FM radio continues to lose market share
A study presented at Swiss Radio Day shows that 81 percent of radio listening will be digital in the spring of 2023. FM use has been declining steadily in recent years.
In spring, it was still at 19 percent, according to the study, which was presented on Thursday at the Swiss Radio Day in Zurich. According to the study, the FM share of listening time has declined by 32 percentage points since 2015. Only eight percent of listeners had relied exclusively on FM. With 41 percent of listening time, DAB+ was a touch more popular than internet radio, which accounted for 40 percent of listening time.
In 2014, the Swiss radio associations agreed that FM would finally be switched off in Switzerland at the end of 2024 and that all radio programs would be broadcast exclusively via DAB+ or the Internet.
In July, however, Federal Councillor Albert Rösti, head of the Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications, proposed to the Federal Council a "final" extension of the current licenses until the end of 2026 following criticism of the planned FM switch-off by individual radio operators. The decision will be made by the full Federal Council.
At Swiss Radio Day, Jürg Bachmann, President of the Association of German-Swiss Private Radio Stations VSP, emphasized the "much greater" possibilities offered by digital radio. However, he praised the "good compromise" proposed by Albert Rösti. This gives all players enough time to prepare for the transition and allows those who wish to do so to switch off FM before that date. (SDA)
