SF online presence continues to cause a stir

Until a few weeks ago, some of the archived film clips on the Swiss TV website contained commercial breaks. This contradicted the agreement that www.sf.tv would remain free of advertising, as reported by the media magazine Klartext. But this was an oversight, SF spokesman Urs Durrer told the magazine. The commercial breaks should have been cut out of the original broadcasts before streaming. In the future, he said, better care will be taken to ensure that this actually happens. According to Klartext, the mistake was positive for advertisers, as they did not incur any costs for secondary use. The publishers' association, which had decided to lodge a complaint against SF's online presence, was relatively relaxed about the continued use of TV advertising on the Internet. This was indeed an issue, as Hanspeter Kellermüller of the Swiss Press Association told Klartext. But much more disturbing, he said, was the fact that www.sf.tv had been expanded into a "primarily text-based news portal".
The DRS audience council also expressed its opinion on the new website. The majority is of the opinion that Schweizer Fernsehen should continue to offer and manage such a news site. However, it also voiced criticism: the entry page, systematics, clarity and above all the search functions must be improved according to the audience council. The quality of the downloads, on the other hand, is satisfactory, and the archive is considered very useful. The Tagesschau news site is characterized by topicality and credibility.