Last but not least: The paper tiger and innovation
Our Swiss public television broadcaster doesn't have it easy. Everything is changing—society, technology, the audience, expectations, and values. But now SF has struck back and laid out its vision in a new 60-page mission statement.
It's not easy for our public Swiss television. The legal requirement of public service has always been a heavy burden. And because everyone understands it differently, people are firing from every corner. And now we have social and technological change on top of that. And globalization. And the new RTVG. It's understandable that poor television reacts like a tiger in a cage when it feels cornered. It fights back - and its claws are the words. The new mission statement was a respectable 60 pages thick. "The New Suffering Image" was the title of Facts right away and summed up that a lot of paper should put SF employees on the right track. Out came, for example, the values "independence, fairness, innovation, reliability, closeness to the audience." And sentences like: "We are at the service of the public. You realize right away that 40 personalities from politics, culture and business sat down for three days in the Hotel Feusisberg and gave "a lot of impetus.
The "What we do" section also makes particularly interesting reading. "We are not guided by what is technically feasible," it says, "but are guided by the needs of the audience. What is explosive here is that what the viewers want is also written into the mission statement. "They want us to tailor our programming more closely to their individual needs. They want to be able to use it anytime, anywhere." Suspicious how that sounds like a free pass on what's technically possible. But just: The buck stops with the audience, and SF is merely the devoted servant.
The "What we do" section also makes particularly interesting reading. "We are not guided by what is technically feasible," it says, "but are guided by the needs of the audience. What is explosive here is that what the viewers want is also written into the mission statement. "They want us to tailor our programming more closely to their individual needs. They want to be able to use it anytime, anywhere." Suspicious how that sounds like a free pass on what's technically possible. But just: The buck stops with the audience, and SF is merely the devoted servant.
