Federal Council extends all radio licenses until 2024

This will provide the radio industry with the necessary stability to carry out the switchover from FM to DAB+ as planned by the end of 2024 at the latest, writes the Federal Council. The successive switch-off of FM is to begin as planned in 2020. From then on, DAB+ is to become the main distribution channel. Radio broadcasters with a public service mandate will receive guaranteed broadcasting on a DAB+ platform. At the same time, the radio licenses for digital broadcasting are to be extended until the end of 2024.

Profound change

The transition from analog to digital wireless terrestrial radio broadcasting is in full swing, writes the Federal Council in the report on the ordinance amendment. Digitization is leading to a profound change in the media industry. For this reason, the Federal Council also wants to replace the Radio and Television Act (RTVA) in the medium term with a new law on electronic media. In such a context, it does not consider it opportune to change the coverage areas, it states.

Dissemination claim

The coverage area is the area for which the licensed broadcaster must fulfill a programming performance mandate and in which it is entitled to broadcast its programming in return. Sometimes the license also grants an entitlement to a share of fees. According to the plans of the radio industry, the migration to DAB+ should be completed by the end of 2024, the Federal Council states. At the legislative level, too, the contours of the future electronic media landscape should be more clearly discernible by that time.

Digital usage on the rise

Of the 57 SRG and private radio stations previously broadcast via FM, 56 can already be received via DAB+. In addition, there are around 70 primarily complementary and music-oriented programs that were launched specifically for DAB+ or originally as Internet offerings. The audience is going with it: Since spring 2016, the share of digital radio usage has been higher than that of analog FM usage. In August 2017, digital usage was 57 percent, according to the Federal Council report. Of this, 32 percent was accounted for by DAB+ and 25 percent by use via the internet. More than 3.25 million DAB+ devices have already been sold in Switzerland.

Regular review

In view of this development, the timetable proposed by the industry for the switchover seems realistic, the Federal Council states. The RTVA gives the Federal Council the task of providing impetus for shaping the radio and television landscape. Among other things, it does this by regularly, but at the latest after ten years, reviewing the number and extent of the coverage areas in which licenses with a fee component are granted. The last adjustment was made in 2007. (SDA)