CH Media, Sunrise UPC partnership
March 4, 2022
CH Media and Sunrise UPC are entering into a long-term strategic partnership to drive the expansion of Swiss streaming service, oneplus, from CH Media and to enhance the portfolio and the customer offering of Sunrise UPC.
As part of the new partnership, oneplus will become an integral component of the Sunrise product range in the summer of 2022. oneplus offers thousands of hours of streaming content with exclusive Swiss originals, in-house productions from CH Media, previews of popular 3+ productions, Swiss feature films and international Hollywood blockbusters, popular series, documentaries and a range of children’s programmes.
Furthermore, in the area of domestic TV, CH Media will become the main partner of MySports – the sports entertainment range offered by Sunrise UPC with a focus on ice hockey – when it comes to broadcasting NHL games on free TV. The collaboration will benefit from the fact that MySports has acquired the full media rights for the League starting from the 2022/23 season. TV24 can look forward to regular season and playoff games broadcast live on free TV as well as regular highlight shows produced by MySports.
As part of the collaboration, Sunrise UPC will acquire a 20 per cent share in the CH media subsidiary CH Media TV AG, which includes all domestic channel brands of CH Media (3+, 4+, 5+, 6+, 7+, TV24, TV25 and S1) and the streaming service oneplus as well as the corresponding content.
On top of his roles as Managing Director of Entertainment and member of the executive management team of CH Media, Roger Elsener will serve as CEO of the new joint venture. In this new role, he will report to the company’s Board of Directors, which is yet to be appointed.
“With its acquisition of the 3+ Group, CH Media has become the market leader among private Swiss TV channels. We are delighted about the partnership with Sunrise UPC and are certain that, together, we will be able to accelerate our growth with our new brand oneplus, especially in the streaming market,” says Axel Wüstmann, CEO of CH Media.
André Krause, CEO of Sunrise UPC, commented: “Sunrise UPC is in an excellent position in the TV and entertainment market. The strategic partnership with CH Media will help us reach the next level. With oneplus, customers will benefit from a unique streaming offer. At the same time, with CH Media we are gaining a strong partner for the optimal distribution on free TV of high-quality ice hockey content produced by MySports. This will clearly set us apart from the competition in a hotly contested market.”
“The collaboration with Sunrise UPC will push the growth of oneplus on the way to the big screen and help it become one of the biggest and most innovative TV platforms in Switzerland. This will enable us to produce even more appealing Swiss content and significantly expand oneplus. Furthermore, we’re looking forward to the National League playoffs and the joint development of new, innovative content and marketing strategies,” added Elsener.