Replay TV
From 4 October, Swiss customers will no longer have the option to automatically skip the adverts on some channels. This is due to the new industry agreement and the adapted legal framework for Replay TV. Swisscom is therefore launching the new Replay Comfort option costing CHF 6.90 per month, allowing customers to skip commercials with pinpoint accuracy at the touch of a button and dispensing with the new start and pause adverts.
From 4 October 2022, Swiss TV customers can no longer skip the adverts on Replay TV on some channels. In addition, there will a seven-second commercial at the start of every Replay programme. This is due to the new industry agreement, which is a compromise allowing providers to continue to offer the popular Replay TV function. In addition, TV providers need to pay a higher fee for Replay TV.
But the good news is that Swisscom customers can continue to watch Replay TV on the majority of TV channels without fixed commercial breaks. At present, around 20 German and Swiss private TV channels are planning to roll out the new advertising options, although very few French and Italian-language channels currently intend to do so. People will still be able to skip the vast majority of adverts but channels can now stop viewers from skipping up to four minutes of ads per broadcast hour, up to a maximum of 130 seconds per commercial break. Thousands of ad-free series, feature films and children’s programmes will continue to be available on demand from the free blue Play media library.
Swisscom is launching Replay Comfort for all customers who want to watch Replay TV without the new advertising formats. This option costs CHF 6.90 per month and allows customers to skip commercial breaks on Replay TV with pinpoint accuracy at the touch of a button. Viewers avoid adverts at the start of the Replay programme or when the pause button is pressed. The programme begins at the very start, dispensing with the current time-consuming practice of skipping to the correct point. There is no minimum term associated with this option. Customers can subscribe at any time and cancel it again by giving one month’s notice.
In the future, customers with 30 hours of Replay as part of their subscription will not be able to skip the commercials during Replay programmes, as the new industry agreement no longer provides for a corresponding billing plan. Swisscom will notify affected customers of this change in good time.
Current copyright law requires all TV providers to recompense channels for any time-delayed viewing of their content. The tariff for this is agreed between the user associations (Suissedigital and Swissstream) and the collecting societies (ProLitteris, SSA Société Suisse des Auteurs, SUISA, SUISSIMAGE and SWISSPERFORM). In June 2020, the collecting societies and the user associations agreed a higher tariff (joint tariff 12) that regulates time-delayed viewing in Switzerland on the basis of the Federal Copyright Act.
The industry agreement is an agreement between broadcasters and channels, which ensures that time-delayed viewing can continue in Switzerland in its current form in the future. At the end of 2018, the National Council asked the broadcasters and channels to reach an amicable resolution. The new advertising formats are designed to compensate the channels for financial losses incurred as a result of viewers skipping the adverts on Replay TV.
The following advertising options have been introduced:
