French-speaking Swiss publishers ratify national broadcaster agreement

Publishers in French-speaking Switzerland ratify agreement with SSR Keystone-SDA

Publishers in French-speaking Switzerland ratified an agreement reached in May between the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and newspaper publishers in German-speaking Switzerland.

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In exchange for limiting SBC’s online offering, the publishers will reject the “CHF200 is enough!” initiative.

“In a world where disinformation and misinformation are becoming increasingly prevalent, it is more necessary than ever to strengthen media that promote journalistic work and the quality of information,” said Stéphane Estival, President of Médias Suisses, quoted in a press release. The SBC and the publishers must be complementary and not competitors, he insisted.

“The ratification of the agreement by Médias Suisses is a strong signal. In order to guarantee the diversity of the media in Switzerland and to strengthen the confidence of the population, the private and public media must work together,” said SBC Director General Susanne Wille.

Shorter texts on SBC websites

The agreement was unveiled in May at the Swiss Media Forum in Lucerne. It had not yet been ratified by the French-language counterpart of the German-language publishers’ association (VSM).

The agreement recognises the importance for SBC of having an online offering to fulfil its remit, but the public service broadcaster has undertaken to focus more strongly on its core activities, namely radio and TV. It will continue to refrain from advertising on its digital offering and will only use platforms such as YouTube or Instagram when target audiences cannot be reached by other means.

SBC, which is Swissinfo’s parent company, will in future limit the length of its online texts to 2,400 characters. For sports broadcasts, it will concentrate on content that is not covered by private broadcasters.

SBC will make raw material without logos available to private broadcasters. In addition, it promises to invest most of its online marketing resources in private Swiss media companies.

“Serious consequences”

In return for these concessions, the publishers are rejecting the “CHF200 is enough!” initiative, supported in particular by the Swiss People’s Party, which will be put to the vote on March 8. “This initiative would lead to a major dismantling of the linguistic regions, with particularly serious consequences for French-speaking Switzerland”, writes Médias Suisses.

It should be noted that the TX Group has disassociated itself from this agreement, demanding more drastic restrictions on SBC’s online activities. The agreement still has to be approved by the Competition Commission (Comco).

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

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