Television in Switzerland

Television in Switzerland was introduced in 1950. People who live in Switzerland and receive television services are required by law to pay a television licence fee, which is used to finance the public radio and television service SRG SSR idée suisse. Licence fee-payers in all the linguistic regions of Switzerland all pay the same amount (462 CHF for 2008, counting both radio and television licences)[1] and, in return, are entitled under the law to services of equal quality.

Contents

History

Television history of Switzerland began in 1939 when the first test transmissions commenced. Regular transmissions started in 1953, at first only one hour a day for five days a week, and only in German language: transmissions in French language started in 1954 and in Italian only in 1958.

Romansh-speaking Swiss had to wait until 1963 for the first programme in their language, a full decade after regular television transmission were initiated and, to this day, there's no television channel broadcasting exclusively in Romansh language. The sixties also saw the arrival of television advertising, in 1964, and of colour television, in 1968.

In 1984, the Swiss teletext service, SwissTXT, was started. In 1993 a fourth SRG SSR channel was created, first named "S Plus" but later renamed Schweiz 4 (Switzerland 4). However, this was short-lived: during its existence the channel costantly suffered low ratings and was hence shut down in 1997. In the same year, as a result, all the SRG SSR subsidiaries started a second channel, and SF 2, TSR 2 and TSI 2 (now La 2) came into existence.

Analogue television was phased out starting July 2006, when TSI (now RSI) began the analogue switchoff. The process continued until January 2008, when the interruption of analogue broadcasting in Valais and Chablais completed the digital television transition in Switzerland.[2]

List of channels

The following is a list of television channels broadcast in Switzerland:

Nationwide

German-speaking Switzerland

The programming is in German, and is broadcast primarily in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It is available off the ASTRA satellite to all of Europe and North Africa and West Asia.

Unlocalised German and Austrian channels available in Switzerland: ARD, ZDF, ORF 1, ORF 2

French-speaking Switzerland

Unlocalised French channels available in Switzerland: France 2, France 3, France 5

Italian-speaking Switzerland

Unlocalised Italian channels available in Switzerland:: Rai Uno, Rai Due, Rai Tre

Romansh-speaking Switzerland

There is not a television channel broadcasting exclusively in Romansh language; instead, Radio Television Rumantscha's productions are transmitted on SF 1, La 2 and SF info a few minutes a day. Programming includes Telesguard (a newscast), Cuntrasts and l'Istorgia da buna notg (bedtime story).

Regional channels

Local radio and television networks in Switzerland are entitled to 4% of the licence fee every year (about 50,000,000 CHF for 2007). The number of subsidised television broadcasters is limited to 13, one for each designated coverage area. Also, the support share cannot exceed 50% of the operating costs of each network.[1]

Cable television

A vast majority of the country is covered by cable networks; the major cable television operators are Cablecom and Naxoo.

In 2007 the UFCOM applied a must-carry regulation, requiring the local cable companies to transmit all the SRG SSR network stations and the following foreign channels: arte, 3sat, Euronews, TV5MONDE, ARD, ORF1, France 2, Rai Uno.[3]

International channels

A number of international channels widely available in Switzerland through digital television services such as Cablecom include:

See also

References

  1. ^ UFCOM, Reception fees
  2. ^ Switzerland completes analogue switch-over
  3. ^ Elenco dei programmi esteri che devono essere diffusi su linea in tutta la Svizzera (Italian)

External links

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