To the point: constraint
More than a year ago, the discussion began about an additional Swiss television culture channel. In a sense, it was to become a Swiss Arte with the aim of promoting cohesion between the individual language regions.
Dubbed or subtitled contributions about culture and education, which the SRG stations SF, TSR and TSI have already shown, were to be broadcast on a special channel. Behind the idea were people with an affinity for culture around Bernard Cathomas, the former director of Romansh radio and television RTR.
The idea understandably aroused little enthusiasm among SRG's top management. On the one hand, financial reasons spoke against a channel expansion, but conceptual reasons also spoke against it. Armin Walpen was of the opinion that such a special interest channel would rather contribute to the ghettoization of culture. Arte, for example, had a market share of less than 1 percent, and 3sat a mere 1.1 percent. Rainer Stadler wrote in the NZZ at the time: "We can assume that the discussion about a culture channel will quickly peter out. It is unlikely to make waves beyond the culture-savvy milieus."
Unfortunately, this hope was deceptive, because now politics has intervened. Council of States member Theo Maissen (CVP, Graubünden) and National Council member Hans Stöckli (SP, Bern) have submitted motions for a cross-linguistic television channel in the federal parliament with broad support. The Federal Council is instructed to urge the SRG, in order to promote national understanding between the language regions, "to realize a Swiss television channel that recycles programs already broadcast and broadcasts them subtitled or dubbed in the respective other national languages."
Why on earth do we need a separate TV channel for this, one that would only be used marginally? Wouldn't it make much more sense to broadcast current reports and unusual productions from the individual broadcasting areas in the respective other language areas in the appropriate program compartments? As, for example, Kassensturz did at the beginning of the year. This would solve the problem of ghettoization and the additional costs would be negligible. Perhaps, in addition to the planned convergence of radio and television, the SRG should also think more deeply about a joint clearing house for the exchange of individual contributions between the language regions. And this should be done before politics sets up new nonsensical SRG rules.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
The idea understandably aroused little enthusiasm among SRG's top management. On the one hand, financial reasons spoke against a channel expansion, but conceptual reasons also spoke against it. Armin Walpen was of the opinion that such a special interest channel would rather contribute to the ghettoization of culture. Arte, for example, had a market share of less than 1 percent, and 3sat a mere 1.1 percent. Rainer Stadler wrote in the NZZ at the time: "We can assume that the discussion about a culture channel will quickly peter out. It is unlikely to make waves beyond the culture-savvy milieus."
Unfortunately, this hope was deceptive, because now politics has intervened. Council of States member Theo Maissen (CVP, Graubünden) and National Council member Hans Stöckli (SP, Bern) have submitted motions for a cross-linguistic television channel in the federal parliament with broad support. The Federal Council is instructed to urge the SRG, in order to promote national understanding between the language regions, "to realize a Swiss television channel that recycles programs already broadcast and broadcasts them subtitled or dubbed in the respective other national languages."
Why on earth do we need a separate TV channel for this, one that would only be used marginally? Wouldn't it make much more sense to broadcast current reports and unusual productions from the individual broadcasting areas in the respective other language areas in the appropriate program compartments? As, for example, Kassensturz did at the beginning of the year. This would solve the problem of ghettoization and the additional costs would be negligible. Perhaps, in addition to the planned convergence of radio and television, the SRG should also think more deeply about a joint clearing house for the exchange of individual contributions between the language regions. And this should be done before politics sets up new nonsensical SRG rules.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
