SRG
SSR is the Swiss public broadcasting organisation, founded in 1931.
Headquartered in Bern,[1] SRG SSR is a non-profit organisation, funded
mainly through radio and television licence fees (70%) and making the
remaining income from advertising and sponsorship.
Switzerland's
system of direct democracy and the fact that the country has four
official languages (German, French, Italian and Romansh) mean that the
structure of Swiss public service broadcasting is rather complicated.
The actual holders of the broadcasting licences that enable SRG SSR to
operate are four regional associations: SRG idée suisse Deutschschweiz
(SRG.D), SSR idée suisse Romande (RTSR), Società cooperativa per la
radiotelevisione nella Svizzera italiana (CORSI), and SRG SSR idée
suisse Svizra Rumantscha (SRG.R). These four associations, which are to a
large part run by the listeners and viewers in each region, maintain
SRG SSR as a joint central production and broadcasting company.
Name
SRG SSR idée suisse logo used until 2010
SRG
SSR is the business name of the association, while its official name is
Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft (SRG, formerly
"Schweizerische Rundspruchgesellschaft") in German, Société suisse de
radiodiffusion et télévision (SSR, formerly "Société suisse de
radiodiffusion") in French, Società svizzera di radiotelevisione (SSR,
formerly "Società svizzera di radiodiffusione") in Italian, and Societad
svizra da radio e televisiun (SSR, formerly "Societad svizra da radio")
in Romansh. The names altogether are shortened to SRG SSR. In English,
the organisation is known as the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation; it
often uses the abbreviation "SBC". The moniker "idée suisse" (French:
Swiss idea), which refers to the public service mission of the
organisation, was adopted in 1999 and was removed from the name in May
2011.
History
Europe's
third public radio station started broadcasting from Lausanne in 1922,
from the start based on a licence fee system. 980 licences were bought
in 1923. Within a few years radio cooperatives working along the same
principles had started throughout the country. In 1930 it was decided
that radio was an important public service that should not be allowed to
become a money maker for private interests, and that it needed to be
structured on a federal basis. In 1931 SRG-SSR was founded (see original
names above), as a co-ordination organisation for the regional
broadcast associations, and received the only licence to broadcast from
the Federal Council. The same year it was agreed that all news reports
in the new medium had to be provided by the Swiss news agency SDA, a
decision that remained unchanged until 1971.
The first national
transmitters began operating in 1931: Radio Sottens for French, Radio
Beromünster for German, and 1933 (Radio Monte Ceneri for Italian. In
1938 Romansh was recognised as the country's fourth national language,
and the Zürich studios began broadcasting programmes in Romansh in
between those in German. During the Second World War, SRG-SSR filled an
important function as a neutral, unbiased supplier of news, reaching far
outside Switzerland's borders through shortwave transmissions. Radio
Beromünster became known as the only free German-language radio station
in Europe.
In 1950 SRG-SSR was one of 23 founding broadcasting
organisations of the European Broadcasting Union. In 1953 television
test transmissions started in Zürich – one hour per evening, five days a
week – immediately attracting 920 early TV licence buyers. In 1958
regular TV transmissions started in German (from Zürich) and French
(from Geneva). For the Italian-speaking region, the programmes were
re-transmitted with Italian subtitles. 50,000 TV licences were bought
the first year.
In 1960 the company was renamed Schweizerische
Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft (and the equivalent names in the other
languages - see above) to reflect the addition of television services.
In 1964 the Federal Council allowed television advertising, as a means
of keeping licence fees down. In 1966 the three main languages were each
given a second radio channel, in order to counter the effects of new
commercial broadcasters outside the country, whose strong signals were
reaching the Swiss population. In the same year a dedicated Romansh
broadcasting unit was created in Chur, using some of the new
German-language second channel's broadcasting time. In 1968 colour
television was introduced, and the number of licence fee payers passed
one million.
In 1978 the radio channels started stereo
transmissions. In 1983 the Federal Council relaxed the Swiss media
legislation to permit local private and commercial radio channels.
SRG-SSR countered this threat by launching its third set of channels,
aimed at a younger audience. In 1991 SRG-SSR underwent a wide-ranging
restructuring. The enterprise organised itself as a private industry
association, structured as a holding company under Swiss company law.
The current name, SRG SSR idée suisse, was introduced. In 1992 Radio
Rumantsch was separated from the German-language radio broadcaster, that
had housed the Romansh broadcasting activities since 1938, and in 1994
the Romansh TV activities were moved over as well and the Romansh
company renamed itself Radio e Televisiun Rumantscha.
end