"Cobbler, stick to your last..."

The TPC's expansion plans are causing unrest in the contract film industry. Urs Wäckerli, President of the Association of Swiss Film and Video Producers (SFVP), has taken the pulse of his members and sent the following statement to WerbeWoche: "It seems somehow strange when the TPC, as a technical service provider for Swiss television DRS, suddenly claims in double-sided, four-color advertisements that it has the professional know-how for image films, commercials, corporate films, training films, etc. It then falls back on the TPC itself. The silly slogan "Anyone can make corporate TV these days" then falls back on the TPC itself. Because good films need good filmmakers! Incidentally, this also applies to commissioned films and commercials. With the professional hardware that the TPC, as a subsidiary of SRG, has in abundance, only a professional filmmaker can make a professional film.
We film producers at SFVP have been warning our clients for years about the so-called "field, forest and meadow producers" who offer film productions at dumping prices without any profound professional experience.
If an aggressive TPC offers itself specifically for fast and cheaply made commissioned productions, caution is also required.
We are now aware of a number of examples where the TPC has booted out independent producers with offers that are far too low. We do not know whether this is possible thanks to hidden cross-subsidization through concession money or out of sheer desperation over too much unused hardware. However, we will continue to keep an eye on the TPC's business practices. Furthermore, it is fundamentally questionable whether SRG's statutory public service mandate is compatible with the shirt-sleeve aggressive business practices of a TPC.
Up to now, we independent producers have sometimes rented hardware and technicians from the TPC. This is now likely to change just as abruptly as the film technology company TPC has become a production company overnight. Urs Wäckerli