Swiss Broadcasting Corporation to cut 1,000 jobs by 2029

The job cuts are part of the biggest transformation project in the SBC's history. Keystone / Anthony Anex

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, SWI swissinfo.ch's parent company, will cut around 1,000 full-time positions by 2029. The SBC confirmed media reports about the savings programme to the Keystone-SDA news agency on Thursday.

According to reports in Tamedia newspapers, the estimated savings will be made as part of the so-called Enavant transformation project announced by new SBC director-general Susanne Wille.

+ Get the most important news directly in your inbox

Wille took up her post on November 1. In a speech on her very first day of work, she announced the “biggest transformation” in the company’s history, the report said. This involves savings of around CHF270 million ($305.5 million) by 2029, which according to the SBC corresponds to a budget reduction of around 17%.

+ Swiss publisher Tamedia makes massive job cuts and closes printing plants

Various factors putting SBC under pressure

The reasons cited by the public broadcaster for the savings programme are: the gradual reduction in the license fee in accordance with the government’s amended ordinance (a gradual reduction from CHF335 to CHF300 per household by 2029 is foreseen); a significant decline in advertising revenue; and rising costs. Changes in media usage by the population and international competition also made the adjustment process necessary.

+ Three-quarters of Swiss use ‘divisive’ social media daily

Enavant is new in terms of its approach, depth, complexity and speed, the SBC announced after Wille took office. Budget reductions would not only be distributed across the company units, it said, but the company as a whole would be considered.

How to continue to offer added value in the future

The questions asked were what service strategy the SBC will use to meet the demands of the public media service of the future and how it can continue to offer users an added value. They also asked what structures and processes the SBC will need in the future, how it will organise cooperation within the business units, how it will use technology, and how the transformation will succeed within the specified timeframe.

Translated from German with DeepL/gw

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].