Key findings: Financing
Media are financed from various sources. Which sources of financing are important for the different media types – and how have they developed in recent years?
Conclusion
- All media types considered here (radio, TV, online media, print media) are operating in a difficult financial environment
- In recent years, their advertising revenues have been declining or, at best, stagnating
- According to estimates, more advertising money than in all media types covered here is invested in international platforms (search, YouTube, social media) that do not produce their own journalistic content
- The decline in advertising revenues is changing the revenue structure of licensed broadcasters – the share of revenue from license fees is becoming more important
- Public funding (in the form of the radio and television licence fee) is also under pressure on multiple fronts: the SRG Initiative, the Federal Council’s RTVO revision, and the progressive reduction of the fee to CHF 312 and then CHF 300 per year
- Advertising revenue for Swiss media will likely remain under pressure – driven by new streaming providers, evolving advertising formats, emerging digital advertising platforms, and shifting audience habits
- Alternative funding and support models are likely to remain a focus of (political) debate
Evolution of advertising revenues
All Swiss media – whether radio, television, online or print – operate in a challenging financial environment. In recent years, several of their key revenue sources have come under pressure.
Radio: Advertising revenues
Advertising revenues for Swiss radio stations showed marginal growth until 2016 – but this has since declined steadily.
Television: Advertising revenues
Television advertising revenues followed a similar pattern, with a sharp drop during the pandemic year of 2020. Although there was a recovery in 2021, revenues have again declined significantly. Foreign broadcasters operating in Switzerland now generate higher annual advertising revenues than SRG SSR.
Swiss private broadcasters have managed to increase their advertising revenues in recent years. However, compared to SRG and advertising windows allocated to foreign broadcasters, their share of total investment in TV advertising remains considerably lower.
Online display advertising: Advertising revenues
Online display advertising (e.g. banners) in the online media of Swiss media outlets increased during the early years of data collection (from 2014) but has stabilised in recent years at around CHF 300 million per year. Revenues from online classified advertising (e.g. cars, jobs, property) are significantly higher – totalling CHF 368 million. Previously, these revenue streams (e.g. from small ads and job listings) were used to cross-subsidise journalistic products. Today, they are managed as independent business units within major Swiss media companies.
Estimated advertising revenue of international platforms
According to estimates, more is invested in international platforms (search engines, YouTube, social media) that do not create their own journalistic content than in all the media formats discussed here combined.
Business models of online media offerings
Online media often rely on a mix of funding models, the most common being a combination of advertising and subscriptions. Compared to 2022, the number of outlets relying exclusively on advertising has declined. This may be explained by stagnating advertising revenue in the online market overall, which has prompted efforts to develop additional sources of income.
Press: Advertising revenues
Advertising revenue in the print sector has declined most sharply in recent years.
This decline in advertising revenue has prompted publishers to raise cover prices – increases that remain significant even after adjusting for inflation.
The Swiss Media Association (VSM) assumes that inflation for newspapers (production + distribution) was very high over the period shown, exceeding the general rate of 8%. The reasons for this are above-average price increases in the relevant cost centers of printing (due, among other things, to higher material prices such as printing plates and ink), paper (up to 60% increase in the last four years), energy (newspaper production disproportionately affected), and delivery (declining volumes with fixed costs remaining the same). Due to the paper shortage, emergency paper stocks also had to be created, resulting in additional costs.
Public financing as a source of revenue
Another important source of media funding is public financing, the main component of which in Switzerland is the radio and television licence fee. As advertising revenues decline, licence fee income is becoming increasingly important for SRG and licensed private broadcasters in the radio and TV sectors:
Between 2015 and 2024, licence fees made up a growing share of SRG's total revenue, while the share from commercial sources (primarily advertising and sponsorship) fell accordingly.
A similar trend can be seen among licensed private radio and television broadcasters. Across all outlets, the share of income from licence fees is higher for licensed regional TV broadcasters than for local radio stations. This reflects the greater importance of licence fee funding in the more capital-intensive regional television production sector compared to radio.