The large number of broadcasting slots pays off
Thanks to new broadcasting slots, some PresseTV programs could return to their former ratings heights.
Hans-Jürg Deutsch, Managing Director of publisher television PresseTV (PTV), has repeatedly pointed out in recent years that since SF director Ingrid Deltenre focused SF zwei more consistently on sport and youth and programmed "Musicstar" or "Gotthelf-TV" on SF1 on Sunday evenings, the PTV programs have looked old. In two senses: firstly because they could not keep up with the SF in-house productions, and secondly because the PTV programs with their rather older target audience seemed out of place on the youthful SF zwei. As a result, the ratings plummeted year after year.
It is therefore not surprising that almost all PTV programs lost ground again in 2008 and many have reached an all-time low. The Ringier program "Gesundheit Sprechstunde" (GES) led the way, losing a third of its viewers compared to 2007 and even 60 percent or almost 200,000 fewer viewers compared to 2003. "NZZ Format", "NZZ Swiss made", "konsumTV" and "MotorShow TCS" also plummeted. Only "BaZ Fussballtalk" saw an increase of around 12 percent last year.
For a long time, PTV was helplessly at the mercy of this development. Switching to other broadcasting slots was hardly possible, partly for licensing reasons and partly because Deltenre was opposed to it. Publisher television, which in better times had helped to raise the ratings average of SF zwei, was suddenly sidelined.
It was only with the new SRG concession in 2007 that things started to move. SRG and PTV negotiated a new cooperation agreement in May 2008 and agreed that PTV programs would be placed where they could better reach their audience from 2009. The consequence: four PTV formats, namely "Cash-Talk", "BaZ Fussballtalk", "konsumTV" and "100 Minuten", were canceled and all others moved - most of them to SF1. At the same time, certain internal ratings targets were set for the individual programs. Accordingly, the January results were eagerly awaited in order to identify initial trends.
> Table: PTV shipments
And these are encouraging. This is because viewer figures for some PTV formats soared in the new slots, with GES, now broadcast on Saturdays at 6.10 p.m. on SF1, even increasing by almost 100 percent to 208,800 viewers. The five January programs, which are now broadcast weekly instead of fortnightly and last half as long as before, picked up where GES left off in 2006. The format even achieved a record market share of 20 percent.
Several other programs are doing similarly: "Motorshow TCS", new on Sunday evening on SF zwei, has increased by a good 50 percent compared to 2008 and is back to its 2006 levels. Here too, the market share has reached a historic high. Standpunkte" is also being watched more often than ever before. And "NZZ Format", which is now broadcast on Thursdays after Aeschbacher, has only reached the 2007 figure with 89,000 viewers - but with its record market share of 14.3 percent, it trumps the series that SF1 previously had in its program at the same time and which only achieved 10 percent in 2008. In contrast, "CashTV" and "NZZ Swiss made" have improved only slightly. The January market share for "CashTV" is even lower than ever.
Markus Knöpfli
It is therefore not surprising that almost all PTV programs lost ground again in 2008 and many have reached an all-time low. The Ringier program "Gesundheit Sprechstunde" (GES) led the way, losing a third of its viewers compared to 2007 and even 60 percent or almost 200,000 fewer viewers compared to 2003. "NZZ Format", "NZZ Swiss made", "konsumTV" and "MotorShow TCS" also plummeted. Only "BaZ Fussballtalk" saw an increase of around 12 percent last year.
For a long time, PTV was helplessly at the mercy of this development. Switching to other broadcasting slots was hardly possible, partly for licensing reasons and partly because Deltenre was opposed to it. Publisher television, which in better times had helped to raise the ratings average of SF zwei, was suddenly sidelined.
It was only with the new SRG concession in 2007 that things started to move. SRG and PTV negotiated a new cooperation agreement in May 2008 and agreed that PTV programs would be placed where they could better reach their audience from 2009. The consequence: four PTV formats, namely "Cash-Talk", "BaZ Fussballtalk", "konsumTV" and "100 Minuten", were canceled and all others moved - most of them to SF1. At the same time, certain internal ratings targets were set for the individual programs. Accordingly, the January results were eagerly awaited in order to identify initial trends.
> Table: PTV shipments
And these are encouraging. This is because viewer figures for some PTV formats soared in the new slots, with GES, now broadcast on Saturdays at 6.10 p.m. on SF1, even increasing by almost 100 percent to 208,800 viewers. The five January programs, which are now broadcast weekly instead of fortnightly and last half as long as before, picked up where GES left off in 2006. The format even achieved a record market share of 20 percent.
Several other programs are doing similarly: "Motorshow TCS", new on Sunday evening on SF zwei, has increased by a good 50 percent compared to 2008 and is back to its 2006 levels. Here too, the market share has reached a historic high. Standpunkte" is also being watched more often than ever before. And "NZZ Format", which is now broadcast on Thursdays after Aeschbacher, has only reached the 2007 figure with 89,000 viewers - but with its record market share of 14.3 percent, it trumps the series that SF1 previously had in its program at the same time and which only achieved 10 percent in 2008. In contrast, "CashTV" and "NZZ Swiss made" have improved only slightly. The January market share for "CashTV" is even lower than ever.
Markus Knöpfli
