SRG also in the black in 2014
SRG posted a surplus of 4.8 million Swiss francs in the 2014 fiscal year. The company announced on Wednesday that while costs rose due to several major sporting events, advertising revenue also increased.
With the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the World Cup in Brazil and the European Athletics Championships in Zurich, there were several major sporting events on the schedule last year. SRG invested a total of CHF 29.3 million in broadcasting rights and production costs for these events and other sporting events, according to a SRG statement. On the other hand, thanks to the sporting events - and the high-revenue summer months - advertising revenues increased for the first time in three years, by CHF 11.7 million. Various commissioned productions also had a positive impact. For example, SRG was commissioned by the Olympic Committee to produce all the Alpine ski races in Sochi. Additional revenues from this and other commissioned productions amounted to CHF 7.5 million.
More households, higher revenues
Fee revenues increased by CHF 7.2 million year-on-year and now stand at around CHF 1.2 billion. SRG justifies the increase primarily by the rise in the number of households paying reception fees. Personnel expenses rose by CHF 13.2 million to around CHF 685 million. SRG cites higher contributions to the pension fund in the wake of the reduction in the technical interest rate from 4 to 3.25 percent as the main reason. Overall, the operating amount last year was around 1.65 billion francs - compared with 1.62 billion francs the previous year. In the current year, the company intends to further increase efficiency, position itself for the digital age and, with strict financial planning, once again aim for a balanced result. The development of the advertising market following the abolition of the minimum euro exchange rate is uncertain, the statement said.
Exchange of daytime news presenters
In its review of the year, the SRG gives a positive assessment of the more intensive reporting on the other language regions and the support for Swiss films. The exchange of teams and presenters for "Tagesschau," "Telegiornale" and the French-speaking Swiss news program "19h30" received a lot of attention and praise. The nationwide broadcast of a series about the Red Cross also attracted a lot of attention.
SRG paid CHF 22.3 million to support Swiss films under an industry agreement. The effort paid off, the company writes: The two SRG co-productions "Spartiates" and "Usfahrt Oerlike" won the two competition prizes at the Solothurn Film Festival. The audience award at the Locarno Film Festival also went to an SRG co-production with "Schweizer Helden". With "Parvaneh," a short film co-produced by SRG was nominated for the 2015 Oscar. (SDA)
| Income Statement SRG Headquarters | 2014 | 2013 |
| Reception fees | 1'210'397 | 1'203'165 |
| Commercial yield | 370'647 | 348'485 |
| Other income* | 70'292 | 63'765 |
| Revenue reductions | -182 | 50 |
| Operating income | 1'651'154 | 1'615'465 |
| Personnel expenses | 685'512 | 673'903 |
| Program and production effort | 628'906 | 592'945 |
| Other operating expenses | 253'945 | 249'857 |
| Depreciation | 79'476 | 79'810 |
| Operating expenses | 1'647'839 | 1'596'515 |
| Operating result | 3'315 | 18'950 |
| Financial result | 1'531 | 1'171 |
| Company result | 4'846 | 20'121 |
In 1000 francs
* Other income includes service income, federal contributions and other
Operating income
The annual report (annual report and accounts) will be submitted to the SRG Delegates' Meeting on April 24, 2015 for approval. The annual report will be published online. As of April 28, 2015, it will be available on the web at Srgssr.ch is switched on.
