SRG and Tamedia are the most influential media companies in Switzerland
The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) presented the Media Monitor Switzerland for the first time on November 13, 2018. In the form of an interactive website, the potential of the various media genres - print, radio, TV, online - for shaping opinion is presented. SRG and Tamedia are ahead, with 20 Minuten in first place among the individual titles.
The study shows that television has the greatest influence on opinion-forming, ahead of the press, radio and online media. The Media Monitor Switzerland also provides information about ownership structures and corporate interrelationships in the Swiss media market.
On the trilingual Website of the Media Monitor Switzerland, the opinion-forming potential can be displayed for the whole of Switzerland and various regions. Also visible are the ownership and participation ratios of the major Swiss media companies. The website also includes a scientific report containing an overall interpretation of the numerous detailed results.
As the results for the 2017 survey year show, television dominates opinion-forming, especially in Latin Switzerland: In French-speaking Switzerland, it has significantly greater opinion-forming power than the press, whose influence potential in this part of the country is about the same as that of radio. In Italian-speaking Switzerland, the leading role of television is even greater. Here, the press ranks third behind radio among the most influential opinion-forming media. Online offerings are in last place in all three parts of the country, according to the study. In German-speaking Switzerland, too, television as a genre has the greatest influence potential overall, but print is stronger in this part of the country than in the Latin language regions.
This data relates to general information usage. It is understood broadly and includes not only politics but also business, society, culture and sports. The Media Monitor does not provide any information on the selective use of information during political events, such as before and about votes and elections.
The Media Monitor Switzerland is based on data derived from three coordinated research modules. In the first module, the role of the various media in shaping the individual opinions of the Swiss population was surveyed by means of a representative poll. In the second module, the researchers evaluated data from established studies of applied media research to determine the weight of the various media in the audience market. Finally, in a third module, the ownership and participation ratios in the Swiss media market were collected on the basis of annual reports, industry studies and ongoing market monitoring and presented in a database. This is updated on an ongoing basis.
The Media Monitor Switzerland is part of OFCOM's media research, which in particular examines the programming performance and audience acceptance of Swiss radio and television stations with a performance mandate. The Media Monitor Switzerland was put out to public tender by OFCOM in an open procedure in accordance with WTO. The Publicom research office in Kilchberg was awarded the contract for the first four years of the study.
