The soap opera continues in Bern on the future of the SSR fee. This is being attacked by a popular initiative tabled in 2023 aiming to reduce it to 200 francs (instead of the current 335 francs). For its part, the Federal Council proposed last summer to reduce it to 300 francs by 2029.
The Federal Council also proposes that the threshold which subjects a company to the fee increases from 500,000 francs of turnover to 1.2 million. From 2027, around 80% of companies subject to VAT would no longer pay the fee.
On Tuesday, the Transport and Telecommunications Commission of the National Council narrowly adopted (13 votes against 12) the idea of an indirect counter-project to the initiative, which provides for total exemption from the fee for companies ( like the initiative), the reduction in the license fee for households (without specifying the amount), an expansion of the powers of the Independent Authority for examining radio and television complaints or even an obligation of cooperation between the SSR and private providers, especially in sports.
The sister committee of the Council of States must now decide on this proposal.
The Swiss PS announced on Tuesday “that it firmly opposed the anti-SSR initiative and the counter-project”. For National Councilor Brenda Tuosto (PS/VD): “The public media service plays a key role, particularly in our direct democracy. (…) Instead of attacking the SSR head-on for purely ideological reasons, it should rather be strengthened and developed in the direction of a diversified media landscape.”
Among the Greens, the commission’s decision also goes down badly: “Like the populist initiative of the SVP against the SSR, the commission’s counter-proposal is a threat to the democratic process of forming opinions and cultural diversity,” said Geneva elected official Delphine Klopfenstein Broggini (V/GE).
