Thanks to its multilingualism and cultural diversity, Switzerland has a rich and extensive media landscape.
Media
In 2017 Switzerland had 336 German-language newspapers, 59 French-language papers, 11 Italian-language papers and 2 Romansh papers, with a total print circulation of 3.3 million. Added to this are the many magazines, special-interest publications, free newspapers and official journals and gazettes.
The leading newspapers are owned by two media groups: Tamedia and Ringier, both based in Zurich. The highest-circulation newspapers are the free dailies “20 Minuten” (451,000 copies), “Blick am Abend” (254,000) and “20 Minutes” (174,000). The highest-circulation newspapers in German-speaking Switzerland are “Tages-Anzeiger" (149,000) and “Blick” (136,000), while the highest-circulation magazines are “Der Beobachter” (293,000) and “Schweizer Illustrierte (156,000). In French-speaking Switzerland, the most-read newspapers are “24 Heures” (55,000) and “Le Matin” (38,000), while the most-read magazines are “L’Illustré” (63,000) and “L’Hebdo” (39,000).
Television and radio
The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR has 17 public radio stations (such as SRF 1, La Première, RSI and Radio Rumantsch), as well as a number of public TV channels, including SRF, RTS and TSI. In German-speaking Switzerland, SRF 1 is the most popular radio station, with daily listener figures of 1.5 million. In French-speaking Switzerland La Première leads the way with 538,000daily listeners. In terms of TV, SRF has a 29% market share in German-speaking Switzerland. In French-speaking Switzerland RTS has a 26% market share, and in Italian-speaking Switzerland RSI has a market share of 28%.
Switzerland also has 43 privately owned regional radio stations, which collectively have a market share of 31% in German-speaking Switzerland, 26% in French-speaking Switzerland, and 11% in Italian-speaking Switzerland. There are 13 privately owned local TV stations, which have a market share of 9% in German-speaking Switzerland, 1% in French-speaking Switzerland, and 2 % in Italian-speaking Switzerland.
