Switzerland continues to tap ORF
Austria doesn't really want Switzerland to watch ORF. But thanks to a Swisscom antenna in Graubünden, it's still possible.
ORF stations have always enjoyed great popularity in Switzerland. ORF 1 in particular is high in the favor of Swiss TV viewers thanks to commercial-free feature films, series and sports broadcasts. According to Schweiz am Sonntag, Switzerland owes its enjoyment of Austrian television to an antenna in Müstair on the border with Italy's South Tyrol. Swisscom receives the channels there and passes them on to its own customers and, for a fee, to UPC Cablecom. Legally. Because according to Swiss law, anything that can be received here without encryption can be broadcast.
Actually, Austria does not want Switzerland to help itself to its own state broadcasters free of charge. The signal broadcast over the air was therefore encrypted - as a result, channels such as ATV, ORF III and Puls 4 disappeared from the Swiss cable networks. Actually, ORF 1 and ORF 2 would now also be encrypted and therefore no longer receivable. In Austria - but not in the Italian province of South Tyrol. There, the channels are still available in HD quality and are received by Swisscom subsidiary Swisscom Broadcast via an antenna, sent to Olten and distributed to Swiss households. UPC Cablecom buys the signal, as operating its own antenna would be too expensive. (SaS/hae)
