SRG initiative "200 francs are enough!" submitted

In 13 months, the committee has collected over 128,000 certified signatures. The initiative demands that radio and television fees be limited from CHF 335 per household and year to CHF 200.

For Marco Chiesa, member of the Council of States and president of the SVP Switzerland, the initiative is overdue: "With the initiative, we want to achieve a correction: The device-independent radio and television fees of 335 francs per household and year to should be reduced to 200 francs. This is because the range of media on offer has changed considerably, as has the way the population uses the media."

"The initiative is important because it exempts companies and businesses from the SRG fee," says National Councilor Daniela Schneeberger (FDP), Vice President of the SGV. Today, companies pay a turnover-based SRG levy. Schneeberger sees the levy as an inadmissible double taxation of entrepreneurs: "Entrepreneurs already pay the SRG levy as private individuals. With the fee obligation of businesses, entrepreneurs and tradespeople pay the fee twice."

The SRG initiative "200 francs are enough!" brings the necessary fundamental discussion about the definition and the scope of the "public service" in the media sector, says the statement of the initiators. This is urgently needed because, in the opinion of the committee, SRG is currently active in market areas that are not part of its licensed mandate. All citizens would benefit from the fee reduction, but especially the young and single households. By abolishing fees for companies, the initiative would also bring relief for Switzerland as a business location. At the same time, the popular initiative takes linguistic minorities into account. The financial equalization should continue to enable programs of equal value, such as those of the Swiss-German radio and television SRF, it continues.