SRG stake in Admeira: media companies can have their say
The Swiss Media Association and nine media companies are allowed to have a say in the participation of the Swiss Radio and Television Company (SRG) in the Admeira advertising joint venture. The Federal Court has confirmed their party status and rejected an appeal by SRG against this.
As the Federal Court stated in a ruling published on Wednesday, the media companies have made it sufficiently clear that they are threatened with significant restrictions on their scope for development as a result of the joint venture. The companies include Tamedia and AZ Medien.
In such cases, an affected party could participate in the proceedings. According to the Federal Court, this is the aim of Article 29 of the Federal Law on Radio and Television (RTVA). The provision is intended to strike a balance between the predominantly fee-financed SRG and the protection needs of other market participants.
The Federal Court did not accept the SRG's argument that there was no connection between the media offerings of the intervening media companies and the SRG's advertising marketing activities. As can be seen from the ruling, the SRG took the position that advertising marketing was upstream of the media market and that there was therefore no competitive relationship.
"Hand in Hand"
The Federal Court states that the publishing activity and the advertising required to finance it go hand in hand. Therefore, in terms of media law, a direct competitive relationship can be said to exist.
According to the Lausanne judges, SRG's advertising marketing through Admeira is thus at least potentially capable of significantly restricting the media companies' scope for media development.
The highest court further states that the reorganization of advertising acquisition under private law could change the advertising market to such an extent that the advertising regulations created by the legislature in the RTVA between SRG and the private providers would in fact be subject to new rules.
The Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) must now carry out another substantive examination to determine whether this is indeed the case. And this time, the media companies will have the right to be parties, which means they will also have access to the files.
In its first attempt, DETEC had "taken note" of the joint venture in an order issued at the end of February 2016 and did not impose any conditions.
Operation started long ago
The Admeira advertising cooperation between Ringier, Swisscom and SRG already began operations in April 2016. As the lower court of the Federal Supreme Court, the Federal Administrative Court had rejected precautionary measures in this regard. It had confirmed the party status of the media companies.
The dispute over SRG's participation in Admeira is based on the provision of the RTVA according to which SRG must provide the
Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) must give prior notification of activities which are not specified in the license. If such an activity has a significant impact on the scope for development of other media companies, DETEC can impose conditions or prohibit the activity altogether. (SDA)
