Did Radio Energy manipulate numbers?
Private radio stations are required to submit detailed annual lists of their revenues and expenses to the federal government—and now, according to the Sonntagszeitung, there are doubts about the figures provided by Radio Energy Zürich.
The station had reported massively declining advertising revenues to the federal government in recent years - even though revenues in the market had risen at most stations since 2010. According to the 2010 figures, Energy Zurich generated advertising revenue of just over CHF 10 million. Two years later, it was still 4.8 million. Advertising also shrank by 32 percent at Energy Bern, the article says.
The research agency Publicom had also stated in a report that among the declared figures of the broadcasters were also "not very plausible" revenue losses. However, Dani Büchi, managing director of the Energy Group, attaches importance to the statement that the license fees have been declared legally valid by the federal government.
The reason for the deviation was primarily due to the "reorganization of the Energy Group. According to Büchi, there are deviations at almost all radio stations, but they are not noticeable because the structures at the other radio stations have been unchanged for years and the stations do not pursue online and events activities to the same extent, which have nothing to do with the classic radio business.
Insiders counter Büchi: It cannot be that sales are collapsing because of the outsourcing of advertising acquisition - they doubt the self-declaration, according to the Sonntagszeitung.
