Good marks for Swiss radio and television
The public gives Swiss radio and television programs high marks. They are rated more highly than in previous years. Regional television, in particular, has seen an improvement. This is shown by a representative survey commissioned by the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom). The office published the study on Tuesday.
Acceptance of Swiss radio and television services remains high. TV viewers and radio listeners are even more satisfied with the programs they use than in previous years. As in the past, SRG radio stations received the highest ratings. In the latest survey, conducted in 2018, regional television programs received significantly better ratings. Such surveys have been conducted since 2009. Never before have regional television programs received such high marks. The overall assessment of local radio stations was also slightly better than the previous year.
The survey asked about professionalism, information content, local relevance, balance, credibility, entertaining nature and satisfaction. Local relevance and credibility were rated highest for local radio and regional television. Professionalism and credibility are the highest-rated characteristics among SRG radio stations and SRG television programs.
Increase in live radio usage via the Internet and time-shifted radio usage
93 percent of respondents have a conventional TV set and 83 percent have a radio set. There are significant differences, particularly in the case of radio sets: While 91 percent of the over-55 age group has a conventional radio set in the household, only 75 percent of the 15-35 age group does. Compared with the previous year, this proportion has fallen among younger people. By contrast, the proportion of those who listen to live radio via the Internet has risen significantly (from 44 to 58 percent). Time-shifted radio use has also increased sharply (from 36 to 44 percent of respondents).
Appreciation of classic journalism
The media should provide factual and accurate information. Recently, fake news, the deliberate playing out of false information, has repeatedly been uncovered and made a public issue. How do Swiss radio and TV audiences view this phenomenon? This question was included in the survey for the first time in 2018, limited to German-speaking Switzerland. The result: More than half of those surveyed consider fake news to be a problem, and 39 percent believe that fake news has an influence on votes and elections.
An in-depth data analysis shows that it is above all the credibility of SRG programs that counters the fear of fake news. This means that those who rate the credibility of SRG highly classify fake news as a problem to a lesser extent.
About the study
The Institute for Applied Communications Research (IaKom) conducted this study on behalf of Bakom. The results are based on a representative telephone survey conducted by the institute DemoSCOPE between April 30 and June 18, 2018. Demoscope conducted a total of 3653 interviews among people aged 15 and older in German, French and Italian. IaKom processed and analyzed the data and wrote the report. The results do not show any objective measurement, but rather reflect the subjective perception of the programs from the audience's point of view. The respondents rate only those programs that they actually use themselves.
The survey cost 155,196 Swiss francs. The next survey will take place in the current year.
