Media in Switzerland

The following article deals with the media in Switzerland in the areas of print media (press), radio and television .

First edition of the NZZ from January 12, 1780

Print media

The creation of Swiss daily newspapers was limited to culturally, geographically and politically narrow spaces. It was only with Blick in 1959 that a newspaper appeared for the whole of German-speaking Switzerland. This pattern has remained unchanged to this day, although there are now several national newspapers. Some of the national daily newspapers such as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung are known for their detailed and well-founded reporting, especially of international events. The most widely read daily newspaper is the free commuter newspaper 20 Minuten with meanwhile (2018) over 1 million readers. This is followed by the tabloid Blick with 472,000 readers and the Tages-Anzeiger with 388,000 readers. Other well-known newspapers are: Basler Zeitung , Aargauer Zeitung , Der Bund , Berner Zeitung , Luzerner Zeitung , St. Galler Tagblatt and Südostschweiz . In French-speaking Switzerland, Le Temps is the national daily newspaper. The daily newspapers with the highest circulation in western Switzerland are 24 heures and La Liberté . The daily newspaper with the highest circulation, Le Matin , now only appears online.

Well-known weekly magazines and newspapers are the conservative Weltwoche and the left-wing WOZ , and from 1995 to 2007 also the now discontinued news magazine Facts . For business news, there are Bilanz , Handelszeitung and Finanz und Wirtschaft , while the weekly newspaper Cash (1989–2007) and the free daily newspaper Cash daily (2006–2009) have since been discontinued. The most important agricultural publication is the Swiss Bauer newspaper, which appears twice a week . An art and culture magazine is you . In the gossip area there are u. a. Schweizer Familie , Schweizer Illustrierte and Glückspost . Other weekly magazines are the Migros magazine and the Coop newspaper, both in newspaper format and, as such, the media with the highest circulation in all of Switzerland. They are issued free of charge by the two largest Swiss retail companies and sent to all members of the cooperatives. There are also numerous consumer magazines, u. a. The Swiss Observer , Balance and K-Tip .

Well-known French-language magazines are Bilan (economy) and L'illustré (both weekly magazines), while L'Hebdo has since been discontinued.

Political orientation

Media scientist Roger Blum , retired in 2010 , had periodically published an overview of the political orientation of the Swiss press at the Institute for Media Studies at the University of Bern . In 2011, Blum made the following allocation in the political spectrum:

Right (in the sense of national isolation for the preservation of old values): Die Weltwoche , Schweizerzeit , Il mattino della domenica .
Right-wing liberal (economic reform in the sense of the right-wing FDP and moderate SVP, for state dismantling): NZZ , NZZ am Sonntag , Basler Zeitung , Neue Luzerner Zeitung (now renamed Luzerner Zeitung ), Corriere del Ticino .
Middle (equal distance on all sides, moderate or even without opinion, for compensation): Blick , Der Sonntag (now discontinued), SonntagsZeitung , Aargauer Zeitung , St. Galler Tagblatt , Berner Zeitung , Der Bund , Le Matin (now discontinued), Le Matin Dimanche , Le Temps , Le Nouvelliste .
Left-liberal (socio-political reformist, for the social commitment of the state): Tages-Anzeiger , Die Südostschweiz , SonntagsBlick , 24 heures , Tribune de Genève , La Liberté , L'Hebdo (now discontinued), laRegione Ticino .
Left (in the sense of a “counter-public” for radical emancipation of the addicts): Die Wochenzeitung , Le Courrier .

The journalism and media studies scholar Jan Vontobel took a critical look at Roger Blum's method in his licentiate thesis, The Political Position of Swiss Quality Newspapers, which he submitted to the University of Zurich in 2005 .

radio

The fee- financed SRG SSR operates six German-language channels: Radio SRF 1 , Radio SRF 2 Kultur and Radio SRF 3 (via VHF , cable , satellite , Internet ); Radio SRF Virus , Radio SRF 4 News and Radio SRF Musikwelle (via cable, DAB , satellite, Internet). It also runs three special-interest channels: Radio Swiss Pop , Radio Swiss Jazz and Radio Swiss Classic (via satellite, cable, DAB, Internet).

There are four French-speaking channels operated by Radio Télévision Suisse ( La Première , Espace 2 , Couleur 3 and OptionMusique ), three Italian-speaking channels from Radiotelevisione Svizzera ( Rete Uno , Rete Due and Rete Tre ), and one Rhaeto-Romanic- speaking ( Radio Rumantsch ).

Private regional broadcasters are operated in each region, e.g. E.g .: Radio 1 , Energy Zurich , Radio Zürisee and Radio 24 (Zurich); Radio Basel 1 and Radio Basilisk (Basel); Radio BeO and Capital FM (Bern); Radio Pilatus and Radio Sunshine (Lucerne); Radio Top (Eastern Switzerland); Radio Argovia (Aargau); Radio 32 (Solothurn); Radio Rottu (Valais); Radio neo1 (Emmental).

