The German private broadcaster RTL is launching a new mobile TV service in September with "RTL Mobile TV". It will primarily show series, comedy and real-life programs. Initially, the UMTS package will only be offered to T-Mobile customers. In the future, however, the mobile TV channel will also be available to users of other providers, as Pressetext.de reports. It is not yet clear whether cooperation agreements will also be concluded with mobile operators outside the country's borders in the future.the new channel shows a 24-hour program in a two-and-a-half-hour loop. The summary of the new soap "Alles was zählt" has a fixed slot at the weekend. RTL intends to base the composition of the mobile channel primarily on the usual reach of its programs.

The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) has extended the license for the special-interest channel Game TV, which is held by the private broadcaster Star TV. The license has not been used to date. However, the channel for the game community has been experimented with at the broadcaster for some time, according to the communiqué. "The extension of the concession enables us to definitely bring Game TV to cable now," CEO Paul Grau is quoted as saying in the communiqué.First, Game TV will start in the digital network. Later, however, the company will also seek analog distribution. Grau's goal is not immodest: Game TV is to become the communication platform of the game industry. He is also counting on the growing interest - at least in the U.S. - of the advertising industry in games.
Star TV already has experience with the TV exploitation of games and has, for example, broadcast events such as Red Bull Race. Now they want to get the audience excited about sophisticated strategy games or LAN parties. Parents and educators will also be catered for: There will be a special "Kids Platform" for them.
Not all the content has to be produced from scratch: Various magazines from Star TV will also be on the new channel. Likewise, the presenters will appear on both channels. Promotion for Game TV will run cross-media via Star TV and "various Internet platforms," according to the communiqué.

The Zurich web agency Mitlinks has brought Daniel Nzekwu on board as a second editor as of mid-August. This is to meet the increasing demand for textual content, according to a statement. Nzekwu studied journalism at the School of Applied Linguistics (SAL) in Zurich. He most recently worked for Swiss Re as an information specialist. 

The new Swiss private television station 3+ is on air. On Thursday evening, at 7.52 pm sharp, Viola Tami greeted the audience with a hearty "Grüezi Schweiz". The presenter said that the fact that 3+ was going on air on time was her first surprise. This was followed by Tami's assurance that people who are no longer very young are also welcome at the station, which is explicitly aimed at an audience under 50. The focus of the first evening, however, was a feature film entirely in the service of Her Majesty: After a commercial break lasting several minutes, Pierce Brosnan once again saved the world as James Bond in the 007 flick "Goldeneye" - interrupted once by commercials.
3+ will be broadcast in ORF 2's previous slot, which has been moved further back. The makers of the channel can probably hope for some attention from the audience. According to a press release, over 21 percent of Swiss-German viewers, or one million viewers, have already tuned in to 3+ in the past seven days and watched the trailer for at least one minute.
Dominik Kaiser, initiator and managing director of 3+, expressed his satisfaction: "I am very pleased that the start of broadcasting went so smoothly," he was quoted as saying in his station's communiqué.

The private channel 3+, which launches on Thursday, is facing a lawsuit from Swiss Television (SF) at the start of broadcasting. The reason: 3+ should not be allowed to call itself Swiss television.
As Blick reported on Thursday, SF is objecting to an "intentional risk of confusion" according to the lawyer's letter. This risk of confusion is detrimental to SF, not least in terms of quality. According to the lawyer, the 3+ logo and the slogan "the young Swiss television" should be banned.

The timing is somewhat strange, as 3+ goes on air for the first time on Thursday evening. SF spokesperson Urs Durrer told Blick: "Over the last few days, many unsure viewers have asked SF whether 3+ is our new television channel. Due to the communication presence of the new Swiss private channel, there is obviously a risk of confusion."

The small private broadcaster - which shows what has already been seen elsewhere and relies on cheaply produced casting formats - should now have two days to change its logo and, above all, its slogan.
Dominik Kaiser, Managing Director of 3+, considers SF's approach to be "completely absurd". It is probably legitimate that a television station from Switzerland
as young Swiss television.

This week, the Schaan-based agency Leone Ming launched a campaign for Liechtensteinische Kraftwerke (LKW), for whose market presence it has been responsible for many years. The new advertising campaign is entitled "stromsparen.li" and will run until next spring. It will start with an F12 poster campaign. According to the communiqué, the aim is to encourage residents to save electricity by means of informative texts. The campaign will be supported by the specially developed website www.stromsparen.li, various print materials and giveaways as well as extensive PR measures. There will also be an appearance at the Lihga 06 trade and business fair in Schaan.

