Radio and television fee

In principle each Swiss household pays a fee for radio and television.

Collective households, as enumerated definitively in the Register Harmonisation Ordinance, pay an annual fee of CHF 670.

Businesses liable for value-added tax in Switzerland (those with a domicile, residence or business premises in Switzerland) with a global turnover in excess of CHF 500,000 are automatically liable for the radio and television fee.

The revenue from the fee, approximately CHF 1.37 billion annually, will be used to fund the radio/television programme services of the SSR SRG and for licensed commercial broadcasters (local radio stations and commercial television channels). In this way, the public service will be guaranteed in all parts of the country and democracy will be strengthened; the entire country and all its inhabitants will benefit.

A solution has been found so that SERAFE AG – the collection agency for the universal radio and television fee – can transmit household data containing errors or inaccuracies in the address to the residents' registers. The Federal Office of Communications, Serafe and the Association of Swiss Residential Services have jointly defined the information to be included in forms that are sent to municipalities. The residents' registers of all municipalities and the cantons were informed accordingly in October 2019 by a letter from OFCOM.

The new universal fee system enters into force on 1 January 2019. The universal fee will then replace the current reception fee. Billag will continue to collect the reception fee until the end of 2018. From 2019, Serafe will issue invoices for the universal fee to households whereas companies will receive theirs from the Federal Tax Administration (FTA).