20 Minuten wants to react to Blick's TV plans

In about two months, Ringier is getting started with Blick-TV. 48 positions have been created. Some of them will be filled by employees from other in-house departments, while others will be filled by established TV staff from the competition. Above all, ex-SRF figurehead Jonas Projer, who has since been driving the Blick-TV project forward as editor-in-chief with enthusiasm and great optimism.

Ringier CEO Marc Walder says to the NZZ on SundayThey don't even know exactly how much money they have already invested in Blick-TV, saying it is "an affair of the heart".

Targeted advertising instead of wasted coverage

Blick TV wants to be different from conventional television. Digital, geared to smartphone users. From 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., there is a new 15-minute program every hour, which is then repeated three times. The broadcasts consist of articles of two to three minutes each. Commercials are interspersed before, during and after the segments. Data-driven messages are individually tailored to end users. While conventional television struggles with wasted coverage and dwindling advertising revenues as a result, Blick-TV aims to strike a chord with advertisers. According to NZZ on Sunday Blick.ch already achieved 400 million clicks on video reports last year - with Blick TV, this figure is set to rise even higher in the future.

Three minutes later it is reported

The strengths of the new format are supposed to be its speed. Marc Walder's specification: 180 seconds after news about major events is broadcast, the station must be able to jump on the topic. Thanks to a cooperation with CNN, this should also be possible for international events.

Nevertheless, experts and competitors remain skeptical and relaxed. TV expert Christoph Bürge points out that no private broadcaster in Switzerland has yet succeeded in earning money with news in the electronic sector. The advertising marketer Goldbach, which handles advertising for most of the private broadcasters, writes in response to an inquiry from the NZZ am Sonntag that it does not expect a "noticeable shift in advertising money due to Blick TV". And SRG thinks Blick TV's offering is not comparable to its own and rather competes with Youtube or large web TV platforms.

20 minutes builds its own web TV channel

For a competitor, however, Ringier's plans are certainly no sideshow. With 20 minutes Tamedia (from 2020 TX Group) operates the news portal with the widest reach in Switzerland - ahead of Blick.ch. Once launched as a free commuter newspaper, 20 Minuten is now a comprehensive media brand that has recently also started operating its own radio station. From January 2020 20 minutes in the newly formed TX Group, a company of its own (Werbewoche.ch reported).

And how the Switzerland at the weekend writes in the current issue, the company also wants to follow suit in the TV sector instead of leaving this field idly to its main competitor. Accordingly, 20 Minuten is in the process of setting up a Web TV channel and is recruiting news journalists for it. According to the newspaper's research, the team is to grow to a dozen media professionals. As Schweiz am Wochenende knows, there have even been attempts to poach Blick TV journalists.

Officially and confirmed these processes are not. 20 minutes-Editor-in-Chief Gaudenz Looser does not want to give any information on request - he will inform in due course.