MEMBER PRESS RELEASE

The SRG is repositioning itself and moving closer together

11 July 2025
Switzerland’s public broadcaster SRG plans to streamline, boost digital output and deepen regional collaboration to stay relevant, while pledging to maintain its local roots and broad reach. 
SRG SSR
The offices of SRG SSR in Bern. Credit: SRG SSR

This press release was originally published by SRG SSR. 

The SRG (Swiss Broadcasting Corporation) is facing greater challenges than ever before. By 2029, it must save around CHF 270 million, or 17 percent of its budget. This is also because the media fee will be reduced to CHF 300 in the future. At the same time, the environment is changing rapidly. The SRG wants to continue offering high-quality programming that reaches all segments of the population. To achieve this, it must fundamentally reposition and transform itself. The SRG will become more digital, leaner, and more agile, and will collaborate more closely across regions. Regional roots, presence, and proximity to the audience remain central to this.

The way people consume media is changing rapidly. Today, more than half of media consumption is already digital—and the trend is rising sharply. SRG competes with a multitude of international digital providers. Advertising revenues are declining sharply. Over the past ten years, SRG has lost over CHF 160 million in commercial revenue.

Clear savings mandate – but saving alone is not enough

The Federal Council has decided to reduce the media fee for households in two steps from 335 to 300 francs from 2027 to 2029, and to exempt other companies from the fee. The reduction in the media fee, the decline in commercial revenue, and ongoing inflation mean that, according to current assumptions, the SRG will have to save around 17 percent, or 270 million francs, of its budget by 2029 compared to 2024. In concrete terms, this means that the SRG will have to save 215 million francs as early as the beginning of 2027. This is a large amount in a short period of time, which cannot be distributed among the regional units SRF, RTR, RTS, and RSI, as has been done so far.

“SRG must implement the political austerity mandate. However, SRG cannot meet the challenges ahead with austerity alone. It must fundamentally reposition itself so that it can continue to offer the people of Switzerland a strong program in all four national languages,” says SRG Chairman of the Board of Directors Jean-Michel Cina.

Join forces

“SRG will remain firmly anchored throughout Switzerland. Regional presence and proximity to the audience remain central.” – Susanne Wille, Director General of SRG

The Board of Directors and Executive Board of SRG have decided to rethink the SRG as an organization and create new structures so that the SRG can work together more effectively and pool resources across all regions in the future. This affects, for example, the functional areas of HR, Finance, and Technology/IT. SRG Director General Susanne Wille: “SRG will remain firmly anchored throughout Switzerland. Regional presence and proximity to the audience remain central. However, we are moving closer together in order to continue to produce a strong program with less money. We are cutting back on structures and processes to protect journalism as best as possible. But one thing is also clear: We will not be able to save this amount without impacting our offerings.”

The reorganization of SRG is an initial result of the company-wide transformation project “Enavant SRG SSR,” which the Board of Directors and the CEO launched last fall. The next phase will involve developing the new organizational structure and processes in detail. Implementation of the new organization will be phased in and begin in early 2026. The planned cost-cutting measures will also impact employees. SRG will strive to maintain these employees in a responsible and as socially acceptable manner as possible. A precise estimate of the number of affected employees is currently under review.

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Leveraging proven strengths

This decision was preceded by a comprehensive analysis. It shows that SRG, with its regional brands, is close to its audience. Eight out of ten people in Switzerland use the services of the RSI, RTR, RTS, and SRF corporate units at least weekly and are very satisfied with the content. SRG employees have a high level of expertise in a wide range of subject areas. SRG successfully distributes journalistic content across all channels. Its multilingual offering is unique in Switzerland. SRG intends to preserve these strengths.

However, the analysis also shows that what made the SRG strong in the past—its focus on linear radio and television channels, strong linguistic-regional differentiation, and decentralized corporate units—has led to historically evolved structures that are sometimes complex and complicate coordination. In light of technological change, accelerated changes in media usage, and tighter financial frameworks, these structures must be simplified.

Digital, slimmer, more agile

For example, each language region has its own functional areas such as finance, human resources, and technology/IT. There is no uniform performance measurement system or cross-SRG standards for production planning and control. Furthermore, only three to five percent of SRG content is used by more than one corporate unit. In the future, SRG intends to collaborate more closely across regions to jointly develop content and distribute it in all four language and cultural areas of Switzerland.

The new organization will enable long-term cost savings, consistently align offerings with audience needs and habits, and better coordinate content across regions. Processes and standards will be standardized, making the company more manageable. SRG will become more digital, leaner, and more agile—while remaining firmly rooted in its regional roots.

Note: Independent of “Enavant SRG SSR,” short-term cost-cutting measures are already necessary by 2026 due to the decline in commercial revenues and because inflation can no longer be fully offset. The affected SRG corporate units will provide separate information July 1. 

Cornerstones of the new organizational structure
  • Regional roots remain the DNA and strength of SRG: The current corporate units RSI, RTR, RTS, and SRF will work more systematically and more closely together in the future. To improve collaboration on programming across all regions, we are introducing new mandatory instruments. The regions will continue to ensure proximity to the audience in terms of content and maintain a regional presence. They will develop the offering from a language-regional perspective in the genres of information, entertainment and music, society and culture, and knowledge and education. The language regions will continue to be responsible for regional distribution, for example, television and radio channels, apps, etc., thus focusing on SRG’s journalistic mission.
  • Fiction and sports will be managed at the SRG level and organized with specialist teams for each language region: The strategic management of content will now be coordinated across all regions. In sports, intensive cooperation between the language regions already exists, and many services such as sports rights and major projects are provided nationally. Combining the editorial departments into a single unit is a logical step to further intensify collaboration in the production process and utilize synergies. In fiction, we want to coordinate even better across the SRG so that, for example, in-house productions such as series for our own digital platforms are ideally distributed throughout the year. The actual productions will continue to be carried out with the regional specialist teams on site and partners in the regions.
  • The HR, Finance, and Technology/IT functional areas will be managed and managed jointly across SRG and organized into regional specialist teams. This simplifies and streamlines the organization so that we can continue to develop a strong program with a lower budget. Whatever we can do together, we will do together in the future. The regional specialist managers will remain close to the teams and day-to-day business.
  • Production is consolidated and managed and accounted for across SRG: Today, the corporate units produce their content largely independently of one another. The regional teams are all managed by a single, shared line. This makes us more efficient and agile. However, jobs will remain in the regions.
  • We are becoming more digital, thus securing the future of SRG. SRG is focusing more closely on the changing habits of its audience and aligning its thinking and actions with digital usage. We are strengthening our own digital platforms and ensuring that our content reaches our audience. We are now doing this jointly through a Switzerland-wide management system, rather than each region individually. In this way, we want to initiate a profound digital transformation while continuing to look after the traditional TV and radio channels.
  • SWISS TXT: With the consolidation of technology/IT under group-wide management, SWISS TXT will be integrated into the corporate organization. SWISS TXT’s services and expertise will thus become an integral part of the SRG Group. The existing subsidiary will be dissolved during the implementation of the project.
  • Swissinfo: Swissinfo will work more closely with all other corporate units in the future, with the goal of continuing to serve the needs of its audiences abroad as effectively as possible. Depending on the political process that determines the federal government’s future financial framework for SRG’s international mandate, Swissinfo’s positioning within SRG will be reorganized.
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