Starting next season, SRG will lose all live rights to Swiss ice hockey. TV24 takes over from the CH Media Group. It is a start into the unknown for everyone involved.
The jubilant pictures after the play-off final can no longer be seen on the SRG channels from next season, but on TV24.
The final series between EV Zug and the ZSC Lions will go down as one of the best in the history of Swiss ice hockey. This is also reflected in the public interest. All seven games were sold out. In the decisive phase, thousands also followed the games in public viewing in front of the Bossard Arena and in the Hallenstadion.
The ratings for SRG were correspondingly high. The peak value for the last match was 628,000 viewers on SRF 2, which corresponded to a market share of 54 percent. Matthias Krieb, head of the payment channel MySports, was also very satisfied with the attention. But the channel does not communicate numbers.
Zug – ZSC Lions was a good affiche, the spectacular course of the final series contributed to the high level of attention. An average of 253,000 viewers watched the seven games on SRF, which corresponded to a market share of 19.8 percent. The entire play-off coverage with a total of 24 live games within a month and a half reached 2.2 million viewers on SRF, which corresponds to 42 percent of the German-speaking Swiss population.
TV24 will have to be measured against these values in the coming season. With the play-offs, SRG said goodbye to live reporting from the Swiss ice hockey championship. After negotiations with SRG got stuck, Sunrise-UPC, as the main rights holder, awarded the sub-license to the Swiss ice hockey championship to the CH Media Group and Ringier in February, which will broadcast weekly on TV24 (CH Media) or im Livestream (Ringier) each match will be broadcast live. Games will also be shown on TV24 in the play-offs.
The TV landscape is changing rapidly: innovation versus habit
It is a turning point in Swiss sports reporting. Since the introduction of the play-offs, SRG and its channels have been in the ice hockey broadcast play-offs. That is now changing. What that means for hockey remains to be seen. As before, around 30 million francs flow into ice hockey every year from the marketing of the TV rights.
Peter Zahner, CEO of the ZSC Lions, says: “Not much will change financially. But we will have to see how the change affects the distribution of the product.” Marc Gianola, CEO of HC Davos, is one of the few protagonists who are rather skeptical about the change. “There is still a base of people who habitually watch the SRG channels. Whether they will switch remains to be seen. It’s going to be an interesting test of how good our product really is.”
Markus Bütler, the managing director of the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, was also among the skeptics at the beginning. However, his concerns were dispelled when he saw the concept of secondary distribution. Two points are important to him: “We need reporting without a paywall, structural reliability and, above all, coverage in all three language regions.”
The first two points, freely accessible coverage and structural reliability, appear to be guaranteed with the cooperation between Sunrise-UPC and the CH Media Group. Starting in the coming season, TV24 will broadcast a match free of charge every Tuesday. But how Ticino and western Switzerland will be served with at least six National League teams is still open. According to the SRG, corresponding negotiations are ongoing. In Ticino, Tele Ticino, owned by Ambri President Filippo Lombardi, appears to be in pole position. A contract is expected to be signed in the coming days.
TV24 is still a niche player for the time being
The channels of the CH Media Group are growing and are already broadcasting selected matches of the Champions League with a sub-licence, such as the final on May 28th between Real Madrid and Liverpool live and exclusively in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. But according to the media research institute Mediapuls, TV24’s market share in the second half of 2021 was just 0.6 percent. SRF 2 came to 8.9 percent, SRF info at least 2.1 percent.
TV24 wants to accelerate growth with ice hockey. But as examples from abroad show, this is a difficult undertaking and not free of risks for the sport in question. It is an edge walk with a not inconsiderable risk of falling. Somewhat older consumers in particular often maintain habits that have been established for years.
The change is also being observed very closely at Postfinance, a long-standing partner of Swiss Ice Hockey. Media spokesman Rinaldo Tibolla says: “In sponsoring, we always rely on various online and offline channels. In addition to the Internet and TV, our presence in social networks is very important. In free TV, we have a long and good partnership with SRG. We are excited to see how the new rights situation will affect the public’s perception of Swiss ice hockey and our presence in the medium of free TV.” There will be answers to all these questions next spring.