Swiss pubcaster to launch national streamer Play Suisse

Swiss public broadcaster SSR SRG is to launch its own nationwide streaming platform. The service, Play Suisse, is scheduled to debut in November.

The platform, which has been developed by the pubcaster under the project name Rio, will offer content in all languages used in the country, but is not intended as a replacement for the individual players of the broadcaster’s constituent regional units.

The latter, which operate under the names Play RSI, Play RTR, Paly RTS, Play SRF and Play SWI, offer both regional content and include a broadcast component focused on sport and news.

Play Suisse will offer content from all language regions via a single platform but can be personalised by users.

Curated in-house content and co-productions from the regional units spanning movies, series, documentaries and news along with library content will be available in the original language with subtitles available in German, French and Italian for viewers in other parts of the country. Some titles will be available in the fourth Swiss language, Romansh.

Play Suisse is currently being tested by 50 internal users and will opened up to a wider base of employees in July. A pre-launch beta-trial involving 5,000 consumers will be able to access it from October, ahead of the planned commercial launch the following month.

“Even though the final choice of name is very obvious, the discussion about numerous options was very intense. With Play Suisse we can now further develop a platform that has a recognisable connection to our current digital offering and at the same time focuses on the whole of Switzerland. In addition, the name Play Suisse leaves scope for cooperation with external partners,” said Bakel Walden, director of development and offering and head of the SRG digital board.

“We are on track, even if there is still a lot to do before go-live. Last week we launched the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which is now being tested by 50 internal people,” said Pierre-Adrian Irlé, project manager at Play Suisse.