The recent decline in access at Radio SRF 1 was just a side note in persoenlich.com’s analysis – the focus was on private stations. The station SRG Radio SRF 1 was tuned in daily by 1.083 million listeners in the first half of 2024 – 95,000 less than in the first half of 2023. The research center Mediapulse reported that this is a significant loss. The decline of about 8 percent within a year has been a topic of conversation among some SRF employees and in radio-affine circles. What happened?
In response to a request from persoenlich.com on Monday, SRF said: “It is known that the reach of linear media is continuously decreasing. This also affects SRF radio stations.” In fact – to stay with Radio SRF 1 for example – the flagship station has lost around 25 percent of its listeners since the introduction of the new measurement system in 2018.
But these numbers are within the scope of the overall radio market, ie SRG stations, Swiss private stations and stations from abroad combined. Overall, radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland have lost around 28 percent of their listeners since 2018.
SRF attributes the decline to DAB+ broadcast technology: “The spread of DAB+ technology continues to increase, and Swiss households can now receive many more stations than before.” The behavior of the German-speaking Swiss media is changing. “It is therefore important that SRF adapts to this and distributes its content through digital channels while at the same time continuing to engage with audiences as much as possible through linear channels. “The news app is now our most important news channel,” the media office said.
The numbers for the first semester of 2025 will be exciting. At the end of 2024, SRG will pull the plug on FM broadcasting (persoenlich.com reported).