No more free of charge: City of Zurich wants to make SRG pay

The city council wants to adjust the building lease contract for this. The Swiss Radio and Television Company SRG is now to pay 159,000 francs per year, as the city announced on Wednesday. Whether this amount is due, the City Council will decide in one of its upcoming meetings.

However, the contract adjustment should be undisputed. After all, SRG caused quite a few red faces in the city of Zurich last spring. The city was looking for a site for schools, kindergartens and affordable housing and was interested in an SRG site. However, SRG did not award the contract to the city of Zurich, but to the insurance group Swiss Life. (Werbewoche.ch reported).

SRG earned millions with land sale

SRG earned 81 million francs - twice as much as the city could offer. And this despite the fact that "Leutschenbach" has been located on city land free of charge since 1963. As a tit-for-tat response, the contract is now to be amended. But the city does not want to call it that. It found another way to ask SRG to pay. In the contract, the use is limited to the production of television programs, the city council said. However, SRG intends to move the Brunnenhof radio studio near Bucheggplatz to Leutschenbach. This is planned for 2021.

"Intense negotiations"

Under the title "Radio Hall" a hall, where today production vehicles are located, is to be converted into a radio studio. This use is not provided for in the contract, writes the city council. For this reason, "intensive negotiations" have been held with SRG about an adjustment of the building lease contract.

It was then agreed that the SRG would be allowed to use part of the municipal land for the radio studio, but in return an annual building lease interest of 159,000 francs would be due. The savings hoped for by the SRG through this move are thus painfully diminished. (SDA)