Most Swiss listen to radio every day

Alan Alpenfelt, producer and founder of Radio Gwendalyn, an independent cultural radio station in the canton of Ticino Keystone

Nine-in-ten people living in Switzerland who are 15 years of age or older turn on a radio for at least 1.5 hours every day on average, a new government-commissioned survey finds.

German speakers keep it turned on the longest, for an average of 114 minutes, followed by Italian speakers, 112 minutes, and French speakers, 97 minutes, according to survey results for the first half of the year published by MediaPulse on Thursday.

Though the overwhelming majority of Switzerland’s 8.4 million population turns to news and other radio programs every day, the figures also show that listeners in each of the language regions spent about four minutes a day less tuning in to radio than during the comparable time last year.

The government hires MediaPulse to measure radio and TV consumption in Switzerland all year round.

The independent research organisation does that by equipping more than 26,000 randomly selected people a year with a watch worn around-the-clock that automatically records radio consumption. MediaPulse publishes the results twice a year.

Private programming

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, known as SRG SSR, of which swissinfo.ch is part, has the largest market share, ranging from three-quarters of listeners in the Italian-speaking part to just under two-thirds in the German and French language regions.

But the survey finds that SRG SSR also has lost some market share throughout the country to private Swiss radio stations, which held 32% among German speakers, 25% among French speakers and 17% among Italian speakers.

The Association of Swiss Private Radios, or VSP, called this a “positive development” that confirms the growing popularity and social significance of regional programs.

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