"Cinecom does a very good job with Kabel 1"
Christian Gartmann, Managing Director of ProSieben Sat 1 Switzerland, on his move to the executive board of PubliGroupe.
Christian Gartmann: Neither
yet. When I spoke to PubliGroupe CEO Hans-Peter Rohner about his
strategic plans, we realized that the matter was a matter for both of us.
fascinated. That's why we started to study them from this side too.
view.
WW: What excites you about the new job?
Gartmann: With
web2com, Cinecom, Radiotele and a cross-media unit, four teams are to
are brought together to form a division. The four of them are
activity is different. My first task will be to make these strong
teams and bring them closer together.
WW: Already
rumors surfaced that you would be awarded the marketing contract for the
Pro-7 advertising windows to the P subsidiary Cinecom - away from the
today's Goldbach subsidiary IP Multimedia.
Gartmann: (laughs) Nonsense. No, of course that's not the case.
WW: Does the Pro 7 contract run for more than a year?
Gartmann: Yes.
WW: For a long time, you placed Sat 1 with Cinecom, but Kabel 1 and Pro 7 with the IP. Why is that?
Gartmann: The
comes from the time before the merger of ProSieben and Sat 1, which
both belonged to the Kirch conglomerate, but operated completely separately.
Sat 1 was with Cinecom from the beginning, whereas Pro 7 was with the IP, as was
Kabel 1, which also belonged to the former ProSieben Media AG.
WW: You
entrusted Kabel 1 to Cinecom in 2006. This suggests that
that you are no longer satisfied with the IP. In addition
It is foreseeable that Pro 7 will also switch to Cinecom - probably in the sense of a one-stop-shop strategy.
Gartmann: Both
you can't say that. At the regular end of the contract with IP, we have
the Kabel 1 marketing was put out to tender again. There were initially four
options, with Cinecom and IP coming out on top. The
Cinecom's offer was simply better. As for the Pro 7 contract
you are jumping to conclusions.
WW: Cable 1 sales are said to have already risen sharply under Cinecom.
Gartmann: You
have already risen sharply under the IP, but have now risen again.
massively. For three reasons: Kabel 1 is growing in the audience market,
it is now of a marketable size. It has also been rejuvenated
and has definitely shed its former image as a pure playback station.
And thirdly, Cinecom does a very good job.
WW: Why
offer the four strongest German private broadcasters in German-speaking Switzerland.
Sat 1, RTL, Pro 7 and Vox do not have a common and attractively priced
Combi to compete with SF 1 and SF 2?
Gartmann: The
is not obvious. There is the state-owned SRG, which accounts for 61 percent of
TV advertising market, as well as two private marketers.
There is no need for market agreements. It is healthy competition,
the two non-state marketers and the market forward.
brings.
WW: You
basically take over the role of Stefan Staub at P, the
Electronic Media Project Manager, who was in the radio scene last year
like a bull in a china store. How will you clean up the pieces?
kitten?
Gartmann: Whether
I don't know whether there were any broken pieces. I got to know Stefan Staub as
who is well-prepared and has a great deal of specialist knowledge
came to the meetings. However, he is a tough and skillful
Negotiator. As far as I'm concerned, after around ten years of radio
Z have a strong affinity for this exciting medium. I also know
some managing directors and some board members. That's why the
Establishing contact is easy.
WW: Yours
future employee Bruno Oetterli from Radiotele accuses the IP,
it binds media agencies to itself with agreements so that they can
make radio bookings exclusively via IP. You are a member of the Board of Directors
at IP. Do you know anything about this?
Gartmann: I can't comment on that.
WW: Is this the first time you've heard this accusation?
Gartmann: No.
WW: If a Swiss intermediary were to do this, how would you assess it?
Gartmann: The
is hypothetical and very general, for an assessment one would have to
but know the details. So I can't answer that.
WW: Yours
professional career was always somehow connected with Klaus
Kappeler, now CEO of Goldbach Media. At Radio Z you were his
employee, his employer at ProSieben Sat 1 - and now
You his competitor. A kind of emancipation process?
Gartmann: (laughs)
I don't think I will ever emancipate myself from Klaus Kappeler.
had to - just as he didn't have to get rid of me. He's already been my
supervisor quickly got used to the fact that I was at eye level with him.
was confronted with. Even back then, we were sometimes of the same opinion,
sometimes not. It's still like that today. My career has changed
but always oriented towards the professional tasks, not towards
individual people. To this day, I have always been able to say of myself that I
would have my dream job. And now I'm looking forward to the next one.
Markus Knöpfli
