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Operating results 2011
SRG's financial policy is geared to achieving financial stability and thereby maintaining its independence. A balanced budget is fundamental to this aim, which was achieved for the 2011 financial year as the parent company generated corporate earnings of 25.8 million Swiss francs.
This surplus can be attributed to a number of factors. Firstly, licence fee revenues rose by 6.2 million francs compared with the previous year owing to an increase in the number of individual and business fee-payers. Secondly, the move by Billag AG, which collects the licence fee, to annual invoicing resulted in the write-back of 17.9 million francs in accruals that are no longer needed. In addition, with the advertising market reinvigorated, advertising revenues were up by 14.4 million francs year-on-year.
There were no Olympic Games or any world championships in major popular sports in 2011, so costs were lower. In addition, 120 members of staff in production and technology at SRG moved to our TPC subsidiary during the year. These two factors reduced personnel expenses by 23.7 million francs, and other operating expenses by 10.3 million francs. The use of synergies within the parent company and the completion of merger and efficiency projects also lightened other expenses by a further 8.3 million francs.
On the other side of the equation, there was a sharp 31.7 million rise in programming and production costs. This is due primarily to the great expense of production inputs, and the expansion of in-house productions from 19.9 percent to 21.6 percent of broadcast output. The decision to move the current offices in Basel to a more central location resulted in unbudgeted write-offs of 16.5 million francs. Meanwhile, with price and exchange rate losses contained, the financial result recovered by 7.8 million francs.
Over the year to come, SRG will continue to pursue its balanced budget policy target. The outlook for 2012 is positive, not least because of major sporting events.
