Media release: Zattoo continues to offer replay TV without additional fees and introduces skip function for TV commercials

Zurich, Sept. 15 - Last year, TV broadcasters and distributors reached a legal industry agreement as part of the so-called Joint Tariff 12 (GT12) that will ensure the future availability of time-shifted TV content in Switzerland.  The aim of the agreement is to compensate for the advertising revenues that are lost due to the fast-forwarding of commercial breaks.

Zattoo will continue to offer 7 days of replay TV without additional fees 

The industry agreement allows for either additional advertising or a higher license fee  paid by the distributors to the broadcasters for the future use of replay TV. Each broadcaster decides for itself how to implement this agreement on its own platform. Under the agreement, Zattoo will continue to offer 7 days of replay TV without any additional fees to its Swiss users. This means that Zattoo will not increase the prices for its own subscription models and these will remain as before at CHF 20 per month for the Ultimate subscription and CHF 12 per month for the Premium subscription. Zattoo will not charge an additional fee for Replay TV.  

"As part of the industry agreement, we continue to offer our users a comprehensive and convenient TV experience without increasing the price. With the introduction of the new skip function in 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.

New skip function to jump over TV commercials

In the Ultimate subscription Zattoo provides as usual 7 days of ad-free replay TV without additional fees. This is possible because Zattoo will not pass on to its subscribers the monthly license fee for Replay usage defined in the industry agreement and will instead pay for it itself. In addition, Zattoo will immediately improve the user experience for time-shifted content in the Ultimate subscription by integrating a new skip function: As soon as the usual TV commercial block starts in the current stream, a skip button will be displayed and the entire commercial block will be jumped over by clicking on the button. The skip function is available for all stations that have signed the industry agreement. The technical implementation which might be incomplete for some broadcasters at launch time will follow quickly after. For all other stations, the commercial break can be skipped as usual. 

Premium subscription with short commercial clips instead of the usual commercial break

In the future, there will also be no extra charge for time-shifted content in the Premium subscription. Instead, before a show starts on replay TV, commercials will be displayed for a maximum of 20 seconds. If a show is paused, static advertising will be shown during this time. As soon as viewers reach the station's TV commercial block during a program in progress and they want to fast-forward through it, a short commercial will follow along with a few commercial clips no longer than 130 seconds. This means that even in the premium subscription, viewers do not have to watch the entire commercial of several minutes, but only a few short spots. Under the Joint Tariff 12, all revenues from the additional commercials are passed on in full to the TV broadcasters. 

The changes in the Ultimate and Premium subscriptions apply to all broadcasters that have signed the joint industry agreement. An overview of the participating broadcasters is available by clicking here. For all other broadcasters, the use of Replay TV remains unchanged, including the ability to fast-forward through commercials. 

For users of the ad-financed Zattoo Free model, nothing will change in the future as a result of the Joint Tariff 12, as Replay TV will continue as before to not be available.

Further information on the implementation of the Joint Tariff 12 at Zattoo can be found here.

Pictures can be downloaded here.
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