Media End of FM radio reception on New Year's Eve midnight
At 11.59 pm this Tuesday evening, New Year's Eve 2024, FM radio reception will come to an end. SRG is pulling the plug on the SRF1, SRF2 Kultur and SRF3 stations. Connections to around 850 ultra-shortwave transmitters throughout Switzerland will be cut.
31.12.2024, 21:58
SDA
Anyone wishing to continue listening to the three SRF radio stations in the new year will have to switch to the digital radio broadcasting technology DAB+ or Internet radio. All other SRG programs were previously only available via the Internet or DAB+. SRG now only needs around 260 antennas for DAB+ broadcasting.
However, around two dozen private radio stations in Switzerland will continue to broadcast via FM and will not discontinue the service until the end of 2026 at the latest.
According to the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom), around 10 percent of the population in Switzerland will still be listening to radio exclusively via FM at the end of 2024. Meanwhile, the use of DAB+ and internet radio has risen continuously since 2015: for DAB+ from 23% to 41% in 2023 and for internet radio from 26% to 39%.
FM radio was still most frequently listened to in the car in 2023 at 33 percent, but digital use predominated there too, according to Bakom.
