Federal Administrative Court: License for TVO
After more than four years of legal disputes, it’s official: TVO, the Eastern Swiss television station owned by the NZZ Group, has been granted the license. Tele Säntis, however, is considering taking the case to Strasbourg.
Following today's ruling by the Federal Administrative Court, Eastern Switzerland Television (TVO) finally has a legally valid regional television license. The definitive license also entitles TVO to the full share of radio and television license fees for Eastern Switzerland as well as the obligation to expand its programming. As TVO writes in a press release, it is now working at full speed to change the news programs from five-day to seven-day operation and to make further program adjustments. However, the necessary technical and personnel expansion will take several months.
The Federal Administrative Court has thus definitively dismissed the appeal by competitor Günter Heuberger and his Tele Säntis (in formation). Heuberger was of the opinion that TVO was abusing a dominant market position. In their decision, the judges in St. Gallen referred to the Weko's expert opinion. The latter had taken the view that TVO and the NZZ Group (NZZ, St. Galler Tagblatt, Radio FM1, Tele Ostschweiz) in the
Eastern Switzerland only has a dominant position in the radio advertising market.
According to a press release from Tele Säntis, Günter Heuberger is now examining the appeal of the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for violation of Article 10 of the ECHR (freedom of expression).
