Swiss House rejects initiative to cut radio and TV licence fee

The Swiss House of Representatives is not in favour of reducing radio and television licence fees from the current CHF335 ($380) to CHF200 per year in future. It recommends that the popular initiative “200 francs are enough” be rejected. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The large chamber rejected the initiative launched by right-wing Swiss People’s Party circles on Thursday by 116 votes to 74 with 2 abstentions. Parliamentary members from the People’s Party and part of the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party voted in favour of the popular initiative, known as the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) initiative or halving initiative. The SBC is SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent company. The Senate must now deal with the matter. Two motions by minority groups in the Committee also failed to gain a majority, which called for counter-proposals. A People’s Party minority wanted to send the initiative back to the committee with a mandate to draw up an indirect ...