No musical ear for a portal
SRG will refrain from coordinating its web offerings for the time being, but will allow their commercialization
SRG is refraining from coordinating its web offerings for the time being, but is allowing them to be commercializedBy Daniel SchifferleIf SRG were to better coordinate its scattered internet offerings, it could easily become the Swiss market leader on the web. But the road to a joint portal is a long one. At least the individual SRG sites can now be commercialized.
At SRG, every webmaster's dream comes true: content in abundance, produced daily for the more than a dozen radio and TV programs, is also available for their Internet sites. And with an estimated 15 million page impressions per month, SRG's website is one of the most successful in Switzerland.
Although detailed usage figures are not available for all websites, the success of www.sf drs.ch alone gives an idea of the popularity that SRG also enjoys on the Internet. According to last year's MA Comis by Wemf, the SF 1 and SF 2 site is the most popular media site in German-speaking Switzerland, even ahead of blick.ch.
If the radio and TV sites in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino were also included, SRG would easily come close to the Swiss market leader blue win.ch, whose widest user base (WNK) of 859,000 people is only around twice as large as that of sfdrs.ch.
But this is precisely the big problem with SRG's internet presence: everything is loosely scattered on over half a dozen individual sites. Combined in a joint portal, this would create a concentrated offering - and a platform that is also ideal for commercialization.
In the portal issue, the
Publisuisse no ear for music
This is why Publisuisse Director Ingrid Deltenre emphasized the importance of the Internet for SRG more than a year ago in an interview with Facts and expressed her desire for this potential to be tapped quickly. Last November, she announced in WerbeWoche (WW 42/00) that decisions would soon be taken to clear the way for the launch of a joint SRG platform. Deltenre's dream: an SRG portal that brings together all the power of the currently still separate offerings. And can be marketed. The idea, concept and business plan - everything is ready for implementation in Publisuisse's drawers.
But the initiative has come to a standstill. A decision in principle should have been made in mid-January as to whether the individual sites would move towards a joint portal or not. But nothing has happened. Deltenre told WerbeWoche that she was no longer responsible for the portal issue and that she was not allowed to provide any information on the matter.
Does this mean that the dream of an SRG portal is definitely off the table? SRG spokesperson Josefa Haas puts it into perspective: "The Publisuisse proposal is being looked at and discussed at management level. However, no decisions have yet been made for or against it. But it is still being intensively analyzed and discussed", she says and specifies with a view to a joint portal: "If we see that certain issues need to be regulated nationally, then the decision lies with the management". But for the moment at least, the individual departments within SRG seem to have once again fully asserted their proverbial garden-variety thinking.
Service for fee payers, not an independent offer
The common path was planned. After all, Radio DRS boss Walter Rüegg, the SRG's leading man when it comes to Internet offerings, was also supposed to pull the strings for tying the various sites together. But instead of a joint approach, it will now be a solo effort, at least for the time being: Rüegg will launch a new Internet offering for Radio DRS this summer.
Nevertheless, SRG spokesperson Haas does not want to talk about a lack of willingness to cooperate between the company units. "Those responsible for the Internet regularly exchange information within SRG SSR," she says.
At the same time, she recalls SRG's strategy when it comes to new technologies. A step-by-step approach was deliberately chosen. "We want to monitor developments carefully and not rush into new technologies that have not yet gained widespread acceptance in the market," says Haas.
She emphasizes a central task: "The internet offerings are clearly positioned as a service for fee payers: Another channel on which they can consume products for which they already pay fees and receive additional information about them."
However, this only applies to those SRG customers who know how to find what they are looking for. As long as the sites are not combined in one portal, there is no transparency about the entire offering. SRG mentions two main access points to which all individual websites are linked: At the international level, the swissinfo.org site of Swiss Radio International, and at the national level, the srg.ch site. However, the latter is primarily reserved for corporate communication, and swissinfo.org is also unlikely to be known to the public as a point of entry from which one can access the sites of the various SRG departments.
The fact that the Internet offers are not advertised at all or only very quietly makes the search more difficult. Despite the lack of promotion, the public is already making ample use of them. Haas estimates that more than 100,000 audio and video files are downloaded from the various sites every month. An astonishing figure when you consider how poor the quality of video streaming is today - and proof of a widespread and growing need to be able to consume programs in a time-shifted manner.
But despite these rosy prospects, the plethora of various sites remains scattered in the SRG cosmos for the time being. At least Publisuisse boss Ingrid Deltenre has been given a treat: The individual sites may now be commercialized.
This is an important step, as until now banner advertising has only been sold on sfdrs.ch and even then only very cautiously. However, even with this opening, the SRG departments will retain the say, as Publisuisse must negotiate separately with each business unit as to whether and how commercialization takes place.
Top media sites in Switzerland1
At SRG, every webmaster's dream comes true: content in abundance, produced daily for the more than a dozen radio and TV programs, is also available for their Internet sites. And with an estimated 15 million page impressions per month, SRG's website is one of the most successful in Switzerland.
