Company Alpha

 
Private television The Neuchâtel local broadcaster Canal Alpha is applying for a license for the Neuchâtel, Jura and Bernese Jura broadcasting area - with the discreet support of media czar Philippe Hersant. 
When Canal Alpha+ first went on air in the canton of Neuchâtel in 1987, no one would have dared to predict a long life for the small, Christian-oriented local television station. 20 years later, Canal Alpha (without the symbol of the cross) wants to become the regional television station for the entire Jura region. At the end of September 2007, the Société Neuchâteloise de Presse (SNP) with the newspapers L'Express and L'Impartial and the regional TV station Canal Alpha announced a collaboration in the multimedia sector. The two Neuchâtel media companies intend to launch a joint platform for regional information next spring. "There is no financial alignment between us and the SNP," says Joël Pelet, co-owner, president and director of Canal Alpha. The broadcaster, which was taken over by its current three owners Joël Pelet, Marcello del Zio and Pierre-André Léchot at the end of 2000, modernized and freed from religious dross, places great emphasis on independence. The collaboration with Philippe Hersant's SNP will be limited to the multimedia platform and selective cross-media projects.
No desire for conquestHowever, the new partners announced that the SNP would support Canal Alpha's bid for the television license. "It is exclusively a matter of political support in the context of the consultation process," clarifies Joël Pelet. If Canal Alpha is awarded the concession and the associated fee money of CHF 2.6 million, the potential audience would increase from 150000 to 300000. Pelet plans to decentralize the editorial office and set up a local editorial office in the canton of Jura, possibly in Delémont. Pelet would like to work together with the Journal du Jura (circulation 12,000) published by Marc Gassmann in Biel and the Quotidien Jurassien (circulation 22,000) published by Michel Voisard. However, only in terms of editorial content: "We are not aiming for a new company or a merger with other media companies."
Pelet emphasizes that his station does not want to act as a conqueror in the new areas that Bakom is combining into a single broadcasting area. Nevertheless, the Canal Alpha project has rubbed at least one media entrepreneur in the Jura Arc up the wrong way. In Delémont, radio pioneer Pierre Steulet, whose three local radio stations in the canton of Jura, the Bernese Jura and the canton of Neuchâtel are among the most listened to radio stations in French-speaking Switzerland, has reigned supreme until now. He also once had a regional television project, long before Bakom came up with the idea of merging the three areas into a single license: Steulet wanted to establish a station for these areas with Interjura TV. He had already obtained the license, but the bold idea failed due to a lack of financially strong partners. And when publishers Gassmann and Voisard pulled out, Steulet had to bury the project.
Now Canal Alpha is taking over the legacy, with a better chance of success thanks to the new RTVG and fee money. "We have held talks with Steulet," says Pelet, but they have, at least so far, "not found common ground". Steulet's reply is as diplomatic as it is ambiguous: "Canal Alpha should make us an offer." Otherwise, he plans to concentrate on his radios.
The diplomatic formulas are easy to interpret: A collaboration with partners in print is a different pair of shoes than a collaboration with a radio partner. In fact, Steulet's radios and the future regional television station are likely to be fighting over the same advertising customers. This dispute could be a tough one, as the advertising pie in the Jura Arc is more like dry brown bread than a juicy cake.
Buying what there is to buyWith a great deal of proximity to the public and public service, Canal Alpha nevertheless wants to embark on the adventure. Meanwhile, Philippe Hersant is rubbing his hands together. The purchase of the two Neuchâtel newspapers has not brought him big money so far; the SNP's modern printing plant is particularly interesting. Now his strategy of buying up whatever there is to buy with a view to future synergies could bear fruit: the financially strong Hersant is ready in the background to provide financial support for the future regional television company in the Jura arc, should it be necessary.
And who knows, perhaps there will be synergies with publisher Gassmann. He is pursuing his own television strategies as part of the bilingual broadcasting region for Biel and the surrounding area, Télé Bielingue. After all, the Journal du Jura is already published in collaboration with the Hersant papers. Since February 2007, the three newspapers have had a joint first edition and the same graphic appearance.    
Helen Brügger