SRG back in the black
SRG is back in the black after five years. In 2011, it achieved a surplus of 25.75 million francs on a turnover of over 1.6 billion francs.
Cost-cutting measures, efficiency projects and good advertising revenues have helped to eliminate the long-standing deficit, SRG wrote in a press release on Thursday. Thanks to the merger of radio and television in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland, synergies are being better utilized.
Fee income was slightly above budget, according to the statement. Thanks to the robust economy, advertising income rose more strongly (+14.4 million francs). Extraordinary effects had a partly positive and partly negative impact on the annual financial statements of the parent company (excluding subsidiaries): Because Billag no longer collects fees on a quarterly basis but issues annual statements, accruals and deferrals amounting to CHF 17.9 million were reversed. The decision to relocate the SRF culture site in Basel to the city center resulted in one-off write-downs of CHF 16.5 million.
Investment in in-house productions
In the face of increasingly fierce competition, SRG invested more money (saved elsewhere) in programming: in-house productions increased from 19.9% to 21.6% of the broadcasting volume of television and radio. SRG's mandate from its concession is to contribute to the identity of our nation of will with productions from Switzerland for Switzerland. With high additional expenditure of CHF 31.7 million - because competitive Swiss productions are much more expensive than purchases on the international market - SRG has made efforts to better fulfill its mandate.
The fact that there were no World or European Championships in expensive sports or Olympic Games in 2011 had a cost-reducing effect. Thanks to the avoidance of exchange rate losses on the euro and dollar, the financial result recovered, improving by CHF 7.8 million compared to the previous year. Despite the expected slowdown in the economy and cost-intensive reporting on the European Football Championships and the Summer Olympics in London, the non-profit SRG is sticking to its goal of achieving a balanced result in 2012.
The Annual Report (annual report and accounts) will be submitted to the SRG Delegates' Meeting on May 24, 2012 for approval. In the digital age and for reasons of economy, the Annual Report will only be available online for the first time. From May 28, the annual report can be downloaded at Srgssr.ch can be viewed.
