To the point: smear theater
Two weeks ago, I had to finish writing my editorial on Tuesday morning because I was flying to Hamburg for a two-day congress in the afternoon. Somehow, I had a hunch that the ratings swank wasn't over yet.
So I wrote: "But now nothing seems to stand in the way of publishing the TV figures. At least that's what the latest Mediapulse announcement says. You can tell from my wording that I have slight doubts, because what happened behind and in front of the scenes during these 170 days is unbelievable and actually unimaginable." We also planned to publish the most important ratings in a small article, for which we left space until Wednesday. So everything was prepared.
When I took a quick look at Twitter on Wednesday afternoon, I read a tweet from Tages-Anzeiger editor Angela Baradun. "Unbelievable! The TV ratings are blocked again," it said. When I verified the matter, we decided to make the numbers unreadable with a ban bar. So far so good. Nick Lüthi then creatively added "... will never be good again" to the title of my editorial "was lange währt ...".
In the meantime, another two weeks have passed. Not much has happened. The BSW Leading Swiss Agencies, whose members account for 80 percent of all TV advertising investments in Switzerland, was naturally "extremely displeased about this new development, the causes of which lie in the breakdown of negotiations between Mediapulse and the 3+ channel," according to a media release. He expects corrected data by August 15 at the latest. Item.
What happens now? Mediapulse now has until next week to draft a new legal brief (you should be a lawyer!) in response to the Federal Administrative Court's order. Then it depends on how the court reacts. If it wants to have the tiresome matter quickly off the table, it will decide something before July 15, but if it takes its time, nothing will happen before August 18 - if I interpret the matter with the court vacations correctly.
So this means continuing to fly blind. It's hard to imagine what would happen if the Federal Administrative Court were to allow publication. Will the whole thing then go to the Federal Supreme Court and the quota fiasco start all over again? Litigating instead of looking for solutions together, that seems to be the motto. What is going on here is unbelievable and damages the entire media industry. And what is being done about it? Nothing. Great!
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief [email protected]
