As part of a multi-year collaboration, the national soccer player is supporting Mc Donalds' activities surrounding the 2006 World Cup and the 2008 European Championship. On Monday, February 27, a creative competition for children between the ages of 6 and 10 will be launched in all 145 Mc Donalds restaurants in Switzerland. The deadline for entries is March 30, 2006. Nine children will then be able to accompany the soccer star hand in hand onto the pitch at the World Cup in Germany. Six places are up for grabs for the match between Switzerland and France, two for the semi-final and even one for the final match, Mc Donalds Switzerland announced in a communiqué. Mc Donalds has been in the sports business for some time. Since 1976 the company has been an official partner of the IOC, since 1994 an official partner of Fifa and since 1996 a partner of Uefa.

The Swiss Blog Awards will be presented for the first time in Schwiez, with the submission deadline running from March 23 to April 23, 2006. The awards ceremony will take place on May 5 at the Volkshaus Biel. The awards will be presented in three categories: Best of Swiss Blogs, Best Multimedia Blog and Rookie Award for blogs that went online in 2005. Weblogs run by people living in Switzerland or by people with a close connection to the country are eligible for submission. The Swiss Blog Awards are not decided by a jury, but by the public via online voting. As part of the Internet competition "The Golden Mouse", a one-off blog rating will also take place in 2006, in which a jury will decide.

The station started with individual broadcasts on election and referendum Sundays and developed into the leading regional television station in Eastern Switzerland over 20 years. 20 years ago on February 25, 1986 at 20.00
Winti TV went on air at the same time. The starting signal was a
Voting program for the Winterthur city council elections. In the early years
further broadcasts were produced on voting Sundays.
All employees worked on a voluntary basis. In the years that followed, Winti TV
regularly expanded its offering. The broadcasting area was initially limited to the Zurich
Weinland, then to the Zurich Oberland and then to parts of the cantons of
Thurgau, St. Gallen and Schwyz. Today, Tele Top covers the regional public service for the cantons of Zurich, St. Gallen, Thurgau, Schaffhausen and both Appenzells from its studio in Frauenfeld. Tele Top's daily reach has risen from 27,500 viewers in February 2000 to 105,000 in January 2006.

As reported by the NZZ am Sonntag, the Kudelski Group has declared 2005 a year of stagnation following its record results. The record profit in 2005, with a 15 percent increase in sales of CHF 697 million and a 21 percent increase in profits, is mainly attributable to the Digital TV division, where obsolete smartcards had to be replaced on a large scale in 2005. However, such transactions are not expected in 2006, which is why sales and profits will at best stagnate. Furthermore, the Kudelski Group intends to rent smart cards in future instead of selling them. In the rental model, revenue is not generated once, but is spread over the entire lifetime of the card. This will help to smooth out the sales trend. The Group also wants to invest in promising technologies such as television and video-on-demand via the Internet, TV on cell phones and disposable smart cards. According to NZZ am Sonntag, considerable investments are also being made in the development of a new generation of classic TV access systems.

At the media conference to mark SRG's 75th anniversary, the opportunities but also the problems of the multimedia future were discussed. In future, it will no longer be SRG that determines what the end consumer receives and at what price, but cable and telecommunications companies, said Director General Walpen according to SDA. "Free, comprehensive and affordable access to public service content could therefore be jeopardized. "SRG President Jean-Bernard Münch pointed out that SRG is dependent on cooperation with operators and new competitors due to the various means of distribution - satellite, terrestrial digital, cable, internet, cell phone.
Digitization will bring radical change to the audiovisual world, Münch continued according to SDA. SRG wants to continue to expand digital radio DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting). A lot is also happening in the area of interactive television: in Switzerland, the offerings from Cablecom and Swisscom are currently in the test phase. A "TV Internet on the television screen" will develop, as Walpen explained.
SRG is therefore focusing on multimedia to further develop its public service, as announced in a press release. Digitalization is changing programme production and the usage behaviour of listeners. Multimedia options are therefore being expanded to complement radio and television programs, but also "in the interests of the cohesion of Swiss society". SRG wants to use the internet "to form opinions, to satisfy the interests of minorities and to promote culture", as the press release continues.

Herbert Seiler, previously the sole owner of Seiler Communications AG, is giving Roland Weiss a stake in his advertising agency. Weiss has 20 years of experience in various communications disciplines, according to the statement. After training as a graphic designer, he earned diplomas in advertising and PR consulting and an MBA in marketing and business administration. The 47-year-old worked for five years at Seiler Zurich in the positions of Consulting Group Leader and Managing Director and will now also take a seat on the Board of Directors. With this step, Herbert Seiler would like to initiate the succession planning. For the time being, however, there will be no change in the distribution of responsibilities within the agency: Seiler will continue to be responsible for overall management, while Weiss will head up consulting.

