Best of Swiss Web: Honorary award goes to Bea Knecht

At the Best of Swiss Web Award Night next Thursday, April 3, 2014, at the Kongresshaus Zurich in front of more than 750 people, not only will the best Internet and mobile projects in eleven categories be honored, but an honorary prize will also traditionally be awarded, as announced in a press release on Tuesday. This prize is awarded to individuals who have made a special contribution to the development of the Internet and the ICT sector, for example through fundamental developments in the technical field or outstanding achievements as entrepreneurs, politicians or researchers.

This year's honorary award goes to Bea Knecht, co-founder and CEO of Zattoo. According to the press release, Bea Knecht embodies the type of innovative and courageous entrepreneur with the ability to spur others on to practical action and thus provide important impetus for the entire Internet and media industry.

Bea Knecht studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, from 1986 to 1990 and completed an MBA at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne in 1995. In 2005, she founded the web television Zattoo in the USA together with computer science professor Sugih Jamin. In 2006, Bea Knecht took over as CEO of the television company in Switzerland for the Football World Cup, initially with four free-to-air Swiss television channels.

Knecht has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zattoo since 2009. Before founding the company, she worked in strategy consulting, in banking IT and in the development of HR and data center automation software for customers such as SAP and Linuxcare.

The services

Bea Knecht's special achievements include co-founding one of the first live TV providers (players) in the world. Together with partners, she combined three innovative industry challenges into a single business model:
- Third-party exploitation of TV signals
- Innovative streaming technology
- Software-based multi-platform (content delivery network)
Thanks to Bea Knecht's great personal commitment, a financially independent and highly successful European company based in Switzerland has been established. With broadcasting rights for more than 150 channels and around 3.5 million registered users, Zattoo represents Switzerland as an innovative country with leading mobile and stationary broadband coverage.