Online news offer is also improved as part of the new RTS tv/radio broadcasting services
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Swiss television and radio stations owned by the public broadcasting company SSR all have new logos 29 February to mark the convergence of radio and television into one national entity.
The change coincides with the arrival today of high-definition television in the country. Home TV viewers are likely to first notice, in many cases, that their channels have moved.
The new logos and names feature on re-designed web sites that combine radio and television: RTS in French, SRF in German, RSI in Italian and RTR in Romantsch. The new sites feature better access to TV and radio broadcasts.
Programming is gradually undergoing a number of changes, but the arrival of six television networks in high definition (HD), out of parent company SSR’s eight networks, is a key move: prime time, sitcoms and dramas, co-produced documentaries, major prime time specials are now all HD. Standard broadcasting will continue in parallel for these networks until at least 2015 to give viewers three years to change their television sets.
Sports and news to follow, to complete the move to HD
The HD broadcasts have a visual and sound quality that is five times superior to that of standard broadcasts, according to RTS.
A disappointment for football fans who plan to tune in Wednesday night to the Swiss-Argentina match in Bern is that sports will get HD only 4 May.
RTS will become 100 percent HD in September 2014 when the news is added.
Information about HD and how to make changes to your settings are available in French, German and Italian (not English).
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – TV writer and commentator Andy Rooney, possibly the longest-serving television personality around, has ended his TV career at age 92. His final “60 Minutes” show for CBS in the US aired Sunday night 2 October. He began his career in 1949, writing for the “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” show and he has worked for “60 Minutes”, where he gained a reputation for being smart and grouchy, since 1978.
“There’s nobody like Andy, and there never will be. He’ll hate hearing this, but he’s an American original,” said CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager said in a press release.
Rooney has quit the show and television, but he’s not retiring, he says, pointing out that a writer never retires.
Links to other sites: CNN, Hollywood Today, Washington Post on Rooney’s best essays
Morley Safer interviews Rooney on CBS
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a Sunday night television address to the country’s citizens that he has no intention of stepping aside under pressure from Western nations and the UN, but he promised reforms, including elections in February.
Reuters reports that the reluctance of the Gaza Strip’s Hamas organization, based in Damascus, Syria, to publicly show support for the Syrian government, has led to Iran pulling out its funding, leaving Hamas with a cash shortage. Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, counts on a mix of foreign aid and taxes collected in the Gaza Strip, but revenues from taxes have been “inconsistent” according to the news agency.
Wine and beer now allowed on radio, TV
More ads, different spots - and a drop of wine on Swiss TV, radio
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ofcom, the Swiss federal communications supervisor, will issue directives during the summer of 2010 for more advertising space and time on radio and television. The new regulations will bring Switzerland into line with European neighbours, who have more advertising time, in order not to create a disadvantage, in particular for Swiss public TV and radio.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - RSR radio and TSR television will be reborn as RTS, Radio Télévision Suisse in January, when the regional media will merge. The two are part of the SSR group, Switzerland’s public media company. The merger was announced Wednesday 25 November to staff at the two stations in Lausanne and Geneva.
A savings of CHF6 million for a total budget of CHF392m is expected, with the money to be put into programming. The merger will also result in 30 jobs lost out of 1,600 (fulltime equivalent: 2,000 actual jobs), but over a period of five years.
Shared Internet news ok, but not on radio and TV
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The merger of TSR, public television in French-speaking Switzerland, and RSR, public radio, is meeting some resistance from cantonal governments, which insist the two editorial teams must remain separate and independent. Vaud and Geneva, in a joint statement released Monday 23 November, say they would also like to see the traditional roles maintained of Lausanne as a radio centre and Geneva as a television centre. The statement was made in advance of today’s presentation of the merger project to the board of SSR, the parent company.
Swiss TV news on computer
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s federal communications office (Ofcom) director, Martin Dumermuth, told the Berner Zeitung newspaper Thursday that he plans to propose in January a change to the current license fee regulations. Owners of television sets and radios are subject to fees, but Dumermuth would like to include computer and cell phone owners. He was quick to point out that the goal is not to increase license fee revenue: the same amount would be collected, but spread among a larger group, reducing the fee for each type of equipment.
And now, a brief interruption for . . .
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - European TV and radio without borders will soon change listening and viewing habits in Switzerland as well, with the federal government proposing changes to advertising regulations to bring Switzerland in line with neighbouring countries. The new rules would allow advertising once every 90 minutes for news and political programmes and once every 30-45 minutes for other types of programmes, with a daily limit of 15 percent of all programming time for public broadcasting.
Sports and other events will be able to have advertising interruptions similar to those in the rest of Europe.
Don Hewitt, who died in New York at age 86, is a name who might not be known to households across the US, but he’s known to media people as a journalist who had a major impact on the development of US broadcast journalism: he was the creator of “60 Minutes”, arguably one of the most influential news background programmes on television, and when he left his role there in 2004 he became executive producer of CBS News. Hewitt’s career spanned nearly 60 years, most of it with CBS. The “60 Minutes” staff are preparing an hour-long show on his career, to air at 19:00 Eastern US time Sunday 23 August.
US President Barack Obama has become the first American sitting president to appear on a late night talk show, on the Jay Leno show Thursday 19 March. Obama used the talk show in order to reach ordinary Americans, according to an MSNBC report. The president spoke of personal issues such as the promise of a white house dog and how “cool” it is to fly in Air Force One, He also used the time to discuss economic reform and to promote financial regulation reform.
Critics accused Obama of being distracted from the serious issues and demeaning his office. Viewers praised his effort to give the people faith in their government in dark financial times. BBC
