Radio
The SRG SSR structure reflects the fact that Switzerland is multilingual as well as multicultural: Production facilities are distributed all over the language regions. Six radio studios (Zurich, Berne, Basel, Geneva, Lausanne and Lugano) and four regional studios (Aarau, Chur, Lucerne, St. Gall) provide regional news.
SRF, the Radio and TV organisation for the German-speaking part operates six stations (Radio SRF 1, Radio SRF 2 Kultur, Radio SRF 3, Radio SRF 4 News, Radio SRF Musikwelle and Radio SRF Virus). The overall programme output amounts to 54,472 hours (2015). RTS, the Radio and TV organisation for the French-speaking part, operates four radio stations: La Première, Espace 2, Couleur 3 and Option Musique. The overall programme output stands at 35,039 hours (2015). RSI, the radio and TV organisation for the Italian-operates three stations, namely Rete Uno, Rete Due and Rete Tre, totalling 26,280 hours of radio broadcasting programmes in 2015. RTR, the Radio and TV organisation for the Romansh-of Switzerland operates one station with a programme output of 8,760 hours annually (2015).
In the radio sector, national public radio competes heavily with regional commercial radio. Almost 60 percent of the market share goes to SRF radio stations, about 30 percent to regional commercial radio stations. Competition from abroad is rather insignificant with 5 percent.
The leading position of the public broadcast radio stations is obvious when looking at the market shares. In 2015, the German-speaking station Radio SRF with its focus on news, general information and Swiss and easy-listening music, claimed 31 percent of the market share. Radio SRF 2 Culture (classic music, culture) made three percent, Radio SRF DRS 3 (information and pop music) accounted for 17 percent. Radio SRF 4 News (exclusively news - no music at all), launched in November 2007, and Virus (for the young listeners) can be received via cable, Internet or satellite. They reach a market share of less than one percent. The market shares of the corresponding public radio stations of the French-speaking regionread as follows: La Première 38 percent, Espace 2,3 percent, Couleur 3 6.5 percent. Swiss commercial stations in this part of Switzerland received 24 percent and almost ten percent went to foreign stations. The data for the Italian-speaking part: Rete Uno 41,2 percent, Rete Due 4,9 percent and Rete Tre 17,4 percent. Finally, RTR got an audience share of 19.4 percent or an average of 10,000 listeners per day (2015).
The regional commercial radio stations with the biggest market share in the German-speaking part (2015) are: Radio 24 (agglomeration of Zurich), Radio Energy (agglomeration of Zurich), Argovia (canton of Aargau), Radio FM1 (canton of St. Gall), Radio Pilatus (central Switzerland). The market shares lie between 2.6 percent and 2.3 percent. In the French-speaking part the most successful stations reach a market share between 2.4 percent and 3.8 percent: BNJ FM (French-speaking part of canton Berne: Jura Bernois), Lausanne FM, Rouge FM and One FM. In the Italian-speaking part 3i and Fiume Ticino are the commercial radio stations with reasonable reach.