U1 TV defends itself with petition against end of Cablecom contract

The cable network operator Cablecom is allowing its contracts with the Swiss private broadcaster U1 TV to expire. U1 TV now fears that it will be removed from the analog cable network and can only be received digitally. The German teleshopping channel HSE24 is also affected by the decision, as was announced on Monday. U1 TV feels endangered and launched a petition against the switch-off on Monday evening - and had already collected 1,200 signatures by 10.00 pm. Up to 20,000 signatures are to be collected at the Albisgüetli country music festival alone. In any case, the necessary signatures for the petition should be on paper by the end of May at the latest. The recipient of U1 TV's collection of signatures is the Federal Council. It will soon present a list of television channels that Cablecom must keep on the analog network. According to its own information, U1 TV would lose its economic basis if the analog network were switched off. The broadcaster is based in Schlieren ZH and employs around 50 people.
According to Cablecom spokesman Martin Wüthrich, the SDA news agency reports that it has not yet been decided whether the private channel will actually be dropped from the analog program. The background to the whole discussion is Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger's veto against Cablecom's planned switch-off of the channels Rai Uno and France 2 on analog television. Wüthrich said that the Federal Council will in all likelihood make these two channels mandatory in the analog service. Cablecom would therefore have to move other channels to the digital network because the capacity of the entire network is limited. With the precautionary withdrawal from the contracts with U1 and HSE24, the company has more leeway. According to Wüthrich, the migration of CNN, the third channel with which Cablecom has a distribution contract, is not currently under discussion.