The soft launch of Betty TV in German-speaking Switzerland will take place in mid-March. As the head of Betty, Daniel P. Gauchat, told the press on Friday, the launch will start with 4,000 test users. Contracts already exist with Swiss Television, which wants to test the remote control for more fun while watching TV on SF2 first, before individual channels on SF1 take their turn. Contracts are about to be signed with the RTL and ProSiebenSat1 Group channels. More than 25 advertising partners have already been signed up for the soft launch. Test drives for cars currently being shown in the program can be promoted via the Betty remote control display, or surveys and direct marketing activities can be advertised on the sofa in front of the TV - in 160 characters. The advertising part should not exceed 30 percent of the Betty usage of approx. 10 times per hour. 20 percent is reserved for paid value-added services, while 50 percent is dedicated to the program currently being watched. The Bettys can be controlled individually, and target groups can currently be addressed geographically or by program. In the latter case, for example, an additional question can be asked or a product sample offered in addition to the TV commercial. The system is intelligent enough not to provide the same Betty with the same offer over and over again - once the button has been pressed, that's it. Thought has been given to asking for consent before each transfer of personal data (permission) as well as to a self-controllable limit and pin code protection so that the debt trap does not suddenly loom. Small amounts are simply paid via the fixed network bill.
Daniel P. Gauchat is confident that Betty will generate the desired demand. "Doors are actually open if you come to advertisers with new channels," he said. Field tests in Germany with 600 participants have shown that Betty can achieve response rates of up to 30 percent, with the quiz format even reaching a peak of 70 percent. The "sofa miles" incentive system is also well received. Correct answers earn points, which can be exchanged for benefits that can be viewed on the website. Betty particularly appeals to people over the age of 35. And, as the field test on Pro7, Sat1, N24 and Kabel1 also showed, there was a slight tendency towards an increase in the market share of the programs in which Betty was used.
Betty is to go on sale on a large scale from May; Swisscom online stores are already involved as sales outlets, and talks are underway with Media Markt and other major distributors. According to Gauchat, the aim is to exceed the 100,000 mark in the first 6 to 12 months after the launch, with a potential of one million Betty users. And he would also like to realize another vision: The family Betty, where each family member would have their own Betty. Incidentally, the name Betty for the interactive remote control has nothing to do with Betty Bossi, but is a play on words made up of "better" and the English pronunciation of "TV".
Kathrin Fischer

The magazines Montres Passion and Uhren Welt, published by Ringier Romandie, will appear with a new concept from next June. A more modern graphic design, new sections and original reporting on news from the jewelry industry are planned. The publication frequency will be increased from two to four issues per year, and Yves Golaz, currently Key Account Manager at Ringier Romandie, will be founding his own company on April 1, which will be responsible for the future exclusive advertising management of Montres Passion and Uhren Welt. According to a press release, Ringier Romandie is supporting Yves Golaz in setting up his own business and welcomes the new partnership. The publishing house is confident that Golaz will succeed in expanding the advertising portfolio of the two magazines in the watchmaking and jewelry industry.

At its General Assembly, the association of 17 Swiss regional television stations unanimously re-elected the Board of Directors and the President, Councillor of States Filippo Lombardi (CVP/TI), for a two-year term. According to a press release, Telesuisse will in future also accept as associate members those broadcasters that do not meet the association's conditions for regional television. In the new Radio and Television Act, the meeting continued to support a flexible solution of 3 to 5 percent of reception fees as a split for regional broadcasters. The delegates also decided to open a separate television studio for the benefit of all Swiss private broadcasters in the new federal media building in Bern.

The publishing house Jean Frey has bought back minority shares of Publigroupe and St. Galler Tagblatt AG totaling 38 percent of TR7 AG, as announced by Jean Frey. This makes Jean Frey the 100 percent owner of TR7 AG. "We have been thinking about taking over the shares for some time", Jean Frey CEO Filippo Leutenegger told Werbewoche. Because the other two shareholders were now willing to sell, the opportunity was seized. "The TV star generates a good return, so it is worthwhile for us to buy the shares," explained Leutenegger. The publishing house is satisfied with the relaunch of TR7 as TV-Star. "We have made good progress in terms of content and advertising. But it's a highly competitive market, so you can't fool yourself," said Leutenegger. As part of the reorganization of TR7's shareholders, René Hildbrand, the former editor-in-chief of the TV guide TV-Star, has been appointed Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. He is relinquishing his position as Editor-in-Chief, but will continue to work as a journalist for TV-Star, according to a press release. In particular, he will oversee and be responsible for the TV-Star awards ceremony. The position of Editor-in-Chief will be newly filled. Gion Stecher, the deputy editor-in-chief, will manage the business on an interim basis.

Thomas Schwizer will become the new editor-in-chief of the Werdenberger & Obertoggenburger daily newspaper as of June 1, 2006. This was announced on Friday by Buchs Medien AG, publisher of the W&O. The 47-year-old Schwizer has been editor-in-chief of the Sarganserlander, a local daily newspaper with eight editors, since summer 1994. Prior to that, he had been head of the Rheintalische Volkszeitung in Altstätten for almost four years. At Werdenberger & Obertoggenburger, he will, according to SDA, succeed Editor-in-Chief Kuno Bont, who is stepping down after eight years to set up his own business.

The press should also be able to benefit from reduced postal taxes in the future. Because the Federal Council does not want to know anything about this, the National Council's State Policy Committee (SPK) has decided on an initiative to this effect, according to SDA. With the 2003 relief program, Parliament reduced the annual federal contribution to newspaper transport taxes from CHF 100 million to CHF 80 million and limited it to the end of 2007.
After an attempt by the National Council to directly subsidize the press failed in the Council of States, the Councillors passed a motion in March 2005 calling for the federal government to make a targeted contribution to distribution costs from 2008. In December, Media Minister Moritz Leuenberger said that the Federal Council would not comply with this "inconsistent" mandate.
In the opinion of the SPK, the Federal Council has focused one-sidedly on the finances and paid too little attention to the democratic aspects, as SDA further reports. With the motion, the Commission is seeking a model that provides for financial participation by the Confederation and Swiss Post. It still needs the approval of the SPK of the Council of States before it can get to work and assess possible solutions from a financial and democratic policy perspective.
Rudolf Joder (SVP/BE) withdrew his parliamentary initiative "Press diversity as an element for democratic opinion-forming" in favor of the Commission's proposal. He wanted to oblige Swiss Post to deliver subscribed newspapers and magazines at a preferential rate regardless of distance without federal contributions.