On 28 May 2026, Switzerland's Federal Office of Communications (BAKOM/OFCOM) published its FM broadcasting frequency packages and reopened licence applications, with a deadline of 31 July 2026. Where several broadcasters contest the same package, BAKOM will hold an auction in autumn 2026. New radiocommunication licences take effect in January 2027 and run to 31 December 2034. In one administrative act, Switzerland converted a planned hard switch-off of analogue radio into a managed, market-priced wind-down — and it is a textbook case of a regulator correcting course when the evidence turned against its own timeline.
What BAKOM actually opened
BAKOM is releasing 20 frequency packages across 13 regions, roughly mirroring the coverage footprints that existed before 2020 (BAKOM press release, 28 May 2026). Reserved frequencies go to the public broadcaster SRG SSR and to existing licensed operators; everything else is grouped into geographic clusters and handed out on application. Crucially, only stations already receivable on DAB+ in the target area may apply, and any programme carried on FM must be simulcast identically on DAB+ (BAKOM, Vergabe der UKW-Funkkonzessionen).
That design matters. FM here is not a competitor to digital radio but a transitional bridge layered on top of it. Operators must launch their main transmitter within 90 days, can return a licence at any time, and pay an annual radiocommunication fee starting around CHF 10,000 for non-licensed broadcasters. The auction mechanism prices scarce spectrum only where demand genuinely exceeds supply, rather than presuming scarcity and rationing by fiat.
Steelmanning the switch-off
The case for killing FM outright was not frivolous. DAB+ carries more stations per slice of spectrum, costs broadcasters less to transmit at scale, and frees VHF capacity for other uses. Switzerland's digital migration is genuinely advanced: by autumn 2024, about 83 of every 100 radio minutes were consumed via DAB+ or the internet, DAB+ alone accounted for roughly 42% of listening, and DAB+ population coverage sits near 99.5% (WorldDAB, Switzerland). The Federal Council reasonably argued that maintaining parallel analogue infrastructure for a shrinking minority was a disproportionate cost imposed on broadcasters operating ageing transmitters. On efficiency grounds alone, sunsetting FM looked defensible.
Why the evidence broke the other way
The problem was the gap between an impressive aggregate and the people inside the residual. When SRG SSR switched off its 17 FM stations on 31 December 2024, the disruption was real and immediate. Around one in ten Swiss listeners still relied exclusively on FM — disproportionately older people, residents of peripheral valleys, and drivers with older car radios. SRG's own audience fell sharply after the shutdown; the research firm Mediapulse measured a decline of roughly a quarter, which SRG insists is temporary (Radio World). French-speaking and Ticino legislators warned that an industry-wide cut-off would push listeners in border regions toward foreign stations they could still receive in the car.
Parliament responded. After the National Council voted decisively to abandon the planned end-2026 cut-off, the Council of States narrowly concurred on 9 December 2025, 21 to 18 with 5 abstentions, instructing the Federal Council to keep FM alive and work out the legal basis (blue News). BAKOM's 28 May framework is the administrative implementation of that political reversal.
The right kind of regulation
From a pro-innovation standpoint, the lesson is not that digital radio failed — it plainly succeeded — but that a mandated end date for a legacy technology was the wrong instrument. Three features of BAKOM's new regime get the proportionality right.
- Technology neutrality. The state is no longer picking the moment FM dies. It licenses the spectrum, requires DAB+ simulcast so no listener is stranded, and lets broadcasters keep FM only as long as the audience and the economics justify the transmitter bill. The sunset becomes endogenous — set by listening behaviour, not a calendar.
- Market price discovery. Auctioning only contested packages reveals where FM still has commercial value. Where no one bids, the frequency quietly lapses. That is a far better allocator of scarce VHF than a regulator guessing demand years in advance.
- Reversibility. Because licences can be returned at any time and run only to 2034, the framework has a built-in expiry without a cliff edge. If digital adoption keeps climbing, FM withers on its own; if a region still needs it, the bridge stays up.
The contrast with the 2024 approach is instructive. A hard mandate treated a 90%-plus digital majority as licence to disregard the remainder; the reopened auction treats that remainder as a market signal worth pricing. Regulators elsewhere weighing analogue shutdowns — Germany's perennial DAB+ debate among them — should note which approach produced a sharp audience shock and a parliamentary U-turn, and which lets the technology retire on the public's timetable rather than the bureaucracy's.
What to watch
The open questions are practical. Auction rules are still to be published, and a high reserve or aggressive bidding could price small community and regional broadcasters out of frequencies they previously held cheaply — reintroducing through cost the exclusion the reversal was meant to cure. The CHF 10,000-plus annual fee plus simulcast obligation is a double cost that only viable stations will absorb. If BAKOM keeps reserve prices modest and the administrative burden light, the framework will stand as a model: digital-first, but humane about the last analogue mile. If the auction becomes a revenue exercise, it will have solved the wrong problem. On current design, Switzerland has chosen the proportionate path.