"Fee payers don't want to subsidize media companies like Tamedia"

On the question of whether public service could not be financed at lower cost, Roger de Weck recalls, as in the previous "Medien-Club," that the SRG in Switzerland, with its four national languages, has to make disproportionately greater financial efforts. ZDF, for example, has 40 percent more funds available for monolingual television than SRG has for radio and television in four languages. Moreover, due to the high fixed costs of broadcasting, a reduction of the 24 channels would not have much effect.

The SRG Director General attaches importance to responding to media change. He wants to develop specific audiovisual offerings for the Internet that interact with the channels. As an example, he mentions the Do-it-yourself radiowhich allows users to put together their own program from the content of the various SRG radio channels using an app.

Commenting on the conflict with the media houses over fee-financed competition on the Internet, de Weck says he has made an "attractive offer" to the publishers: newspapers would be allowed to embed SRG videos on their websites in return for a share of the advertising revenue. "For smaller newspapers, these would be minimal contributions, and for larger newspapers, moderate contributions," de Weck said. That would be appropriate, he said, because fee payers would not want to subsidize media companies like Tamedia with 15 percent returns. The public service is free for private use, but not for commercial use. He generally disliked the idea of selling off journalistic services. In response to the publishers' call for SRG to charge for its Internet offering, de Weck says Blick and 20 Minuten have more visitors than SRF. And to his knowledge, SRF would not make life more difficult for the NZZ. But it continues to focus on audiovisual content and "doesn't waste a second on making newspapers.

Good journalism cannot be industrialized

The proposal by Avenir Suisse that SRG should become a "content provider" (Werbewoche.ch reported), de Weck replies on the one hand that good journalism cannot be industrialized. On the other hand, the only competitive Swiss channel would disappear with this model. Private broadcasters would never be able to fill this gap, since expensive audiovisual productions in small Switzerland are a loss-making business. SRG has the critical mass to compete with foreign providers. In addition, the SRG contributes to media diversity, since otherwise only one media house offering sound would remain in French-speaking Switzerland, Bern or Graubünden. (hae/NZZaS)

Image: Keystone