The Swiss Association of Private Radio Stations is backing the new DAB2 audio codec (also known as DAB+ or MPEG-4) and warns against buying a conventional device. In this way, the private radio stations want to set themselves apart from the SRG, which, according to the association, will continue to rely on conventional DAB in the future. However, SRG announced a week ago that it would also be switching to the new technology. However, the previous format will continue to be broadcast (see ). In its press release, the association also recommends that SRG switch to the new technology. A switch could save millions in the next financing period. In addition, the private radio stations welcome the decision of the Federal Office of Communications to extend the submission deadline for DAB programs until 31 December 2006 in view of DAB2. The VPS criticizes the achievements of those responsible for DAB to date and describes them as a million-dollar flop in Switzerland. Only 20,000 to 30,000 devices for DAB reception have been sold to date. This shows that new technologies can only be successfully introduced if they are jointly supported by public and private broadcasters.

"Gold for electronic media" is Goldbach Media's headline, because electronic media have truly had a golden October. As the Goldbach Electronic Media Index (GEMI) shows, advertising investment in electronic media increased by 10 points to 342 points. Electronic media thus grew at a clearly disproportionate rate, as all media together only recorded an increase of 2 points from 173 to 175 points. Television proved to be the absolute winner among the electronic media. It gained 7 index points to 344 points, closely followed in terms of growth rate by the new advertising medium Adscreen, which grew by 6 index points to 214 points.
Advertising investment in the Internet medium also increased - by 4 points to a final score of 236 points. Teletext again suffered a drop in investment, losing 4 points as in the previous month to close at 140 points.
The GEMI is based on the data published by Media Focus for advertising investments in Switzerland and the advertising expenditure statistics of Wemf for Adscreen with Index 100 in December 2004.

Südostschweiz Presse could not simply let the frontal attack by the Bündner Anzeiger in the free newspaper market sit on its head. As of Tuesday, it is countering with a revised concept and a massive expansion of the Bündner Woche, which is also distributed in the Engadin under the name Engadiner Wochenzeitung with a circulation of 18,500 copies. The total circulation amounts to 75,000 copies and is thus 5,000 copies higher than that of its competitor (see ). Südostschweiz Publicitas Chur announced on Monday that Graubünden's largest weekly newspaper would thus reach 85 percent of households in the canton of Graubünden. Bündner Woche will now also be distributed in Prättigau, Davos, Arosa, Surselva as far as Trun and Central Grisons as far as Savognin.
In addition to the increase in circulation and the adjustment of the distribution area, changes were also made to the content. The Bündner Woche and the Engadiner Wochenzeitung merged at the beginning of the month and are now managed in a shell system. Two editorial teams are responsible for the respective regional sections, while supra-regional news, advice, PR articles and advertisements appear in both titles.
Südostschweiz is also being aggressive with advertising prices. Despite the increase in circulation, advertising prices remain unchanged or will be lower. Color prices, for example, will be reduced by 25 percent.

The AZ Medien Group has developed the umbrella brand "a-z" for its classified marketplaces and has launched the first three marketplaces for real estate, cars and jobs. The advertisements were created by the Zurich advertising agency SFLB and AZ Medien AG wants to take account of structural market changes. In the Mittelland Northwestern Switzerland market area, the aim is to provide the best and most complete offering under the "a-z" brand.
The AZ Medien Group will no longer market individual media products to advertisers, but - together with Publicitas Mittelland - overall solutions that are tailored to the communication goals of customers. According to the press release, these are package offers that are put together from the offers of the individual media categories - in particular print and online. The standardized brand management also includes the fact that the advertisements in the newspapers in the aforementioned categories appear under the same logo as on the Internet.
The new launches will replace the existing classified ad markets. However, the existing cooperations will be continued. In the real estate sector, this is a partnership with Homegate, in the vehicle sector with Car4you. In the job market, there is a cooperation in the technical sector with Südostschweiz New Media, which has developed its own online job platform.
The launch of the three classified marketplaces under the "a-z" umbrella brand will be accompanied by an advertising campaign developed by the Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett agency. A total of five advertisements for a-zimmo, a-zjobs and a-zauto as well as specific filler ads within the marketplaces will appear in the participating newspapers. The campaign is also running on the websites of the participating partners. In a second phase, poster ads in the market area and radio spots on Radio Argovia and Radio 32 are planned.
Internet addresses of the marketplaces:
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The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) is investigating whether Switzerland's largest cable network operator is in breach of its license. Although the proceedings were initiated back in April 2005, they have only now become known. In an interview with NZZ am Sonntag, Bakom confirmed that the main issue is whether Cablecom is entitled to link access to the digital television service to the purchase of a Cablecom set-top box. The 2002 concession stipulates that subscription television services may not depend on the purchase or rental of a set-top box. This was intended to prevent a technology monopoly. Cablecom is also facing charges from the Foundation for Consumer Protection (SKS) for years of abuse of its dominant market position. For them, it is clear that Cablecom has illegally forced consumers to buy its own technology for years. It has announced that it will file a complaint with the Competition Commission (ComCo) for abuse of a dominant market position. The ComCo will have to clarify whether a dominant market position actually existed and was abused. For its part, the ComCo had already drawn the attention of Bakom to a possible infringement of the license in February 2003. The SKS is therefore not thrilled that OFCOM only opened the proceedings in 2005.
The question of encryption is still unresolved. However, this is likely to come to the political stage shortly as part of the ordinance on the Radio and Television Act. The ordinance is due to come into force in April next year. The demand for a free and unencrypted basic service - as requested by the price watchdog - is also currently being examined, according to OFCOM.

