Poll shows Swiss willing to keep paying for public TV, radio

A new poll suggests the Swiss are willing to continue paying fees for public broadcasting before a referendum being closely watched across Europe.

The survey published Friday by Tamedia group found 59 percent of respondents would reject a proposal to abolish the current system of financing public TV and radio stations.

The online poll of 15,197 voters, conducted Jan. 15, found 40 percent would back the so-called No Billag proposal, named after the company tasked with collecting the fee.

The survey has a margin of error of 1.1 percentage points.

Backers of the proposal, to be voted on March 4, say charging households 451.10 Swiss francs ($472.30) a year to use radio and television is excessive.

Opponents warn it could imperial an important public service in multilingual Switzerland.