Study shows: Switzerland is increasingly listening digitally

In Switzerland, analog FM radio broadcasting is to make way for digital DAB+ from 2020. The research work "Digital Radio Usage", which was presented today, accompanies this changeover: The market researchers will conduct a survey on digital radio usage twice a year in the coming years. The survey will provide information on how much radio is listened to in Switzerland via digital reception paths.

First results

The "Digimig" working group presented the results of the pilot study on Thursday. According to the study, 45 percent of radio listening in Switzerland is digital. In other words, of every 100 minutes of radio programming, 45 minutes reaches listeners digitally. Slightly more than half of this time is spent on DAB+.

Other findings from the pilot study:
 

• The two digital reception paths (DAB+ and Internet) are used almost equally.
• The Italian-speaking part of Switzerland has the lowest digital listening rate. German-speaking Switzerland and French-speaking Switzerland are balanced.
• Younger people use digital radio more than older people, primarily due to the significantly increased Internet radio use among younger people.
• More than a quarter of radio use at home and at work is via DAB+.
• In the car, analog radio use clearly predominates.

Digital radio usage is understood to mean listening to the radio with a DAB+ device, an Internet radio, via a computer, tablet, smartphone or TV set. GfK Switzerland is conducting the survey on behalf of the "DigiMig" working group. The market researchers surveyed around 2,400 people from the various language regions of Switzerland by telephone or online.

Digital Migration" Working Group

In spring 2013, the radio industry formed the "Digital Migration" working group (AG Digimig) together with Bakom. The Association of Swiss Private Radio Stations (VSP), the UnionRomande des Radios Régionales (RRR), the Union of Non-Commercial Local Radio Stations (Unikom), SRG SSR, Bakom, the automotive industry and other industry groups are represented in the working group. The report of the working group is intended to serve the authorities and radio broadcasters as a basis for defining the Swiss radio landscape of tomorrow. It elaborates on the strategy for digital radio broadcasting formulated by the Federal Council back in 2006. In it, it was stated that FM, as the last analog link in the otherwise continuously digitized radio world, had reached the limits of its capacity. The technical possibilities are exhausted; in Switzerland there have been no free, usable FM frequencies for some time. All SRG radio programs and a good half of the private programs can now also be received digitally via DAB+ in parallel to FM - some even exclusively digitally. (SDA)

And how do you listen to the radio? Survey on the right!