racing season; this means that SSF will broadcast the races of the "World Championship of Motorsport", which have been held between September and April each year since 2005. The first race will be held on November 25th in Sepang, Malaysia. Depending on the time difference between the venues, live reports or recordings will be broadcast at prime time, according to the press release. There will also be previews and features. A1 team boss Max Welti hopes that the collaboration will popularize the sport and the Swiss team. Sports television focuses on motorsport due to its high popularity.

 Web radio stations are springing up like mushrooms. Their operators also want to market them - but this requires reliable figures. Where does research into web radios stand? Werbewoche asked: Net-Metrix is about to implement a research module. The research company Mediapulse, which uses Radiocontrol to survey the use of conventional radio stations, is not active in web radio. The ball is in the court of the internet research organization Net-Metrix. At present, however, the Net-Metrix-Audit study can only record when a web radio station was clicked on - the length of use remains unknown. This is to be remedied: Net-Metrix is in the process of developing its own module for web radios, as Mirco Marrone, Senior Product Manager Net-Metrix-Audit, explains. It should be ready for launch in 2008 and tests are currently underway with various stations. The module requires web radio broadcasters to tag their offerings so that they can be measured.
However, the new module has not yet solved all the problems: it can only measure those web radios that run either via the Realplayer or Microsoft's Media Player. Streaming services such as YouTube are not included. Internet television that runs via one of the two players mentioned can also be measured by the new module from Net-Metrix.
According to Marrone, the data is primarily intended for the internal analyses of web radio providers. Which metrics could be used as binding categories in the advertising market still needs to be discussed. "This is a topic that we want to discuss with our User Commission," says the person responsible for Net-Metrix-Audit. So it could still be a while before a valid standard for measuring streaming content is established. "The measurement of web radio is very complex," says Marrone.
In order to compensate for some of the shortcomings of the planned new module, the Net-Metrix-Tracking study, which is structured as a panel, could be used in a further step. It could provide further information on usage habits.
The Net-Metrix-Tracking study is in the hands of Markus Jufer. "The possibilities of integrating streaming data with the values from radio and TV research are currently being examined as part of a merger project. In this respect, web radio research is also linked to Mediapulse," explains Jufer.
We are also in contact with research companies abroad, says Mirco Marrone. Like the Swiss organizations, they are also faced with the question of how the diverse multimedia possibilities can be turned into hard figures.
Carole Scheidegger

 
The program innovations already announced by Radio DRS 1 in August are to be implemented by March 3, 2008. This was announced by the station on Friday. The expansion concerns information programs and children's programs as well as live broadcasts and reports. Currently, first pilot broadcasts are being realized. At the same time, the editorial team has been expanded by eight people. Long-time radio presenter Ruedi Josuran is leaving SR DRS at his own request.The background program "Doppelpunkt" on Tuesday evenings will be extended to two hours and presented live throughout. An audio book program will now be broadcast on weekdays in the evening program. The morning consumer program "Espresso" is extended by ten minutes. "Heute Morgen" now also airs on Saturdays. On Saturday afternoons, a new magazine from the regional journals is added to the program, highlighting topics from all regions of Switzerland. The children's program on the previous evening now lasts a full hour, twice as long as before. In addition, it will be broadcast every day, now also on Saturdays.
Eight radio producers are joining DRS 1. Anita Richner will become editor of the specialist editorial department "Consumption, Money, Work"; after gaining experience in a private radio station, the 40-year-old joined DRS 3 in 1994 as editor and producer and had been with "Echo der Zeit" since 2004. The 52-year-old Barbara Bürer will work at DRS 1 in the "Content" area and will remain presenter of "Nachtwach" at DRS 3; among other things, she worked for the Tages-Anzeiger and for a long time for Die Zeit in Germany as an editor and reporter.
Esther Schneider will be responsible for the new audio book program, which will be broadcast on Monday evenings from March 2008. She will also continue to host the program "Persönlich"; the 49-year-old has already been working for SR DRS since 1987, as editor and reporter for the Regional Journal Aargau Solothurn and as a presenter on "Rendez-vous". Michael Luisier will work as a presenter and editor on the new audio book program on DRS 1, will be responsible for the morning story from January and will continue to oversee the program about the Basel carnival (new on DRS Musikwelle); the 43-year-old originally comes from an acting background.
The 28-year-old Michael Brunner has recently been heard primarily on the evening and nighttime programs of DRS 1. He has been earning his spurs at Radio Rottu in the Valais since 2001. Presenter Reto Scherrer joins DRS 1 from Radio Top in Winterthur. The 32-year-old trained businessman will accompany his listeners into the new day. The 28-year-old Magnus Renggli works for DRS 1 in the children's editorial department as web producer for Kinderradio.ch and presenter of the shows "SiggSaggSugg" and "Looping". He got into radio journalism through Bundeshaus-Radio and the Biel regional station Canal 3.
Daniela Rohr, 32, from Basel, hosts "SiggSaggSugg" and "Looping" on DRS 1 and works as a web producer for Kinderradio.ch. She worked as an editor and presenter at Radio Basilisk and Radio Basel 1, while DRS 1 presenter Ruedi Josuran is leaving Swiss Radio DRS. The long-time presenter of programs such as "Persönlich," "Treffpunkt," "Sport live" and "Visite" has decided to take this step in favor of self-employment. The 50-year-old had been working for DRS 1 since 1990.

