Media National Council wants to strengthen indirect press subsidies

The National Council wants to increase indirect press subsidies for the daily delivery of regional and local press from the current CHF 30 million per year to a new CHF 45 million for a limited period of seven years. The reduction is intended to ease the financial burden on publishers.

This should allow them to invest more money in the digital transformation. To this end, the Grand Chamber adopted a bill from its Committee for Transport and Telecommunications (KVF-N) on a revision of the Postal Services Act. In the overall vote, the National Council approved the bill by 126 votes to 61 with two abstentions. The Council of States must now decide on it.

There is also to be a federally subsidized reduction for the early delivery of daily newspapers during the week. With its decisions, the National Council also opposed the Confederation's savings proposals: A reduction in the federal contribution for indirect press subsidies was part of the recently published expert report on potential savings for the federal government.

The Federal Council applied in advance for the bill to be rejected. One of the reasons for its rejection was the tight financial situation.

Meanwhile, the annual federal contribution of CHF 20 million to the membership and foundation press was scrapped by the Grand Chamber. This was entirely in line with the Federal Council.

The Grand Chamber also adopted a motion to create a bill for the promotion of electronic media independent of channel and business model. The matter will also go to the Council of States. Here, too, the Federal Council had unsuccessfully requested a rejection in advance. The funding demanded by the KVF-N is to be financed from the federal budget.

SDA