Swiss Broadcasting Corporation pulls plug on FM radio

Around two dozen private radio stations in Switzerland will continue to broadcast via FM. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) switched off outdated analogue FM transmitters at 11:59pm on New Year's Eve.

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Connections to around 850 ultra-shortwave transmitters throughout Switzerland have come to an end.

Anyone wishing to continue listening to the radio stations SRF1, SRF2 Kultur und SRF3 in the new year, for example, will have to switch to the digital radio technology DAB+ or Internet radio. All other SBC programmes were previously only available via the Internet or DAB+.

SBC, SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent company, now only needs around 260 antennas for DAB+ broadcasting.

Around two dozen private radio stations in Switzerland will continue to broadcast via FM and will not discontinue the service until the end of 2026 at the latest.

+ Read more: not everyone happy with the end of FM radio

According to the Federal Office of Communications, around 10% of the population listened to radio only via FM at the end of 2024. Meanwhile, the use of DAB+ and internet radio has risen continuously since 2015: from 23% to 41% in 2023 for DAB+ and from 26% to 39% for internet radio.

FM radio was most frequently listened to while driving (33% of listeners in 2023), according to the federal office.

Adapted from German by DeepL/sb

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