 Sawi now also offers PR training: A six-month course prepares prospective PR specialists for the federal professional examination in summer 2008. With this training course, the Swiss Training Center for Marketing, Advertising and Sales Sawi aims to offer practical and comprehensive preparation for this professional examination. It will be held for the last time next summer without the MarKom admission examination, which will be required from 2009.
From January 2008, Sawi will also be offering the "PR Specialists" course at the new training center in Zurich, which it moved into this year.

 
The eight largest private television broadcasters in Switzerland have lodged a complaint against the SRG because they felt that their short reporting rights were being curtailed. This stipulates that broadcasters who do not have exclusive broadcasting rights for a specific event (usually sport) may also report on this event for three minutes. To do so, they must be granted double access: Physical access to the event, i.e. the right to shoot images on site themselves, as well as access to the signals, i.e. the images created by the exclusive rights holder. The private broadcasters filed a complaint with Bakom because the SRG had imposed additional conditions for the two access rights for ice hockey and football events, which are not regulated in detail in the new RTVA either. SRG has exclusive rights for the National League A in football, the national leagues and the Spengler Cup in ice hockey. The regional broadcasters did not agree with various of these conditions, for example whether the right of access also means that access is free of charge, or in what order the non-exclusive broadcasters are to be considered.
In its main decision of October 25, OFCOM has now made several clarifications, as it announced in its information letter. Accordingly, SRG must in principle tolerate regional broadcasters bringing their own cameras. It must also grant the necessary filming permits. However, this is subject to the proviso that the spatial and technical capacities are sufficient. In the event that capacities are limited, the OFCOM ruling determines the order in which broadcasters are to be considered. In the first place, these are those with contractually agreed priority, then those with comprehensive coverage of Switzerland or with a performance mandate if teams from their territory are involved.
In principle, physical access must be granted to regional organizers free of charge. However, reporters may have to purchase an admission ticket. If SRG incurs costs, it must disclose these in a comprehensible manner. There is no legal basis for a flat-rate accreditation fee. In the case of signal access, it was disputed which costs could be passed on to the regional broadcasters. According to Bakom, the SRG can charge a flat-rate fee here. However, this must be limited to verifiable technical and personnel costs and any other costs in connection with short reporting. Passing on the costs for exclusive rights is not permitted.
The Bakom ruling is not yet legally binding. Both SRG and the regional broadcasters can appeal against it to the Federal Administrative Court.

 
As of January 1, 2008, 40-year-old Servais Y.F. Micolot will take over the management of advertising sales for all Axel Springer Switzerland publications in French-speaking Switzerland as Regional Director Western Switzerland. In addition, all commercial activities in French-speaking Switzerland will be consolidated at the existing location in Geneva. The parallel office in Lausanne will be closed. Elisabeth Demidoff, Head of Advertising Western Switzerland for the titles of the former Handelszeitung publishing group, will leave the company at her own request on March 31, 2008. Until this date, she will continue to perform her previous duties in full.

Roger Schawinski's new station Radio 1 announces the composition of its sales team: Sales manager and ex-IP Multimedia man Patrick Kaczynski will be supported by Pino Gallo and Rita Meyer. Gallo also previously worked for IP Multimedia as Account Manager for Energy Zurich. Meyer previously worked at Radio 24 and TeleZüri. In a press release, Kaczynski describes the two as his preferred candidates and says he is "overjoyed" to be able to start in this constellation. The sales team will primarily look after regional customers, including in the area of sponsorship. According to the press release, Radio 1 can also be booked via the "most important intermediaries" with whom agreements have already been concluded.

