Another DAB setback. Forced shutdowns are seen as endangering private broadcasters.
The National Council - the upper house of parliament - has adopted a proposal for new FM licenses from 2027. This is intended to prevent the planned shutdown of analogue radio. The council adopted a proposal from the transport committee by 124 votes to 62, with 8 abstentions. The proposal called on the Federal Council (government) to refrain from shutting down FM broadcasts on December 31, 2026. Instead, the current FM radio licenses should be extended or new licenses should be put out to tender from January 1, 2027, if necessary through an auction.
The transport committee argued that the forced shutdown endangers private radio stations and would lead to a shift of listeners to foreign stations. The SRG (the public broadcaster) had already lost 25 percent of its listeners after the FM shutdown at the end of 2024 – such a decline would be “devastating” for advertising-funded private radio stations. (Read more below)
The Federal Council wanted the proposal to be rejected, pointing out that the initiative to shut down FM radio originally came from the radio industry itself. Over 90 percent of the population already listens digitally via DAB+ or the internet. A reallocation of FM frequencies would involve “complex procurements and significant investments in outdated infrastructure”.
Radio 1 CEO Roger Schawinski, who previously led a multi-year campaign against an FM shutdown, commented before the committee’s decision: Simply banning a technology that has proven successful for decades, is popular and completely harmless, and doing so without a comprehensible reason, should not be possible in a country like Switzerland. The committee majority described the strict shutdown deadline as a "Swiss end" and demanded an extension until at least the end of 2031. The proposal now goes to the Federal Council.
Switzerland was the second country in the world to plan to completely replace FM radio with digital DAB+. As in Norway, the DAB lobby does not seem to have been fully successful. In Norway, local radio still broadcasts on FM and many Norwegians also listen to Swedish and Danish FM radio. In the rest of the world, FM continues to be the established standard for terrestrial radio.
Read More
Nationalrat will Abschaltung verzögern (persoenlich.com)
Der Unmut in der Bevölkerung ist gewaltig (Interview with Roger Schawinski)
Also read
Swiss FM Switch-off: Public Broadcaster Lost Two-Thirds of Its Listeners
Italy Will Retain FM Radio For At Least Another 10 Years
DAB Not Saving Radio. Norwegians Reducing Their Listening to Linear Radio