GT12 – What is this?
The German abbreviation GT12 stands for “Common Tariff 12”. There is also a “Common Tariff 1”. These common tariffs regulate the copyright fees paid to the holders of the rights to protected works such as films, texts, music, etc. All providers have to pay these fees and TV PLUS shows these fees transparently on the invoice. The GT1 fee relates to live programming and the GT12 fee covers replay TV. In 2022 there are some major changes in the GT12 tariff. These are the backgrounds:
In Switzerland, TV viewers have access to an above-average selection of TV programs. Programs can also be viewed with a time delay of up to seven days after broadcast, i.e. in replay. Replay TV is becoming more and more popular and is therefore being used more and more frequently. As a result, many users are able to skip ads. However, the TV broadcasters need the income generated by advertising to finance their programs. If this development continues in the coming years, the TV stations see their existence threatened. They are also of the opinion that this would endanger the variety of original programs in Switzerland and that in the long term there would only be pay TV. The new partial agreement of the GT12 is intended to counteract this development for the participating stations.
The GT12 fee for the variant with additionally placed short “dynamic” advertising blocks that can not be fast-forwarded and subsequent fast-forwarding of remaining advertising stays the same as before. With TV PLUS, this corresponds to the “Classic” subscription.
The new GT12 industry agreement now introduces an increase in the fee for the right to fast-forward or skip the ad commercial. This is intended to compensate the participating channels for their lost advertising revenue. The GT12 fee will be increased for the option to fast-forward or skip commercials on participating channels. In other words, this corresponds to an additional fee for television that is largely free of advertising. With TV PLUS, this corresponds to the “Top” subscription. The choice between these subscriptions is left to the TV PLUS customers.
This so-called industry agreement is therefore a compromise that is necessary so that Replay-TV can still be offered at all. Alternatively, the replay rights would have to be negotiated with each broadcaster individually, which could severely degrade the TV experience for customers.