On September 1, the previously announced change in the management of the Basler free newspaper Baslerstab will take place. The new Managing Director is Dieter F. Wullschleger. He replaces Daniel Weick, who has held this position for ten years. According to a press release issued by Basler Zeitung Medien, Weick now wants to change career direction. Wullschleger is the founder of the agency "Die Werft", in which Basler Zeitung Medien acquired a substantial stake in May. The agency subsequently left the Alliance of Swiss Advertising Agencies (see ASW now without "Die Werft"). 

In Germany, the focus is on direct mail. The first half of 2006 saw the advertising medium grow by 32.9 percent in terms of the number of advertisers. 9,781 advertisers have used direct mail so far in 2006, which is over 35 percent of all advertisers. Gross advertising expenditure, on the other hand, increased by only 2.1% compared to the previous year to EUR 1.5 million. The share of the overall advertising market now accounts for 12.9%. Direct mail is the fourth most important advertising medium after television, newspapers and consumer magazines.
According to the latest status report from Nielsen Media, the proportion of football-related direct mail was only 4.2%. On average, 17.3% of the media budget was spent on direct mail advertising - but only by companies that used this form of advertising. 54.6% of advertising mailings were addressed, 5.4% were partially addressed and 64.4% were unaddressed.

Letters accounted for 40.3% of mailings, catalogs for 25.8%, brochures for 23.3% and flyers for 9.6%, while postcards accounted for 0.9%. The mailing of product samples was used the least: only 0.1% of advertising expenditure was invested here.

The Swiss Radio Day was a success on Thursday with around 400 visitors. The "Radio of the Year" prize was awarded on RadioDay 2006 to Radio Ri for German-speaking Switzerland and to Radio OneFM for Latin Switzerland.

The organizers of the most important event in the radio industry clearly focused on the new digital radio future. This future was the subject of the RadioDay talk as well as a special workshop. "The topic of digital distribution of radio programmes, which shaped this year's RadioDay, met with great interest in the Swiss radio scene," said the organizers.

With presentations on the RTVV (Radio and TV Ordinance), radio control research and many other workshops, this year's RadioDay offered a broad spectrum of current topics in the Swiss radio scene. The seventh RadioDay ended with a presentation by former radio personality Jürg Marquard. The next Radio Day will again take place in Zurich on Thursday, August 30, 2007.

There's money to be made in music, and plenty of it. While iTunes, AOL and Yahoo are fiddling around with subscription models, Spiralfrog is coming up with a new business model. From the end of the year, music will be available here free of charge and completely legally. The deal: people who download music simply have to watch advertising during the download process - the advertising revenue is then shared with the music partners. Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG currently think this is a cool business model. The contract with the former is already signed and sealed, and talks are underway with the others.

Smokers are increasingly on the defensive: an initiative has now been launched in the canton of Vaud to ban smoking in public places, restaurants and bars. The initiators presented a legal text that goes further than the proposals of the National Council's Health Commission. The aim is to introduce a total ban on smoking in restaurants and bars.
The initiative committee is broadly supported and aims to collect 12,000 signatures by December 31. Switzerland already has a smoking ban in restaurants in Ticino. Only on Wednesday, the cantonal council of Solothurn passed a comprehensive anti-tobacco law (see
Solothurn passes "toughest" anti-tobacco law), which still has to be approved by the people.

The management of Südostschweiz Presse AG will be reconstituted as of September 1, 2006. The company plans to focus more strongly on editorial marketing, i.e. the sale of publishing products and services. In addition, Südostschweiz am Sonntag is to be well supported in the reader market and in advertising. To this end, the company will be reorganized into four business divisions. Andrea Masüger, who is also Editor-in-Chief of Südostschweiz and Delegate of the Board of Directors, will head the Newspapers division. Beat Ravaioli heads the Publishing and Marketing division. Reto Brüesch is responsible for finance and administration and Toni Thoma for production and technology. The company is managed by Andrea Masüger as Director and Beat Ravaioli as Vice Director.
The existing Publishing division will be strengthened and divided into the Publishing Graubünden and Publishing Glarus/Gaster See divisions. Markus Mehr, the former Head of Marketing Projects, will be appointed Head of Publishing Graubünden.
Daniela Brunner takes over the management of the Glarus/Gaster See publishing house. She replaces Helga Beyeler, who has retired. Mehr and Brunner join the extended management team.
The Board of Directors remains unchanged with Chairman Hanspeter Lebrument, Andrea Masüger (Delegate), Otto Meier and Andrea von Rechenberg.