Advertising sales in the Swiss media rose significantly in October. According to Wemf AG für Werbemedienforschung, advertising revenues amounted to CHF 397 million, an increase of 13.4 percent compared to the same month last year. The fact that this figure is higher than the figures for previous months is mainly due to the fact that a television station provided incomplete data for the months of July to September. The monthly survey is based on sales figures from print, TV, billboard, radio, cinema, teletext, online advertising and AdScreen. The following sectors increased their advertising investments compared to the same month last year:
Office/IT (+48.1 percent)
Cosmetics/personal care (+46.3 percent)Housing/home (+37.5 percent)Politics/economics/administration/industry (+31.4 percent)Consumer electronics/photography/optics/hearing (+26.5 percent)Services (+22.8 percent)Beverages (+19.3 percent)Transportation (+18.8 percent)Media (+18.4 percent)Watches/jewelry (+17.2 percent)Food (+16.0 percent)Finance/insurance (+15.7 percent) Tourism/leisure (+11.2 percent)By contrast, tobacco suppliers invested significantly less (-43.6 percent). In October 2006, the other sectors invested a maximum of 10% more or less than in the same month of the previous year.
The October dates are on
available for download.

According to statistics from Wemf AG für Werbemedienforschung, the number of advertising pages in the daily and regional weekly press increased in October this year. After a weak September (see 2.9% less advertising volume in September http://www.werbewoche.ch/newsmail061024_inseratevolumen.werbewoche ), the total volume increased by 1.7% in franc terms compared to the same month last year. Commercial advertisements recorded an increase of 3.9%. The good situation on the labor market is reflected in job advertisements, which increased by 12.0%. The Sunday press recorded an overall increase of 8.2%. In the financial and business press, the value of advertisements increased by 4.8%. In terms of francs, the total volume of the general press was 15.4% higher than in the same month last year. In the specialty and trade press - in terms of page volume - there was an increase of 2.7% and 1.0% respectively.

The advertising agency TBWA has strengthened its creative team with the addition of senior copywriter Christian Schirmer. Schirmer is now putting his many years of experience as a copywriter at agencies such as DDB Zurich, McCann-Erickson Zurich, Lesch+Frei and JWT+H+F to good use at TBWA, primarily for McDonald's.

 The radio and TV fees that Swiss hotels have to pay for their guests are set to rise massively. As reported by the SonntagsZeitung, hotels with more than 51 radio or TV sets will have to pay two and a half times more in future. Under the previous regulation, all establishments paid the same amount, regardless of the number of stations. The increase will affect 1500 businesses, according to the draft ordinance on the new Radio and Television Act (RTVA), which is being circulated in the federal offices. The Swiss Hotel Association is protesting against the new regulation. More than half of the guests are foreigners who are not primarily interested in the SRG offer. And: The association does not see why it should co-finance the SRG monopoly. The association is now hoping that the price regulator will intervene.

The world is already familiar with the fact that discussions about copyright produce strange blossoms. The most beautiful of these blossoms currently comes from the Middle Kingdom. There, the state wants to profit from the singing enthusiasm of its inhabitants with a karaoke tax in the future. Of course, the West is to blame for the misery that will soon spoil the Chinese their favorite pastime. After Western nations increasingly demanded consistent copyright regulations in China, the state now wants to charge the operators of the numerous karaoke bars for the use of songs and video clips. The official justification: In the future, authors and artists should also profit. How, however, is still unclear. The Ministry of Culture and the National Copyright Administration (NCAC) are still arguing about who will be allowed to collect the fees.
If this tax is actually implemented and consistently collected, the music industry could earn around $375 million annually. That would be more money than is earned in China from CD sales. In the past, the music industry had therefore already tried to collect money from karaoke clubs. Hundreds of reminders were sent out, and in 2004 a lawsuit was even filed in court. However, the rights holders have not really been able to earn much in this way so far. If the collection of license fees is handled by the state in the future, the latter could also retain a tidy share for itself. Apparently, a database is being planned that would even allow the ministry to weed out undesirable titles. This would close the circle to the already prevailing censorship problem in China. Some karaoke bars are also likely to close. Operators fear a sharp decline in business as a result of higher prices.

The festival has developed into one of the world's leading and highly regarded classical music events beyond the routine. Communications partner Interbrand Zinzmeyer & Lux Interbrand has now created a new image, which was unveiled on Friday.  
Everyone perceives music differently. Individual tones and sounds evoke individual sensations, which are often described in terms of form, structure, order or timbre. The Lucerne Festival is a platform for discovering classical music individually and again and again. The new overall image is intended to express this aspiration of the organizers and the experience of the visitors visually and communicatively. The circle stands for the content of music and the bringing together of the best performers. The meeting of musicians and audience is symbolized by the two distinctive arrows. The first program in the new visual design is "At Easter", as stated in the corresponding Lucerne Festival press release.

Brave New World! The Finnish cell phone giant has installed an interactive billboard at Lisbon airport that reacts to the viewer's movements, photographs them and incorporates them into the advertising.  
The idea was grippingly formulated by Philip K. Dick in Minority Report and realized on film by Steven Spielberg: Advertising that recognizes passers-by and responds to their needs. It's not quite that far yet, but the new interactive billboard from Nokia is already moving in this direction. The billboard uses sensors to recognize passers-by and automatically turns towards them. If a passer-by stops to take a closer look at the advertising message, a camera integrated into the billboard takes a picture of the viewer and integrates it into the advertising message in real time, as reported on Frog-blog.ch.
 
Nokia is using it to promote its new N-90 cell phone series, whose phones have an adjustable 2-megapixel camera.