Pingu and the Emergence of Merchandising within Swiss Public Service Television

As a contribution to the history of the neoliberal shift that affected the European television landscape in the 1980s, this article highlights, through the case study of the Pingu project, how Swiss public television (SRG SSR) integrated merchandising into its missions as part of a broader institutional strategy aimed at diversifying its sources of revenue. By examining the dynamics that contributed to the rise of the Pingu series, as well as that of its multiple derivative products, both in Switzerland and abroad, it traces the mechanisms and financing model behind the development of the young penguin character. These dynamics are situated within a broader context shaped by the growing expansion of commercial practices targeting young audiences, and by the evolving institutional recognition of animation as a strategic lever for initiating co-production and to build audience loyalty among younger viewers. It thereby reveals some of the underlying stakes associated with this project, whose genesis has so far remained largely unexplored in scholarly research.

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