Digital printing Xerox presented a new digital printing system called "Nuvera 288" at Graph Expo in Chicago. The printer combines the performance of two printing units. Thanks to the new parallel printer architecture, the system delivers unprecedented printing performance. The principle is borrowed from the IT industry, where the dual-core architecture can also achieve a significant increase in speed with two components. Xerox plans to launch the system on the market in the second quarter of 2007.

The Zurich agency Publicis was awarded the bronze medal in the 47th international "Das Plakat" competition. The Heineken Sound Promotions posters were the only work from Switzerland to be awarded a prize by the jury. The "Das Plakat" competition is a partner competition of the CommClub Bayern's "Die Anzeige" competition and is also only open to German-speaking countries (see ). The entries are judged by a jury of international experts.

Migros Bank now has a new corporate identity. This was created by the Zurich-based branding company MetaDesign. The new corporate design is intended to position the bank more effectively on the market with a clear profile, according to a press release. It covers all areas of application. The visual language and colors are affected by the changes, as are the corporate typeface and imagery. The building signage, promotional items and much more will also be replaced. The Bern, Uster and Wil branches are already equipped with the new external signage. All banks will be converted by the end of November.

At this year's members' meeting, the Association of Public Relations Agencies in Switzerland (BPRA) accepted the Bern-based PR agency Zoebeli Communications and the Zug-based agency Birchmeier und Partner as new members. The meeting approved the Board's motion without a dissenting vote. Both full-service agencies have made an excellent name for themselves over the years with important mandates, as detailed in a press release. Zoebeli Communications was founded by Peter Zoebeli in Berne in 1995. The agency specializes in corporate communications for listed small and mid caps and has experience in change management. Birchmeier und Partner works for national and international companies, primarily in the life sciences, industry, consumer goods and services sectors. The Zug-based full-service PR agency is headed by Eliane Birchmeier and Judith Giger.

Swiss television SF is the audience's first choice broadcaster in all categories. This is the result of the SF Image Study 2006, which was conducted as a representative survey in August of this year. SF is also adopting a mission statement for the first time. According to the study, the quality of the programs was rated almost consistently higher than in 2005. The study assessed information, sport, entertainment, culture, feature films and series. For each of these categories, respondents were asked for their first choice channel. The stations SF 1, SF zwei and SF info were each ranked first by the respondents.
Feature films and cultural programs are now more popular. For 22% of respondents, SF is the first choice for feature films, an increase of ten percentage points compared to the previous year. SF is also the first choice for cultural programs for 57% of viewers, an increase of 14 percentage points. SF now has 79% for information programs, 74% for sports (+ 3 percentage points each) and 26% for series (+ 4 percentage points).
Program receives good marksThe second aspect of the image study is devoted to the quality of the programs, which the respondents rated on the basis of various quality characteristics such as diversity, professionalism, innovation, distinctiveness, etc. Here, too, the results were almost consistently better than in 2005. Here too, the results were almost consistently better than in the comparative year 2005. In a third part, the 2006 image study asked about the importance of leading Swiss institutions: SF was able to improve from 8th to 5th place here (after agriculture, Swiss Post, SBB and the Federal Council). For the second representative image study, the Demoscope Institute surveyed 1023 people in August.
The new mission statementSF also presented its new mission statement. The SF 1 and SF zwei programs are to be further differentiated from one another in future. In addition, cooperation with PTV and 3sat is to be optimized. According to a press release, SF intends to strengthen its expertise in domestic, international and business topics by creating new broadcasting formats and by raising the profile of personalities. In-house documentary and fictional productions are to be given a stronger focus and the visual appearance modernized. The channel's clear positioning is also reflected in the new image clips and corresponding commercials for SF and SF zwei, which can be seen from November 1, 2006. Star photographer Michel Comte has staged prominent Swiss personalities such as DJ BoBo, Roger Federer and Melanie Winiger.

Philippe Pfister (43) is to become the new Head of Switzerland for the Tamedia news magazine Facts. Pfister has been head of news at SonntagsZeitung for five years and will take up his new job at the beginning of 2007. Pfister will also become a member of the editorial board. Pfister will replace the previous head of politics, Martin Breitenstein, who is leaving Facts (see Martin Breitenstein leaves Facts
) to move to a law firm. Breitenstein only took over the newly created position of Head of Politics in May of this year.

Christian Stettler has been responsible for project business at the Ringier subsidiary Previon since the beginning of October and, as a member of the Executive Board, is in charge of operations. Stettler brings with him profound experience in consulting and IT management and was most recently managing director at an IT service provider.

