After One Year of DAB-Only, Switzerland Reverts to FM: The Important Considerations of the RSI Director
Edited by Marco H. Barsotti
We return once again to the major U-turn by the Swiss Confederation regarding the decision to abandon FM. We do so—at the risk of appearing repetitive—because a publication named “FM” world cannot fail to give due space to the real data and to a sort of moral that comes from an important interview.
Counter-order, comrades
It is unnecessary to repeat to FM-world readers the news: counter-order, comrades—as one would have said in the last century—analog FM is being switched back on. Which had been in the process of being phased out with apparent satisfaction from many in Europe, who saw Switzerland (and Norway even earlier) as an example to follow.
An agreement from 2014
It is worth rereading a sentence from the official press release in the article published on December 11, 2025 on the RSI website which seems significant to us: “With the decision to abandon FM by the end of 2024, the SSR had respected the agreement concluded over ten years ago with the radio sector and with the Confederation“. An agreement between politicians and “the sector”, meaning those who broadcast. In other words, listeners are missing, as if they had nothing to do with this choice. An observation, this one, that should not be read as criticism of Switzerland, but rather as a general consideration that concerns all States where these choices are made. Citizens, those who pay the license fee or endure advertising, seem to be the least important component in many choices that concern them.
Interesting numbers
Let’s move on to some interesting numbers. We read in the press release dated December 9, 2025 issued by the Swiss private radio association ASRP: After the switch-off, SSR programs recorded sharp drops in listening, up to 49%. Furthermore, over 100,000 listeners switched to foreign FM stations.
Official data
Data perhaps exaggerated, but Newslinet, a source extremely attentive to factuality, reported in July 2025 the following: “After the FM switch-off of the public broadcaster SRG which occurred on 12/31/2024, a drop in audience was recorded (–470,000 listeners), with SRF 1 down to 23% of share and SRF 3 to 11.2%.”
Minus 470,000 out of what?
The article does not say, so we had to search on the Mediapulse website—an entity whose top executives we interviewed in the past—finding the following: “the offer of linear radio stations in the first half of 2025 reached 5.2 million listeners per day“.
Let’s try the division: 470,000/5,200,000 = 0.0903, or -9%
Now, in the SSR press release titled “The SSR will abandon FM at the end of the year” published on June 26, 2024, it read: “The percentage of those who still use FM exclusively continues to stand at less than 10%. A simplistic conclusion would therefore be that all those who listened to radio on FM simply switched media. (since 9% is very close to 10%). But if we believe the SRP data—which when citing a -49% does not indicate its source—things would have gone even worse. In our opinion, the SRP data, if correct, would indicate that the estimate of 10% residual FM listeners was not accurate. But we eagerly await comments and opinions from the many industry professionals numerous among the readers of this publication and the Talkmedia social channel.
A loss that hurts public and private
In closing, we would like to draw attention to a sentence from RSI director Mario Timbal who, with a typically Swiss intellectual honesty, when asked “Being the pioneer and switching off FM first was a mistake?” responded with a consideration of utmost interest, which we report in full:
“It was certainly a mistake to take as definitive the agreement that the SSR had stipulated with private radios and the Confederation, where the pioneer role went in favor of private radios. Therefore, by going before the others, we would have helped the public to transition, limiting the listening losses of private radios. Now everything changes, we return and it is clear that there is a side where one gets both the damage and the mockery: the loss of listeners that we have suffered hurts the entire Swiss radio system, because some of the listeners did not transition to private networks but also to foreign networks. Therefore, in a landscape where linear listening radio already has a natural decline in these years, this is added and worsens it“
Cui Prodest?
One question remains that we have often asked in past interviews without getting an answer: while switching off analog TV made sense, considering that the same approximately 390 MHz were reused (the frequencies between 471 and 860 MHz of UHF), it seems to us that no one has found a good use for the mere 20 MHz that constitute the FM band. Certainly not useful to telcos, the richest buyers of frequencies, as one of the best Italian popularizers explained to us back in 2022. Switching off not to make room for other services but to leave emptiness. Or space for foreigners.
Nothing to do, we really cannot understand the obstinacy of politicians in demanding the switch-off of FM without letting it die when consumers decide. (M.H.B. for FM-world)
