Public invitation to tender for the mandate to collect the universal radio and television fee from households

Biel/Bienne, 16.08.2016 - A public invitation to tender for the mandate to collect the device-independent universal radio and television fee from households was launched today. Award of the mandate prepared by the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) is planned for the first quarter of 2017. The company that wins the contract then has until 2018 to establish the necessary infrastructure to collect the fees from households. In accordance with the revised Radio and Television Act, the new fee collection system must be in place by the beginning of 2019 at the latest. The current contract with the company Billag AG will expire at this time.

Within the framework of the public invitation to tender for the award of the mandate to collect the fee from households, from today interested companies can announce their candidacy and have until mid-November 2016 to submit their tenders via simap, the electronic public procurement platform in Switzerland. After the winning bid is announced in spring 2017, the remuneration which the collection agency will receive will be regulated in a contract. This will be less than the CHF 54 million which Billag currently receives each year, as collection of fees from companies will be performed in future by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration.

Preparations from summer 2017 at the latest

It is planned that the future collection agency will begin its preparatory work in July 2017. To this end it will work closely with the cantons and municipalities which will provide data on households. The first invoice for fees from households is scheduled for the beginning of January 2019 at the latest. The contract will run until the end of 2025.

New legal basis

The partial revision of the Federal Radio and Television Act and the corresponding Ordinance entered into force on 1 July 2016. The legal foundations are therefore in place to begin the preparatory work for migrating to the device-independent fee for households. The Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC), which is responsible for transferring collection of fees from households to an agency outside the Federal Administration, commissioned OFCOM to implement an appropriate tendering procedure.


Address for enquiries

Federal Office of Communications OFCOM
Press service, +41 58 460 55 50, media@bakom.admin.ch



Publisher

Federal Office of Communications
http://www.ofcom.admin.ch

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