Ticino's SRG radio stations show little interest in the economy
A Publicom program analysis shows: Ticino's SRG radio stations have a high level of information competence, but are not very complementary in terms of topics. A lot of culture, little politics and almost no business. Rete Uno and Rete Tre hardly distinguish themselves musically. There is much praise for Radio Rumantsch.
The Publicom study, commissioned by the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM), examined the four full-service channels in Italian- and Romansh-speaking Switzerland during an artificial week between January and December 2016, from 05:00 to 24:00 in each case. The sample comprises a total of 704 hours of programming.
In Italian-speaking Switzerland, the three RSI stations cover a broad spectrum of programming services, but only some of them are complementary: For example, all RSI programs favor cultural topics and attach great importance to their own language region and to foreign reporting. Political topics have less weight than culture and society and are predominantly oriented toward government and authority activities. The comparatively weak attention paid to economic topics is striking. Compared to SRG radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland and French-speaking Switzerland, an above-average consideration of events in the other language regions stands out.
Rete Uno has the highest information content of the Ticino SRG radio stations. It differs from its sister stations primarily in that it focuses more on sports. As a cultural program, Rete Due has a similar broadcasting concept to the second SRG radio programs in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. Its main characteristic is the music format. Rete Tre has the lowest information content of the RSI radios. However, the information is structured thematically in a similar way to Rete Uno's programming, with the difference that sports is virtually absent.
Rete Uno and Rete Due in particular demonstrate their information competence not only in the volume of information they broadcast, but also in the effort they put into the formal preparation of the content. They strive to classify facts and illuminate backgrounds, drawing on a broad inventory of journalistic forms of presentation.
RSI radios: little Swiss music
The most high-profile music format on RSI radio is Rete Due. Although classical music plays an important role in it, the program also features a broad spectrum of other styles outside the mainstream. The music formats of Rete Uno and Rete Tre, on the other hand, are oriented toward majority tastes and are very similar over long stretches. Both programs play predominantly contemporary pop music, although the titles played on Rete Tre are somewhat younger on average than on Rete Uno. The proportion of Swiss music in the RSI programs is lower than in the SRG radio stations in French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland, and barely higher than in the programs of the private radio stations in Ticino.
Unique program concept of Radio Rumantsch
As a music-dominated full-service format, Radio Rumantsch offers a wide range of content to satisfy as many interests as possible. It has no parallel in the Swiss radio landscape. The program broadcasts more information than most SRG radio stations. In terms of quality, the program almost reaches the level of the first SRG radio programs. Politics and society are the dominant topics. Radio Rumatsch is also one of the last Swiss radio stations to broadcast a Sunday church program. Its music format is particularly unique, featuring a considerable number of Rhaeto-Romanic pieces. The mix of styles is broader than on almost any other Swiss radio station, and the proportion of Swiss music is higher than on any other SRG station.