In addition, there are non-commercial regional broadcasters, which primarily offer a broad cultural and music program as a counterpoint to the rather one-sided content of the private broadcasters. The UNIKOM ( Union of non-commercial local radio stations ) includes: Radio 3fach (Lucerne), Fréquence Banane (Lausanne), Radio Blind Power (Zollikofen), Radio Cité (Geneva), iischers Radio (Wallis), RadioIndustrie (Zug), Radio Kaiseregg (Schwarzsee), Kanal K (Aargau), Radio LoRa (Zurich), Radio RaBe (Bern), Radio RaSa (Schaffhausen), Radio Stadtfilter (Winterthur), toxic.fm (St. Gallen), Vibration 108 (Sion) and Radio X (Basel).

All SRG radio programs and many private radio stations are broadcast not only via VHF but also via DAB + (→ list of DAB stations in Switzerland ).

watch TV

The fee-financed television of SRG SSR comprises six channels with full programming, two each for the three major language regions. Information programs on German-speaking Swiss television are repeated on the SRF info channel . For the Romansh language, a short news program is broadcast daily on the first program in German-speaking Switzerland, as well as other information programs once a week (with German-language subtitles).

Private channels can usually only be received regionally and not via satellite. In large parts of German-speaking Switzerland, the channels Star TV and U1 TV (special interest programs) are fed into the cable network (but not everywhere, as the cable network is privatized). In 2000 and 2001, Tele24 and TV3 provided private regional language television programs in German-speaking Switzerland for a short time, but these had to be discontinued due to a lack of profitability. The special interest broadcaster Schweizer Sportfernsehen (SSF) has been broadcasting its programs via the analog cable network of Cablecom (now UPC Switzerland) since 2009 .

The most important and most successful local broadcaster is TeleZüri . Also of importance are Telebasel (Northwest Switzerland), TeleBärn (in Bern) TeleBielingue (Biel and vicinity), Tele M1 (Midlands), Tele 1 (Central Switzerland), Télétop (Winterthur, Thurgau, Eastern), TVO (Eastern) and TSO ( Tele Südostschweiz ).

Channels from neighboring countries are also popular. The German broadcasters RTL , VOX , Sat.1 , kabel eins and ProSieben broadcast their programs in German-speaking Switzerland with special advertising windows and a few programs specially produced for Switzerland (e.g. Swiss football). With the exception of regional and individual «third-party programs», almost all German and Austrian channels as well as several French and Italian channels can be received in Switzerland.

Foreign service

Swissinfo.ch is the name of the multi-media international service in Switzerland produced by SRG in 10 languages . The internet platform replaced the outdated medium wave service Schweizer Radio International in 1999 and is financially supported by the federal government.

Keystone SDA

Keystone-SDA is the national news agency in Switzerland . The majority of the shareholders are media companies and the Austria Press Agency .

Individual evidence

↑ Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research (ed.): Media AZ . Bonn 2006, p. 314.
↑ Positioning: majority left of center. In: Facts . No. 30, July 22, 2004, pp. 16-17 (PDF; 259 kB).
↑ Christof Moser, Othmar von Matt: "Basler Zeitung", "Blick" and "Der Bund" move to the right. No way left: The media have moved further to the right in the last four years - above all the «Basler Zeitung». In: Sunday . Volume 5, No. 42, October 23, 2011, p. 3 (without graphic).
^ Claude Longchamp: The position of Swiss daily newspapers in the political arena. In: Zoonpoliticon. February 24, 2013.
↑ Why is the expression “state television” or “public broadcaster” wrong? ( Memento from August 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: SRG Insider. October 30, 2013.
↑ Service agreement 2017–2020 between the Swiss Confederation as the client and the SRG as the contractor. In: Federal Gazette . June 3, 2016 (PDF; 408 kB).

[1] Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research (ed.): Media AZ . Bonn 2006, p. 314.

[2] Positioning: majority left of center. In: Facts . No. 30, July 22, 2004, pp. 16-17 (PDF; 259 kB).

[3] Christof Moser, Othmar von Matt: "Basler Zeitung", "Blick" and "Der Bund" move to the right. No way left: The media have moved further to the right in the last four years - above all the «Basler Zeitung». In: Sunday . Volume 5, No. 42, October 23, 2011, p. 3 (without graphic).

[4] Claude Longchamp: The position of Swiss daily newspapers in the political arena. In: Zoonpoliticon. February 24, 2013.

[5] Why is the expression “state television” or “public broadcaster” wrong? ( Memento from August 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: SRG Insider. October 30, 2013.

[6] Service agreement 2017–2020 between the Swiss Confederation as the client and the SRG as the contractor. In: Federal Gazette . June 3, 2016 (PDF; 408 kB).