Swiss platforms Sunrise and yallo will begin including commercials as part of their Replay TV services when a new copyright agreement comes into force next month.
From October 4, 2022, Sunrise TV customers who do not want to see commercials shown with Replay TV can continue watching Replay TV, sometimes called Startover, on the participating channels as before by choosing the Skip Ads option (CHF 7.90/month). For yallo TV customers, this option is available with TV Comfort (CHF 7.95/month).
The participating channels are 4+, 5+, 6+, 7+ Family, NICK Schweiz, kabel eins, NITRO, and VOX.
The agreement, reached between industry associations Suissedigital and Swissstream and the copyright collection agencies allows the channels to use new advertising formats to compensate for the revenue lost if commercials are skipped when viewing Replay TV. Sunrise is implementing this agreement within its new offers from October 4 onwards.
The new formats include:
- Start ads: a short ad (approx. 7–10 seconds) shown at the start of the TV program in Replay TV mode
- Fast-forward ads: ads (maximum 3.5 minutes) shown if the commercial break originally in the program is fast-forwarded in Replay TV mode
- Pause ads: picture-in-picture ads shown if the pause button is pressed during live or Replay TV and that disappear when the program is resumed
Once Replay TV mode has been ended, the Replay advertising will also end. - However, the TV streaming provider Zattoo says it will continue to offer 7 days of Replay TV for its Ultimate and Premium subscription in Switzerland. Prices for both subscription models will not be increased.
“As part of the industry agreement, we continue to offer our users a comprehensive and convenient TV service without increasing the price. With the introduction of the new Skip-Feature provided with the Ultimate subscription, we are even improving the user experience for Replay TV and time-shifted content,” explains Constanze Gilles, General Manager Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) at Zattoo.
With the Ultimate subscription, Zattoo is also improving the user experience for Replay TV and introducing a Skip-Feature for skipping TV commercials.
