Redevance (or Medienabgabe in German) is a word much heard since the launch of the “200 francs is enough!” initiative, on which voters will decide on March 8th. The levy is a compulsory annual charge paid by every household in Switzerland, whether or not they consume radio or television. Some firms pay it, too.
Collection is handled by Serafe, a private company mandated by the Federal Council. It gathers roughly CHF 1.4bn a year.
Where does the money go?
Most of it—88%—finances the programmes of the Swiss public broadcaster, SSR. A further 6% is distributed to private regional radio and television stations. The remainder covers spectrum management, new transmission technologies and the cost of collecting the levy.
Within SSR the funds are split among the linguistic regions: 43% goes to the German-speaking arm (SRF), 33% to the French-speaking RTS, 22% to RSI in Italian-speaking Ticino and 2% to RTR, which broadcasts in Romansh. The arrangement is explicitly redistributive. Larger regions subsidise smaller ones, allowing each language community to sustain a broad range of programming.
At least half of the levy must be spent on news and current affairs. In practice, 51% of revenues are devoted to news bulletins, debate programmes, magazines and sports coverage. Next come entertainment and films, including an annual CHF 34m to support Swiss audiovisual and cinematic production. Cultural and educational programmes, sports rights and production, music and children’s output follow. The total cost amounts to around 90 centimes per household per day.
Why is the Swiss levy Europe’s most expensive?
According to figures from the European Broadcasting Union, the Swiss charge—currently CHF 335 a year—is the highest in Europe. The continental average is about CHF 94. Germany and Austria follow at roughly CHF 220 and CHF 200 respectively. Adjusted for purchasing power, the gap narrows, but even after this adjustment Switzerland remains the costliest.
Two structural factors explain much of the difference.
The first is multilingualism. SSR produces programmes in four national languages through its four divisions (SRF, RTS, RSI and RTR), as well as in several foreign languages for its online service, Swissinfo. Were Switzerland monolingual, production costs would be about 40% lower, according to the Federal Office of Communications.
The second is scale. With a population of about 9m, Switzerland has relatively few households over which to spread fixed costs. High wages, by European standards, also push up expenses.
How are firms treated?
In Switzerland companies with annual turnover of at least CHF 500,000 also pay the levy. The rate is progressive, ranging from CHF 160 to CHF 50,000 a year. From January 1st, 2027 the turnover threshold will rise to CHF 1.2m.
Elsewhere in Europe models vary. In Germany payments depend on the number of employees; in Britain firms pay the same fee as households. Italian companies pay nothing, with the charge levied on households via electricity bills. In Spain public broadcasting is financed through general taxation and specific levies on telecoms operators, private television channels and streaming platforms. France has abolished the licence fee altogether; public media there are now funded from VAT receipts.
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