Television via telephone connection is in the starting blocks for the Christmas business. Cablecom welcomes the new competition on the Swiss television market. The competition for digital television has begun. With Bluewin TV, Swisscom is pursuing the "triple screen" vision. Television can be received via television set, computer and cell phone. Bluewin TV works without a cable network connection and requires a broadband Internet connection and the Bluewin TV box, which is connected to the modem. Anyone who can already receive VDSL technology can watch one program and record another at the same time.
Swisscom wants to change TV consumption Bluewin TV is the beginning of a technological development that will change TV consumption. This is what Swisscom confidently writes in a press release. Not only is Swisscom now also a distributor of TV and film content, it also sees itself in the role of actively supporting an innovation push in digital television. Bluewin TV should also inspire users with its program diversity and intelligent tools. In addition to the 100 regional, national and international TV channels and 70 radio channels, live sports events are available on demand and over 500 films are available in the video-on-demand store for a small fee. There is also an electronic program guide, a live pause function and programming options for programmes via remote control, cell phone or the Internet. The Bluewin TV box can also record 100 hours of programs.
The price war has begun Bluewin TV costs CHF 29.90 for the basic package - that's CHF 10 less than cable TV costs consumers today. However, installation (CHF 95) and the cost of the broadband Internet connection must be added to this. Additional voice packages cost CHF 5.50 each. If you want to watch live sports events, you pay an additional CHF 1 per event or need the Teleclub sports add-on package. If you want to avoid the video store and watch a movie via video-on-demand, you pay CHF 3.50 or CHF 2.50 for documentaries.
The comparison service Comparis also came forward immediately with a price comparison. Overall, the Bluewin TV offer comes to over CHF 60 per month if the costs for the telephone connection and the ADSL connection are taken into account. However, with 100 channels, Bluewin TV also offers more than Cablecom with 40 channels. Cablecom's basic offer costs CHF 21 per month (included in the additional rental costs for many). CHF 25 is added for a further 140 channels.
 
 
Accessibility not guaranteed Swisscom is continuing to expand its access network, the statement continues. Nevertheless, Bluewin TV is struggling with technical limits: Only 75 percent or 2.3 million households are connected for reception. 65 percent already have access to VDSL technology. Those customers. Those who are not yet connected to VDSL will receive a discount of CHF 3 on the basic price of Bluewin TV.
Cablecom welcomes its competitor No sooner had Swisscom announced the launch on Tuesday morning than Cablecom responded with a communiqué. It welcomes telephone television, which Swisscom had already announced in 2003, on the demanding Swiss market. It has been offering television for 40 years and will soon be redesigning its offering. It is the market leader and was the first to launch digital television in 1999. Cablecom is currently still in negotiations with the price watchdog. However, it is not commenting on the ongoing talks. Cablecom could not refrain from taking a swipe at its new competitor: it offers several products for different target groups, all of which can be installed without the help of a technician.

Thanks to his fellow students, ETH student Martin Steiner was for a short time in first place out of 2392 in the casting video competition for the third MusicStar season of Swiss television SF. As reported by Kleinreport on October 26, ETH students launched "a flashmob-like, spontaneous mail action" that influenced the video voting in Martin's favor. The Baz and the Tagesanzeiger reported already the following day about a "hacker attack" on the SF casting show. Neither the Baz nor the Tagesanzeiger mentioned that the hackers were young ETH students.As security against such attacks, it is not the video with the most votes that wins, but the one with the best average score, SF spokesman Urs Durrer told Ringier's free newspaper Heute. He added that those responsible at SF had the situation under control. The manipulated votes had been deleted, Durrer explained. Martin had fallen back to 299th place after this correction. But as the Blick reports today Tuesday, Martin was already back in the lead yesterday Monday. Now SF has moved Martin back to 326th place and complained in writing to ETH, but the MusicStar hype can no longer be stopped at ETH, according to Blick.
Every increase in SF's security levels only goads the young ETH students even more, he said. Durrer assured Blick that there was no computer manipulation in the final results and that the voting results were secure. At least until the next ETH attack. "You can't take MusicStar's online voting seriously in terms of security," one student told Blick. Whether SF or ETH wins the battle and whether Martin will be allowed to compete in the final round of the MusicStar casting on November 19 will be revealed on November 2, when online voting ends.

The advertising agency OgilvyOne, based in Zurich, has once again been recognized for its multi-award-winning new customer acquisition mailing "Inscription" for Volvo Automobile. The mailing received a gold award at the DMA Award Gala in San Francisco for its response idea and implementation. The mailing was able to prevail against around 1000 submissions from all over the world.

IP Multimedia, based in Küsnacht, is marketing CityGuideTV, the television channel for luxury hotels in Switzerland, with immediate effect. CityGuideTV broadcasts in over 60 Swiss luxury hotels on the first television channel and reaches over three million contacts per year in this segment, as the marketing organization IP Multimedia reports. The television channel provides information about the tourist and cultural highlights of each city in quarter-hour programs with short editorial contributions. The program is put together individually for each city and each hotel. The program is presented in English, German and French. CityGuideTV is broadcast in Zurich, Geneva, Lucerne, Gstaad, Bern and, from next year, also in St. Moritz and Basel.

Following the invitation to tender issued by the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) for three regional language terrestrial DAB digital radio licenses to be awarded to private radio stations, Swiss private radio stations are reacting very differently. While Radio 105 and Radio Monte Carlo Swiss are not yet interested in DAB, various other private radio stations have applied for a DAB license (see ). For example, Radio Sunshine in Central Switzerland with Swiss Music Radio, Radio 32 for its oldies station Radio 32 Goldies and Radio Top in Eastern Switzerland for Radio Top Two have submitted a corresponding license application to Bakom.
The future is clearly digital and therefore they have no choice but to join in, write Radio Sunshine and Radio Swiss Music. For digital radio to be successful, however, the DAB technology used today should be adapted to the current state of the art.