Switzerland - Current situation - History
16.09.2021
FM switch off end 2024
Swiss radio broadcasters will shut down FM as originally planned on 31 December 2024, according to a press release published by Digimig, the Swiss broadcaster working group on digital migration, on 26 August 2021. On the same date, FM radio licences expire. From that date onwards, radio programmes will no longer be broadcast via FM. With the return to the original switch-off date, consumers have more time to switch technology.
In 2014, Swiss radio broadcasters agreed to stop broadcasting on FM by 2024 at the latest. At the end of 2020, almost three quarters of radio listening was digital, and the radio industry decided that an early and staggered shutdown of the FM stations in August 2022 (SRG) and in January 2023 (private radio) would be responsible. 42 out of 44 of Switzerland's radio broadcasters and the public broadcaster SRG agreed on this.
A public debate on FM switch off took place in 2021. In the German-speaking and Italian speaking regions of Switzerland, the vast majority of radio broadcasters remained in favour of the early shutdown of VHF, however not in French-speaking Switzerland. Since a nationwide solution is needed, radio broadcasters returned to their original plan of switching off the FM stations by 31 December 2024.
Read the Digimig press release
Read the Digital Radio Use in Switzerland - GfK Trend analysis August 2021
26.08.2021
FM switch off end 2024
Swiss radio broadcasters will shut down FM as originally planned on 31 December 2024, according to a press release published by Digimig, the Swiss broadcaster working group on digital migration, on 26 August 2021. On the same date, FM radio licences expire. From that date onwards, radio programmes will no longer be broadcast via FM. With the return to the original switch-off date, consumers have more time to switch technology.
In 2014, Swiss radio broadcasters agreed to stop broadcasting on FM by 2024 at the latest. At the end of 2020, almost three quarters of radio listening was digital, and the radio industry decided that an early and staggered shutdown of the FM stations in August 2022 (SRG) and in January 2023 (private radio) would be responsible. 42 out of 44 of Switzerland's radio broadcasters and the public broadcaster SRG agreed on this.
A public debate on FM switch off took place in 2021. In the German-speaking and Italian speaking regions of Switzerland, the vast majority of radio broadcasters remained in favour of the early shutdown of VHF, however not in French-speaking Switzerland. Since a nationwide solution is needed, radio broadcasters returned to their original plan of switching off the FM stations by 31 December 2024.
12.07.2021
FM switch off in Switzerland 2022-2023
In August 2020, DigiMig (the digital migration working group) announced that the FM switch-off will take place in two stages between August 2022 (SRG) and January 2023 (private stations). The switchoff was confirmed in December 2020, when members of the radio association and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation agreed to migrate to DAB+.
DAB+ is now the most widely used radio distribution channel in Switzerland, claiming 41% of all listening (Feb 2021). Only one in eight people say they still tune in exclusively to FM radio.
Public broadcaster SSR SRG operates one platform in each of the four regions of the country. There are transmitter networks for private radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland (SwissMediaCast) and in French-speaking Switzerland (Romandie Médias SA).