French-speaking Swiss private television la télé: several birds in one stone
La télé is the only private television station in French-speaking Switzerland with regional ambitions. And rightly so.
It is called, in light-footed lower case, la télé, as if there were no others. The plans that the makers of the future television station are forging for the Vaud and Fribourg concession area position la télé as a serious competitor to the French-speaking Swiss television station TSR. The broadcaster has a number of trump cards in its hand that make it believe in its future in the language region.
On the one hand, there is a large broadcasting area: because there was no regional station in the canton of Fribourg, Bakom unceremoniously added the French-speaking part of the canton to the canton of Vaud when granting the license. Now la télé has a distribution area with 990,000 potential viewers.
On the other hand, the sale of Edipresse to Tamedia has reshuffled the cards for almost all media in French-speaking Switzerland: for la télé, which is 31% owned by Edipresse, the sale - which has not yet been approved by the Competition Commission - is an opportunity. In one fell swoop, the ambitious start-up has a powerful co-owner with experience in the electronic media market. A co-owner who is, of course, domiciled in Zurich, making la télé an interesting player for national advertising.
Director Christophe Rasch is delighted with the "extremely positive" development: "Edipresse has not been particularly present in the electronic media sector up to now, but now we have a contact in Zurich in Tamedia, with whom very intensive discussions are already underway." No, as far as the national advertising industry is concerned, no decisions have yet been made. Ecran Pub, which belongs to Edipresse, has been appointed as the regional advertising agency for the canton of Vaud and Mediapub, the advertising agency of Radio Fribourg/Freiburg, for the canton of Fribourg.
Talks are also underway with the four other licensed television stations in French-speaking Switzerland, namely Canal Alpha in the cantons of Neuchâtel and Jura, Canal 9 in Valais, Télé Bielingue in Biel and Léman Bleu in Geneva. The aim is to form an advertising pool and to cooperate in the area of programming. "The regional advertising markets in French-speaking Switzerland are still barely structured because there have only been local stations up to now. There is still a lot to do," says Rasch.
There is also work to be done in the area of programs: At the end of May, la télé plans to present its program line-up. This is still top secret at the moment. However, Rasch lifts the veil a little: "We'll be doing a two-hour talk show every evening on the current affairs of the day, live, if you please!" Rasch wants to hit two birds with one stone with this centerpiece of the broadcasts: He wants to overtake TSR in terms of speed and provide a platform for the players in politics, business and society.
For Christophe Rasch, television must above all be up to date: "Today you see topics in the main news on TSR that were news at the end of the morning. During the afternoon, these topics have long since been disseminated by faster media such as radio and the Internet, and the television viewer actually wants to know what the reactions to the news are." And so la télé has developed the concept of a talk show in which the most important players of the day appear, debate and comment every day. Rasch hopes that this will enable it to compete with its big brother TSR despite its modest resources: "We have one hundredth of TSR's resources and thus make television for an area that covers seventy percent of TSR's territory!" Another advantage of the talk show concept is that it allows local current affairs to be viewed and dealt with from a broader, linguistic-regional perspective: "Our tone is not cantonal, but Romand."
The concept stands and falls with the involvement of the politicians and other public stakeholders addressed: "We sense that there is a great deal of frustration, particularly in the canton of Fribourg, because TSR is neglecting the Fribourg news." A total of four studios, two main studios in Lausanne and Fribourg and two regional studios in Vevey and Yverdon, also bring the station geographically close to its listeners. "I firmly believe that we will get people into the studio for the talk show, provided, of course, that we succeed in establishing ourselves as a reference medium."
At the end of July, la télé goes on air, initially with a summer program: the teams and the talk show team are to be tested with coverage of the various summer festivals. At the end of August, at the start of the political season, things will really get going.
