Partial revision of the Swiss Film Act (Art. 19 FiG): Extension of the “one-distributor-clause”

On January 1, 2016 an extension of the Swiss “one-distributor-clause” came into force which now goes beyond theatrical rights. Until now a distributor had to acquire the theatrical rights for the original version and all language versions spoken in Switzerland to be able to exploit the film theatrically in all these versions. To strengthen the diversity in films and multilingualism, this rule has now been extended so that only distributors are permitted per film title and exploitation channel including video-on-demand and the like if they hold the rights in their respective exploitation channel to all language versions that are exploited in Switzerland, i.e. the original version as well as dubbed or subtitled versions including the Swiss national languages German, Italian and French for the entire territory of Switzerland. Thus only linear television will be excluded from the “one-distributor-clause” in the future.