SUSANNE WENGER The science programme on the radio? Cancelled. The society programme on the TV? Discontinued. When Swiss German television and radio cut programmes last year to save money, it was met with uproar. Researchers filed a petition, and creative artists expressed their concern. The angriest backlash, however, was triggered when SRG SSR stopped broadcasting in ultra-short wave (USW) in late 2024 and switched entirely to digital. Half a million listeners left and switched 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 tax of 335 francs to 200 francs per household. SRG SSR, whose operating revenue was 1.56 billion francs in 2024, finances 80 per Media shift and spending caps: Swiss broadcasting is under pressure Changes in media usage, rounds of cost-cutting and job cuts: the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), Switzerland’s publicly financed media company, is facing some major challenges. On 8 March 2026, the public will vote on an initiative that could halve SRG SSR’s budget. What would the ramifications be for our quadrilingual nation and the “Fifth Switzerland”? to private radio stations and foreign broadcasters. In a subsequent U-turn, the parliament decided to maintain USW broadcasting for longer than originally scheduled, at which point SRG SSR announced it was returning to the analogue radio waves. 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 How much sport SRG SSR can and should continue to broadcast live is also a matter of intense debate ahead of the vote. Pictured here: the 2025 men’s downhill at Wengen. Photo: Keystone Swiss Review / February 2026 / No.1 4 Focus
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