"Crowding out" by the SRG? A Simulation Study on Willingness to Pay for Online News Services in Switzerland
- Project team: Sina Blassnig (IDCMI, Unifr/FHGR), Manuel Puppis (DCM Unifr), Frank Lobigs (TU Dortmund), Lukas Erbrich (TU Universität Dortmund), and Christian Zabel (TH Köln).
- Partnership with the ‘Media with a Future’ Association, the Foundation for Media Diversity and the Regional Action and Solidarity Fund.
- Duration: 01.06.2024 – 31.03.2025
The remit and funding of public service broadcasting are the subject of heated debate across Europe. In Swiss media policy, the issue is gaining prominence with the ‘Halving Initiative’ and the Federal Council’s proposal to cut funding for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG). Particularly with regard to online news provision, it is often argued that a reduction in the SRG’s services could strengthen private media. According to the assumption known in media economics as the ‘crowding-out’ hypothesis, the free online services provided by public service broadcasting reduce the willingness to pay for online services from private providers and make it more difficult to establish viable digital subscription models. Although empirical studies have so far been unable to confirm the ‘crowding-out’ hypothesis, it persists. Furthermore, there is a lack of specific research for Switzerland. This project therefore examines, using German-speaking Switzerland as an example, what impact the discontinuation of the online news service ‘SRF News’ would have on the revenues of private media.
To this end, a representative survey using a Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis (CBCA) was conducted in November/December 2024 to determine the product and price preferences of German-speaking Swiss residents and to simulate the market with and without the SRG.
The findings are clear: if public funding were to be withdrawn, free media outlets would benefit the most. Additional subscriptions to private online news services, by contrast, can only be sold to a very limited extent. The use of ‘SRF News’, as well as interest in news and trust in the media, are positively correlated with willingness to pay. In this respect, efforts could be made to indirectly encourage greater willingness to pay through political education and media literacy. In addition to a theoretical discussion of the ‘crowding-out’ hypothesis, the empirical results of this study thus provide important insights for the future shaping of media policy in Switzerland. Rather than restricting public broadcasting on the internet, media policy should consider media funding and new roles for media serving the public good in a digital society.
Publications:
Puppis, Manuel; Blassnig, Sina; Erbrich, Lukas; Zabel, Christian; and Lobigs, Frank (2025): Auswirkungen einer potenziellen Abschaltung des Online-Nachrichtenangebots SRF News. Warum dies keine Lösung für die Medienkrise in der Schweiz darstellt. Media Perspektiven, MP14, June 2025.