Teleclub was a brand name of a premium television offering in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Founded in 1982, it was one of the longest established providers of such in Europe. At present time the service is only available in Switzerland. The service is owned by Blue Entertainment AG (formerly known as CT Cinetrade AG), a fully owned subsidiary of telecommunication company

Swisscom Swisscom AG is a major telecommunications provider in Switzerland. Its headquarters are located in Ittigen near Bern. The Swiss government owns 51.0 percent of Swisscom AG. According to its own published data, Swisscom holds a market share of ...

. Teleclub provides their services as a stand-alone product through the Swiss

DVB-C Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable (DVB-C) is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 family digital audio/digital video stream, using a QAM ...

Television Network via a self-branded

Set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of s ...

called "Teleclub Digital Receiver" and a viewing card which is a CI+ NDS VideoGuard Smart Card The two types available are the Kaon and ADB Set Top Boxes, Teleclub also provides their service through alongside other Cable Television and IPTV platforms with exclusive packages for each TV service. In Switzerland Teleclub has agreements with

UPC Cablecom UPC was the largest cable operator in Switzerland with around 1.1 million residential and business customers and was formed in 1994 through the merger of several cable operators. UPC has been a subsidiary of Liberty Global since 2005. On 27 Feb ...

and

TV. Teleclub also provides

Video On Demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

services (Teleclub On Demand and Teleclub Play) exclusively to the Swisscom TV service. In 2005, Swisscom acquired a minority share in Teleclub's parent company CT Cinetrade. In May 2013, Swisscom increased its share in CT Cinetrade from 49% to 75%. At the beginning of 2006, television broadcasting rights for the highest Swiss football and ice hockey league were awarded to Cinetrade and Teleclub for the first time in

. In 2016 Teleclub extended its contract with the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 seaso ...

. Teleclub also shows top matches of the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to the Super League, while th ...

exclusively for Switzerland, as well as all

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

and

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

matches. In

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

, Teleclub also covers the NHL, the

Champions Hockey League The Champions Hockey League is a European first-level ice hockey tournament. Launched in the 2014–15 season by 26 clubs, 6 leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the tournament features top teams across Europe. Backgrou ...

, the IIHF World Championship and the Swiss Ice Hockey Cup. Since July 2017, Teleclub has been operating the free TV sports channel Teleclub Zoom with exclusive sports content, live broadcasts, in-house productions and background stories, in German and French. On 12 September 2012, Teleclub launched its French-language offers especially for Romandy. In November 2017, Swisscom acquired the remaining share of 25% in CT Cinetrade from its founder Stephan Sager, fully owning Teleclub's parent company. In July 2020, Swisscom and UPC made an agreement in order to provide their sport bouquets in each of their two competitive networks. In September 2020, Swisscom announced a major rebrand of its entertainment offerings: this included the renaming of Teleclub as Blue+, and all Teleclub linear channels were renamed to carry Swisscom's Blue brand. The Kitag Cinemas chain of film theatres (a sister operation in CT Cinetrade) became , as the IPTV service Swisscom TV was also becoming

Blue TV Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when o ...

. The Blue offers are available in OTT and on different providers including UPC and

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology A ...

. CT Cinetrade was subsequently renamed

Blue Entertainment Blue Entertainment AG (formerly known as CT Cinetrade AG) is a Swiss media company owned by telecommunication provider Swisscom. The company specialised in film and sport programming rights for television. Blue Entertainment's businesses includ ...

References

External links

* of Blue+ {{CATV Europe Television networks in Switzerland Mass media companies established in 1982 Television channels and stations established in 1982 2017 mergers and acquisitions