Swiss Lead in Radio Recycling

Michael Hedges July 28, 2006

Environmentally friendly Switzerland tries “World Radio Switzerland” for the 2nd or 3rd time.
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Nothing is wasted in Switzerland. No files are lost, nor forgotten.

Swiss public broadcaster SSR-SRG idée Suisse (SSR-SRG) is having another go at World Radio Switzerland. This time it’s meant to support the nascent DAB network, so said Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) General Director Gerard Tschopp to the Neue Zürucher Zeitung (NZZ) recently.  “The SSR must develop new products… which are not too expensive. An English program corresponds to these requirements, ” he said.

Clearly there’s something about the World Radio Switzerland concept to keep the file trickling periodically to the top of the stack.

More than a decade ago, World Radio Switzerland was proposed – broadly – to take advantage of the large English language department at Swiss Radio International (SRI) and create a domestic English language service. Switzerland has four official languages and English is not one of them. The English language domain, though, is grudgingly accepted as the 2nd language of many Swiss and 2nd or 1st language of a million and a half expats living and working in the country, many for the multi-national corporations and the nearly 300 multi-national organizations headquartered in the country.

When the Swiss media regulator OFCOM did not cooperate and forced SSR-SRG to modify the plan creating World Radio Geneva (WRG), an FM station licensed to Geneva only and a commercial one at that, the plan needed revising. The designated private sector partner was Reuters, with Europe, Africa and Middle East headquarters (in a large, tax free building) in Geneva. WRG FM launched in the summer of 1996, pleasing almost nobody except the large English speaking and using audience in Geneva.

World Radio Switzerland – the plan – did not die. By 1998 it was resurrected as a means of re-branding SRI by its new director. To the plan of using existing SRI staff was added two new elements: the web and advertising. Web designers were hired and a few programmers but revenue creation remained an afterthought.

About the same time, SSR-SRG moved to enlarge its reach with satellite music services and a significant investment in Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).

The second life of World Radio Switzerland ended when SRI morphed into the well-respected Swissinfo, the regulator killed SSR-SRGs commercial radio activities and the SRI director was discharged.

WRG, by then, went through major pain as Reuters wanted out of the deal – a local radio station had little cache for its’ banker clients. SSR-SRG wanted to adsorb it all but the regulator refused to change the license terms to public from private. SSR-SRG transferred its holdings in WRG to the RSR subsidiary and the BBC World Service, through its commercial arm, replaced Reuters. The aforementioned Gerard Tschopp, arguably the most forward looking of SSR-SRG’s directors, took over as president of the WRG board. When WRG won Swiss Radio of the Year last year – based on audience growth – nobody beamed more broadly than Gerard Tschopp. Less enthusiastic were other private and public broadcasters.

What is interesting is not that the World Radio Switzerland file would find itself on Gerard Tschopp’s desk. As in physics, matter is never destroyed. That the DAB file would find its way to Gerard Tschopp is very interesting.

DAB in Switzerland has languished under the weight of “innovative” programmers, complex infrastructures and resistance from the private sector to any sort of cooperation. Aside from the absolute necessity for digital migration, SSR-SRGs DAB offering – limited to about 70% of the country now but expanding rapidly – has not excited the receiver buyers. SSR-SRG is highly unlikely to turn its back on DAB. The investment is committed. More times than not it’s useful to make a decision and stick with it. Historically, SSR-SRG has been quite smart about that.

Making it work is yet another matter. Technology itself – contrary to the raging chemistry of its’ gurus – is no magic bullet inflicting immediate result. Digital migration for radio broadcasters is now 100% tactical.

World Radio Switzerland – however it is finally produced – may well add more listeners to the SSR-SRG DAB multiplex. After all, a significant part of the expat population turnover in Switzerland, and neighboring France, is British. DAB is a known quantity in the UK. Some of those people will bring along their DAB receivers and check out what’s on the radio.

Good tactical thinkers easily put together opportunity and need.

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Swiss Government Rejects License Tax Increase - December 10, 2006

Demands of Swiss public broadcaster SSR-SRG idée Suisse (SSR-SRG) for a 6.5% increase in the radio and television tax failed a Federal Council vote (Friday, December 8). Approved, however, was a 2.5% increase to CHF 462 (€290) per year, maintaining the country’s position as having the worlds’ highest public broadcasting tax. People living in Switzerland will begin paying more in April.

SSR-SRG had requested CHF 72 million (€45 million) additional funds raised from the radio and television license tax. The Federal Council decided that Swiss listeners and viewers would not be liable for the broadcasters pension fund, debt interest and share capital costs of CHF 41 million (€25.8 million).

Under the recently enacted Law on Radio and Television (LRTV) an increased portion of license tax funds, now CHF 50 million (€31.5 million), will be given over to private broadcasters and projects to support audience research and technical innovation.

Much of the Federal Council debate revolved around the ever-present rivalry among Switzerland’s linguistic regions. Particularly sensitive are French-speaking Swiss. The public broadcaster had strongly suggested that a lack of money would cause reduced services and that new projects might be abandoned.

“We wait now until the SSR concentrates on its public service mandate, that it fixes priorities as regards technological innovation and that it continues to treat all the linguistic areas on an equal footing,” said Christian Democrat Party president Christophe Darbellay. “The blackmail made on this last point is inadmissible.”

The conservative Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) opposed any increase and asked that the license tax be cut in half by 2009.

Swiss Confederation President Moritz Leuenberger said the Federal Council decision should not be interpreted as a condemnation of SSR-SRG.

SSR-SRG had no immediate comment, saying it “will examine the news with the greatest care.”

Geneva Radio Stations Make Changes - November 2, 2006

While radio in Switzerlands’ Swiss-German speaking part carry on with the normal fits and fights with great regularity, calm is the norm in the French-speaking side. All that being relative in a country where the public broadcaster rules, two bits of news leaked out of Geneva.

First came news last month that Rouge FM Group bought a majority stake in Geneva station Radio Lac and would take over its management. Swiss mega-publisher Edipresse also increased its shareholding in Radio Lac.

Swiss regulator OFCOM recently moved to change transmission zones that, if concluded, would allow equal coverage to the four primary commercial radio stations in the French-speaking region: Radio Lac, One FM, Lausanne FM and Rouge FM. The same company owns One FM and Lausanne FM.

The latest news comes from the odd-man in Swiss radio: English-language WRG FM. The most recent General Manager, ex-BBC person Lucy Walker, stayed a year then returned to the UK. She’s been replaced, at least temporarily, by Philippe Mottaz, former news director at Television Suisse Romande (TSR).

BBC World Service and Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) are the majority owners of WRG FM, holder of a commercial radio license. About every other year a new “direction” takes over, reflecting one frustration or another, the biggest being WRG FM’s reasonably successful commercial radio operation with pop music, DJs, light news and advertising. RSR and TSR are the French language part of SSR-SRG, the Swiss public broadcaster.

The thin thread running through these two little items is Edipresse. A minority stakeholder in WRG FM is newspaper Le Temps, owned by Edipresse.