Emek President calls for response to industry crisis
The president of Emek, the extra-parliamentary Federal Media Commission, has called for action to address the media crisis. The discussion about direct funding for the media must continue, said Anna Jobin on Thursday at Swiss Radio Day in Zurich.
At Radio Day 2024, Emek President Anna Jobin also spoke about the increasing decoupling of advertising and journalism in the digital era and the associated challenges for the Swiss media landscape. While advertising has historically been an important source of funding for journalism, the question today is whether this role can continue to be fulfilled in the changing media world. In view of the recent redundancies at large media companies such as Tamedia, Jobin emphasized the need to rethink the financing of journalism in order to ensure media diversity (Markt-kom.com reported). "The media situation is not going to get any easier, we have to react," said Jobin. She chairs the Committee of Experts, which advises the Federal Council on media matters.
For Switzerland, which relies on direct democracy and holds votes several times a year, comprehensive and independent reporting is of central importance. Voters must be able to make their decisions on the basis of optimal information. Jobin therefore emphasized the importance of a nationwide basic service and a diverse, independent media landscape. She pointed out that today's licensing practices date back to a time when they were designed to meet the challenges of the time.
In view of the shift in media use towards digital formats such as podcasts and audio streams, it is important to rethink the legal framework so that media is available where people use it. This is the only way to ensure the long-term existence of journalism in Switzerland.
FM phase-out causes concern in French-speaking Switzerland
The most important meeting of the Swiss radio industry also dealt with the phase-out of radio broadcasting via FM. This was set by the Federal Council for the end of 2026, but will already be completed by SRG at the end of this year.
French-speaking Swiss broadcasters are concerned about the swift action. French-speaking Switzerland "has a problem, and that problem is the French radio stations", said Philippe Zahno, President of the Regional Radio of Western Switzerland (RRR). The stations in French-speaking Switzerland do not benefit from the "linguistic protection" that the Swiss-German dialect offers compared to German stations, said the Jura native.
The commercial risk of giving up FM is therefore "enormous". Listeners could decide to stay with FM and only listen to French radio stations. "We want to take advantage of the deadline until the end. We need these two years to improve the DAB offering, because French radio stations will also switch to this technology," even if the development of this offering is progressing more slowly in the neighboring country.
Zahno explained that 10 percent of listeners in French-speaking Switzerland listen to radio stations from France regularly and 40 percent occasionally. Around 15 German-language regional radio stations, in particular those belonging to the CH Media Group, also want to switch off FM at the end of the year. A dozen other German-language stations will wait until the end of 2026. (SDA/bh/swi)
