Roles are distributed
Op-Ed: It’s Not PubliGroupe, but the New RTVG That Threatens the TV Market, Says Christian Gartmann.
Guest commentary It is not PubliGroupe but the new RTVA that is jeopardizing the TV market, says Christian Gartmann. After all, "P" had long announced its intention to become active in the audiovisual market. In Cinecom, it has taken over a very successful marketer.
Compared to the market as a whole, however, Cinecom is a small, colorful fish. Nevertheless, calls for the Competition Commission can be heard here and there. There is talk of media concentration and monopolies. But unfortunately, the Competition Commission won't fix the messed-up Swiss TV system.
If "P" is now also getting involved in the TV and cinema business, then this simply shows that private television is also growing up in this country a good ten years after the introduction of advertising windows, program windows and local television. Politically, the roles have already been distributed for some time and will be further cemented in the new RTVA. Above all those of the state-supporting and incessantly whining SRG, flanked by commercially harmless local broadcasters on the one side and the "villains" from Germany and France with their advertising windows on the other.
The fact that "P" is now taking over the marketing of a program and advertising window is no coincidence. Around ten years ago, the window broadcasters gladly jumped into the breach and brought the Swiss TV market to life. In terms of revenue, SRG benefited the most. The "P" has now apparently taken the trouble to investigate the sustainable development of windows and their investments in Switzerland and obviously has more faith in the window broadcasters than the political opinion makers.
In the advertising market, window transmitters are finally accepted for what they have been doing for years: importing a product from abroad that nobody produces in Switzerland.
Those who are now calling for the ComCo on the occasion of the Cinecom takeover are ignoring the reality: the private TV market is ridiculously small compared to the SRG. And nobody shouts "monopoly!" when SRG once again opens a radio station to crush a private broadcaster or demands new fees to keep the prices for sports rights so high that no one else can afford them.
Instead of writing to the Competition Commission about the "P", we should write to our federal politicians about the RTVA. Let them write into the new law what was originally written on its label: liberalization of the market. With less regulation, TV offerings could one day emerge that make the medium a topic for other investors. The Competition Commission cannot pave the way for this. Only politicians can do this with a commitment to a genuine Swiss TV market.
> Christian Gartmann is Managing Director for Switzerland of the ProSiebenSat 1 Group.
Compared to the market as a whole, however, Cinecom is a small, colorful fish. Nevertheless, calls for the Competition Commission can be heard here and there. There is talk of media concentration and monopolies. But unfortunately, the Competition Commission won't fix the messed-up Swiss TV system.
If "P" is now also getting involved in the TV and cinema business, then this simply shows that private television is also growing up in this country a good ten years after the introduction of advertising windows, program windows and local television. Politically, the roles have already been distributed for some time and will be further cemented in the new RTVA. Above all those of the state-supporting and incessantly whining SRG, flanked by commercially harmless local broadcasters on the one side and the "villains" from Germany and France with their advertising windows on the other.
The fact that "P" is now taking over the marketing of a program and advertising window is no coincidence. Around ten years ago, the window broadcasters gladly jumped into the breach and brought the Swiss TV market to life. In terms of revenue, SRG benefited the most. The "P" has now apparently taken the trouble to investigate the sustainable development of windows and their investments in Switzerland and obviously has more faith in the window broadcasters than the political opinion makers.
In the advertising market, window transmitters are finally accepted for what they have been doing for years: importing a product from abroad that nobody produces in Switzerland.
Those who are now calling for the ComCo on the occasion of the Cinecom takeover are ignoring the reality: the private TV market is ridiculously small compared to the SRG. And nobody shouts "monopoly!" when SRG once again opens a radio station to crush a private broadcaster or demands new fees to keep the prices for sports rights so high that no one else can afford them.
Instead of writing to the Competition Commission about the "P", we should write to our federal politicians about the RTVA. Let them write into the new law what was originally written on its label: liberalization of the market. With less regulation, TV offerings could one day emerge that make the medium a topic for other investors. The Competition Commission cannot pave the way for this. Only politicians can do this with a commitment to a genuine Swiss TV market.
> Christian Gartmann is Managing Director for Switzerland of the ProSiebenSat 1 Group.
