European ratings for Swiss TV stations

National television stations in Switzerland
In future, European quotas will have to be set in relation to producers and
broadcast content. The Federal Council has issued a
corresponding amendment to the Radio and Television Ordinance (RTVO)
which is based on the media agreement between Switzerland and the EU.
goes back.

According to the new provisions in the RTVO, the language-regional broadcasters must be able to offer their services,
national and international TV stations account for the majority of their
broadcasting time is reserved for European works and at least 10 percent of the
program from independent producers. The quotas are
no absolute requirements: They must be "within practical
feasible and by appropriate means", as stated in the
text of the ordinance. Switzerland will also publish a report every two years.
Draw up a report on compliance with the quotas for the attention of the EU.

Control within the country is the responsibility of OFCOM and is carried out by means of
of a reporting system, as Bakom spokesman Bernhard Bürki
explained to Advertising Week. "The majority of the programs must
be European, which means at least 50 %. If the proportion is higher
the better. However, the broadcasters are given time to
quotas," says Bürki. First and foremost, it is important that
of the annually submitted reports progress in implementing the
regulations are recognizable. Bürki does not expect the
changeover will cause major problems for broadcasters. "Affected are
not the regional broadcasters. The regional and national
channels have a fairly high proportion of in-house productions anyway.
on. The areas most likely to be affected by the new guidelines are
pay TV channels that show many American feature films."

The media agreement is part of the second bilateral
negotiation package. It commits Switzerland to
European law. However, this is largely
already the case. The EU had now approved the adoption of the
Quota provisions as a condition for the conclusion of the agreement
made. Ratification is planned for January 1, 2006.
Carole Scheidegger