Helen Brügger
On the one hand, there is a large broadcasting area: because there was no regional station in the canton of Fribourg, Bakom unceremoniously added the French-speaking part of the canton to the canton of Vaud when granting the license. Now la télé has a distribution area with 990,000 potential viewers.
On the other hand, the sale of Edipresse to Tamedia has reshuffled the cards for almost all media in French-speaking Switzerland: for la télé, which is 31% owned by Edipresse, the sale - which has not yet been approved by the Competition Commission - is an opportunity. In one fell swoop, the ambitious start-up has a powerful co-owner with experience in the electronic media market. A co-owner who is, of course, domiciled in Zurich, making la télé an interesting player for national advertising.
Director Christophe Rasch is delighted with the "extremely positive" development: "Edipresse has not been particularly present in the electronic media sector up to now, but now we have a contact in Zurich in Tamedia, with whom very intensive discussions are already underway." No, as far as the national advertising industry is concerned, no decisions have yet been made. Ecran Pub, which belongs to Edipresse, has been appointed as the regional advertising agency for the canton of Vaud and Mediapub, the advertising agency of Radio Fribourg/Freiburg, for the canton of Fribourg.
Talks are also underway with the four other licensed television stations in French-speaking Switzerland, namely Canal Alpha in the cantons of Neuchâtel and Jura, Canal 9 in Valais, Télé Bielingue in Biel and Léman Bleu in Geneva. The aim is to form an advertising pool and to cooperate in the area of programming. "The regional advertising markets in French-speaking Switzerland are still barely structured because there have only been local stations up to now. There is still a lot to do," says Rasch.
There is also work to be done in the area of programs: At the end of May, la télé plans to present its program line-up. This is still top secret at the moment. However, Rasch lifts the veil a little: "We'll be doing a two-hour talk show every evening on the current affairs of the day, live, if you please!" Rasch wants to hit two birds with one stone with this centerpiece of the broadcasts: He wants to overtake TSR in terms of speed and provide a platform for the players in politics, business and society.
For Christophe Rasch, television must above all be up to date: "Today you see topics in the main news on TSR that were news at the end of the morning. During the afternoon, these topics have long since been disseminated by faster media such as radio and the Internet, and the television viewer actually wants to know what the reactions to the news are." And so la télé has developed the concept of a talk show in which the most important players of the day appear, debate and comment every day. Rasch hopes that this will enable it to compete with its big brother TSR despite its modest resources: "We have one hundredth of TSR's resources and thus make television for an area that covers seventy percent of TSR's territory!" Another advantage of the talk show concept is that it allows local current affairs to be viewed and dealt with from a broader, linguistic-regional perspective: "Our tone is not cantonal, but Romand."
The concept stands and falls with the involvement of the politicians and other public stakeholders addressed: "We sense that there is a great deal of frustration, particularly in the canton of Fribourg, because TSR is neglecting the Fribourg news." A total of four studios, two main studios in Lausanne and Fribourg and two regional studios in Vevey and Yverdon, also bring the station geographically close to its listeners. "I firmly believe that we will get people into the studio for the talk show, provided, of course, that we succeed in establishing ourselves as a reference medium."
At the end of July, la télé goes on air, initially with a summer program: the teams and the talk show team are to be tested with coverage of the various summer festivals. At the end of August, at the start of the political season, things will really get going.
Helen Brügger
A semi-public private television
La télé has an unusual ownership structure. The station is 31% owned by the French-speaking Swiss publisher Edipresse, which publishes the major daily newspapers 24 heures, Tribune de Genève and Le Matin, and a further 12% by the Fribourg publishing house Saint Paul, which publishes the newspaper La Liberté and prints the Fribourg News. Smaller blocks of shares belong to Radio Fribourg/Freiburg and its advertising company Mediapub as well as some small local Vaud television stations that are participating in the project. There are also associations and several Vaud municipalities, including the city of Lausanne. Private shareholders account for 62%, public shareholders for 32% and shareholders in the hands of associations and institutions for 6%.