 The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) has not carried out any spot checks on surreptitious advertising in the current year. This was stated by Bakom spokesperson Caroline Sauser at the request of Werbewoche. "OFCOM has taken the new RTVA as an opportunity to revise its practice in the area of advertising and sponsorship. In order to give event organizers time to adjust to this new practice, we have refrained from carrying out spot checks for the time being," explained Sauser. At the beginning of next year, the Federal Office intends to hold events to inform radio and television broadcasters about the new situation. From 2008, OFCOM will then also return to the hunt for surreptitious advertisers by means of spot checks. This year, only five to ten decisions were made in this regard, whereas in 2006, around 20 decisions were made against surreptitious advertisers. However, not everyone got away unpunished despite this year's break: as reported by the Sonntagszeitung, the Sat.1 Switzerland program "Joya rennt" was considered by the Federal Administrative Court to be surreptitious advertising. With this ruling, the judges upheld a decision by the Bakom. The "Celebrations" program also violated the provisions of the RTVA: In the program, a car brand was brought to the fore for which presenter and producer Björn Hering worked as a brand ambassador.

 The Cup creative competition is being held in Valencia for the first time this year. Switzerland has been nominated four times - all of these entries come from Walker Werbung. The works of Fleurop and Amnesty International were nominated. The Fleurop annual report is in the running for the Cup in both the "Best of Design" and "Best of Publications" categories. Amnesty International's "Not here, but now" campaign is on the shortlist for both "Best of Social Engagements" and "Best of Outdoor". The award ceremony will take place on November 24. The Cup is a newly created award whose participating campaigns emerged as the best work from Asia, America and Europe in 2007 (see
). A total of 2,081 works qualified. The jury has now selected 166 gold nominations. A total of 27 entries from Europe made it onto this list via the ADC*E selection.

The agency Wirz Corporate has comprehensively revised the website of the financial specialist SAM Group. The company was founded in 1995 as an independent asset management company for sustainability investments. As sustainability is an important topic in the financial market today, the SAM Group needed a distinctive brand in the face of intensified competition. Wirz Corporate developed a new claim, reworked the brand design and redesigned and implemented various other elements such as brochures, presentations and the website. At the same time, the Wirz subsidiary was commissioned to provide support and advice in the area of public relations. The new brand identity is characterized by the imagery: according to the press release, the usual subjects relating to sustainability have been deliberately avoided. Instead, technical-looking images of sustainable innovations are used.

 
The AZ Medien Group intends to intensify its activities in the advertising market and expand its market cultivation together with Publicitas. The first step will be the establishment of Media Factory, a separate agency company that will concentrate on developing the advertising market for specials such as inserts and collective pages of Aargauer Zeitung and Woche Plus from January 1, 2008. It will also be responsible for the sale of brochure inserts and unaddressed direct advertising. The Media Factory will be managed by 58-year-old Oscar Meier, Managing Director of AZ Wochenzeitungen and Publishing Director of Limmattaler Zeitung until the end of the year. Five specialists will work for the Media Factory at its headquarters in Aarau. Secondly, the AZ Medien Group will in future handle advertising sales for the Limmattaler Zeitung and the Lenzburger Bezirks-Anzeiger itself. Advertising marketing for the Limmattaler Zeitung will be strengthened with two employees in Dietikon, while the newly founded Media Factory will take over that of the Lenzburger Bezirks-Anzeiger. Thirdly, customer support in the cross-media and key accounts area is to be strengthened. Under the leadership of Christoph Marty, Head of Crossmedia/Key Accounts, customer support for the entire AZ Medien Group will be strengthened by two positions.

 The internet giant Google wants to take over the online marketing company Doubleclick, but the authorities could still stand in the way of this move: The European Commission wants to examine the planned takeover. According to Horizont.net, the preliminary investigation has concluded that "the proposed merger would give rise to competition concerns in the markets for intermediation and ad serving in the online advertising sector". The decision as to whether the merger would hinder competition and the takeover would therefore be prohibited must be made by April 2 next year. Google is said to have already made concessions to the European Commission in mid-October, but nothing is known about the details, writes Horizont.net. The announcement of the takeover led to accusations that Google was further expanding its position of power and acting in an anti-competitive manner (see ).