Media shift and spending caps: Swiss broadcasting is under pressure

With its 17 radio and seven television channels SRG SSR still reaches a daily audience of several million people. However, 95 years after it was founded, it is no longer the “nation’s campfire”, the way it once was. Previously, in the time before the internet and streaming services, SRG SSR created shared, primetime experiences. Plays in dialect and news broadcasts on the radio used to empty the streets. Saturday evening shows and Swiss series saw families gather round the TV set. Today, media usage is fragmented and individual. “The focus is switching to online, mobile and non-linear consumption,” says Ulla Autenrieth, media scientist at Graubünden University of Applied Sciences.

Initiative designed to lower taxes

SRG SSR nonetheless remains an institution that stirs emotions. In 2018, a popular initiative aimed at abolishing the mandatory media tax, which Switzerland uses to fund its media service publicly, failed at the ballot box, with over 70 per cent of voters against. The right-wing conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP), sections of the Free Democratic Party of Switzerland (FDP) and the Swiss Trade Association are now taking a new approach in their efforts to rein in SRG SSR. Their “200 Swiss francs is enough” initiative is aiming to reduce the current annual tax of 335 francs to 200 francs per household. 

The impact the savings package will have on programming remains unclear. For Wille it is a balancing act: she must make savings without alienating the supporters of public broadcasting, who want content over and beyond the pressure of ratings. She wants to digitise SRG SSR but cannot compete too fiercely with private media houses online. In any event, SRG SSR and publisher associations agreed on one thing last year: SRG SSR is to limit its online text contributions and focus on audiovisual content. SRG SSR and private stakeholders want to work together more closely, for instance in their use of technology.

Necessary or dangerous?

The vote on the 200-franc initiative is piling more pressure on SRG SSR. Proponents say that the licence fees are the highest in Europe. Zurich SVP National Councillor Thomas Matter, speaking in parliament, called it a “forced SRG SSR tax” that hit young people particularly hard, since the latter hardly watch or listen to TV and radio at all anymore. He also described the tax as an “absurd burden” on companies, saying that SRG SSR should confine itself to a “core mandate”. What this mandate would look like if SRG SSR were 800 million francs short is still a matter of debate. The wording of the initiative mentions only “radio and television programmes that provide an essential service for the general public”. Currently, SRG SSR’s constitutional mandate encompasses cultural, educational and entertainment content in addition to news.

Opponents of the initiative – a broad coalition of politicians from The Centre, FDP, the Green Liberals, the SP and the Greens alongside representatives of culture, sport and civil society – warn of far-reaching consequences. They claim that undermining an independent source of news at a time of growing disinformation from foreign platforms would threaten Switzerland’s security. Culture and sport would be losing a platform. And, above all, halving SRG SSR’s budget would mean it would be unable to maintain its federal structure and its four-language character, said coalition member and Centre National Councillor Martin Candinas of Grisons in parliament. Switzerland’s multilingual nature makes it misleading to compare the media tax with its international counterparts, opponents stress.

Voices from the debate

“Let’s finally trim down SRG SSR, with its unhealthily bloated headcount, finances and amount of power, to a sensible size.”
Thomas Matter, Zurich, SVP National Councillor

“The initiative would deprive SRG SSR of 800 million francs. That’s not a cutback; that’s razing to the ground. It would hit our rural regions.”
Josef Dittli, Uri, FDP member of the Council of States

“It’s hard to believe that, in spite of all the advances in technology, 850 million francs is not enough for a public-service broadcaster in a country of nine million inhabitants.”
Lorenzo Quadri, Ticino, Lega National Councillor

“Local reporting for even the smallest villages in Switzerland has not made financial sense for a long time now. Many editorial departments have vanished from rural and mountainous regions. We need SRG SSR as a regionally anchored, four-language media house.”
Christine Badertscher, Berne, Green National Councillor

“It is true that SRG SSR is important in the language regions that don’t have many options in terms of private media. But why should it finance such a lavish entertainment offering in German-speaking Switzerland?”
Christian Wasserfallen, Berne, FDP National Councillor

“Households contribute less than one Swiss franc a day in order to be able to enjoy radio and television. That is the minimum for high-quality content.”
Valérie Piller Carrard, Fribourg, SP National Councillor
  
  

Redistribution to linguistic minorities

SRG SSR produces content for Switzerland’s four language regions, via SRF (German), RTS (French), RSI (Italian) and RTR (Romansh), and also produces content for the foreign market through swissinfo (SWI). An internal financial redistribution process ensures that linguistic minorities continue to be catered for: of the 930 million francs that the Swiss German business sector received from the media tax in 2024, 235 million went to Ticino, 115 million to the French-speaking part of Switzerland and 20 million to the Romansh-speaking part.

If SRG SSR’s budget were halved, it would have to close most of its regional studios, the media department reports. It currently operates seven main and 17 regional studios. Reporting would more often take place from these centres: “There would be significantly less regional journalism.” Is the news for Ticino about to be produced in Zurich? The initiative’s sponsors see these warnings as exaggerated. The basic media offer for minorities is not in jeopardy, as the initiative would leave the financial redistribution intact, according to the “yes” committee. Programmes of “the same high value” will still be possible.