DRS Schweizer Fernsehen
www.sfdrs.ch
sfdrs@sfdrs.ch

European Broadcasting Union
www.ebu.ch
ebu@ebu.ch

Radio Televisione Svizzera di Lingua Italiana – RTSI
www.rtsi.ch

Schweizer Fernsehen DRS
www.sfdrs.ch
sfdrs@sfdrs.ch

Swiss Broadcasting Corp (SBC)
www.srgssrideesuisse.ch
info@swissinfo.ch

Télévision Suisse Romande (Focal)
www.tsr.ch

Telezurich AG
www.telezurich.ch
input@telezurich.ch

Star TV
www.startv.ch

Teleclub AG
www.teleclub.ch

Switzerland (population 7,300,000)

The linguistic spectrum in Switzerland serves only to complicate audience share figures at the end of this section. SBC/SRG started broadcasting in 1958, and 1965 saw the advent of Swiss commercial TV. SRG SSR idée Suisse was streamlined in 1993 to eradicate its heavily bureaucratic infrastructure. It is a non-profitmaking organisation in principle, and gains are reinvested. It’s not technically a state institution, but obviously carries a public service remit, and is in ownership of 18 radio stations and 7 TV channels in several languages. German-speaking Switzerland provides 71% of licence fee revenue, yet only 45% of resources are returned.

From 1999, TV-3 and RTL/Pro 7 challenged SRG SSR, but commercial operators provide little competition. Teleclub and Star TV are film/film promotion channels, and Swizz is the local MTV, with an accent on the local scene. Sat 1 Schweiz is broadcast from Germany and Presse-TV is a Swiss window channel on SF DRS-2.

The SRG provides programmes for 3-sat, TV-5 Europe, TV-3 Canada and RaiSat. The SRG broadcasts in German and Romansch (SF DRS), French (TSR) and Italian (TSI). Both youth and minority groups are represented, but films and sport are popular. Culture and education enjoys 10% of SRG SSR airtime, entertainment gets 5% and music 2%. Roughly 80% of households have cable or satellite, which naturally promotes foreign TV, much of it in German.

Market share             German                   French                       Italian

Public

SRG SSR 42 %         40%                            40%

Prime time                 SF DRS-1 35%         TSR-1 5%                  TSI-1 32%

SF DRS-2 6%           TSR-2 5%                  TSI-2 5%                   

Private                       9%                              0%                              1%

Foreign                      50%                            59%                            59%

Amongst which…      RTL 7%                      TF1 16%                    Canale 5 14%

Market leaders

ARD 6            %                     M6 9%                        Rai 1 11%

Pro 7 5%                    F2 8%                         Italia 1 7%

ZDF 4%                      F3 7%                         Rai 2 ^%

Above section appears to be in wrong columns, but this is how figures were published.