Although detailed usage figures are not available for all websites, the success of www.sf drs.ch alone gives an idea of the popularity that SRG also enjoys on the Internet. According to last year's MA Comis by Wemf, the SF 1 and SF 2 site is the most popular media site in German-speaking Switzerland, even ahead of blick.ch.
If the radio and TV sites in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino were also included, SRG would easily come close to the Swiss market leader blue win.ch, whose widest user base (WNK) of 859,000 people is only around twice as large as that of sfdrs.ch.
But this is precisely the big problem with SRG's internet presence: everything is loosely scattered on over half a dozen individual sites. Combined in a joint portal, this would create a concentrated offering - and a platform that is also ideal for commercialization.
In the portal issue, the
Publisuisse no ear for music
This is why Publisuisse Director Ingrid Deltenre emphasized the importance of the Internet for SRG more than a year ago in an interview with Facts and expressed her desire for this potential to be tapped quickly. Last November, she announced in WerbeWoche (WW 42/00) that decisions would soon be taken to clear the way for the launch of a joint SRG platform. Deltenre's dream: an SRG portal that brings together all the power of the currently still separate offerings. And can be marketed. The idea, concept and business plan - everything is ready for implementation in Publisuisse's drawers.
But the initiative has come to a standstill. A decision in principle should have been made in mid-January as to whether the individual sites would move towards a joint portal or not. But nothing has happened. Deltenre told WerbeWoche that she was no longer responsible for the portal issue and that she was not allowed to provide any information on the matter.
Does this mean that the dream of an SRG portal is definitely off the table? SRG spokesperson Josefa Haas puts it into perspective: "The Publisuisse proposal is being looked at and discussed at management level. However, no decisions have yet been made for or against it. But it is still being intensively analyzed and discussed", she says and specifies with a view to a joint portal: "If we see that certain issues need to be regulated nationally, then the decision lies with the management". But for the moment at least, the individual departments within SRG seem to have once again fully asserted their proverbial garden-variety thinking.
Service for fee payers, not an independent offer
The common path was planned. After all, Radio DRS boss Walter Rüegg, the SRG's leading man when it comes to Internet offerings, was also supposed to pull the strings for tying the various sites together. But instead of a joint approach, it will now be a solo effort, at least for the time being: Rüegg will launch a new Internet offering for Radio DRS this summer.
Nevertheless, SRG spokesperson Haas does not want to talk about a lack of willingness to cooperate between the company units. "Those responsible for the Internet regularly exchange information within SRG SSR," she says.
At the same time, she recalls SRG's strategy when it comes to new technologies. A step-by-step approach was deliberately chosen. "We want to monitor developments carefully and not rush into new technologies that have not yet gained widespread acceptance in the market," says Haas.
She emphasizes a central task: "The internet offerings are clearly positioned as a service for fee payers: Another channel on which they can consume products for which they already pay fees and receive additional information about them."
However, this only applies to those SRG customers who know how to find what they are looking for. As long as the sites are not combined in one portal, there is no transparency about the entire offering. SRG mentions two main access points to which all individual websites are linked: At the international level, the swissinfo.org site of Swiss Radio International, and at the national level, the srg.ch site. However, the latter is primarily reserved for corporate communication, and swissinfo.org is also unlikely to be known to the public as a point of entry from which one can access the sites of the various SRG departments.
The fact that the Internet offers are not advertised at all or only very quietly makes the search more difficult. Despite the lack of promotion, the public is already making ample use of them. Haas estimates that more than 100,000 audio and video files are downloaded from the various sites every month. An astonishing figure when you consider how poor the quality of video streaming is today - and proof of a widespread and growing need to be able to consume programs in a time-shifted manner.
But despite these rosy prospects, the plethora of various sites remains scattered in the SRG cosmos for the time being. At least Publisuisse boss Ingrid Deltenre has been given a treat: The individual sites may now be commercialized.
This is an important step, as until now banner advertising has only been sold on sfdrs.ch and even then only very cautiously. However, even with this opening, the SRG departments will retain the say, as Publisuisse must negotiate separately with each business unit as to whether and how commercialization takes place.
Top media sites in Switzerland1
Site WNK2sfdrs.ch 419000
blick.ch 417000
tages-anzeiger.ch 305000
nzz.ch 255000
tv3.ch 176000
sundayview.ch 170000
facts.ch 169000
cash.ch 150000
observer.ch 143000
bettybossi.ch 135000
sundaynewspaper.ch 121000
1 Source: Wemf, MA Comis 2000; 2 Widest circle of users: Number of people who have used the website in the last six months.
Web offers of the srg
Site Unternehmenseinheitwww.srg.ch SRG SSR idée suisse
www.swissinfo.org Swiss Radio International
www.sfdrs.ch SF DRS
www.drs.ch Radio DRS
www.tsr.ch Télévision Suisse Romande
www.rsr.ch Radio Suisse Romande
www.rtsi.ch Radio Televisione di Lingua Italiana
