SRG SSR wishes to combine the news-gathering and production teams for radio and television. This will improve the range, quality and productivity of its multimedia services and broaden its accessibility to as large an audience as possible, no matter what the time, their location, or the issues in which they are interested. This is the background behind the "Media Convergence and Efficiency" project.

Media convergence is vital to SRG SSR if it wishes to keep up with the market, as it is impacted by the following factors:

• politics (the charter)
• competition from foreign broadcasters
• the Enterprise's critical financial situation
• changes in media consumption, journalism and technology.

Change in media consumption: In the past, the entire family would listen to the news on the radio as they ate their main meal of the day. Nowadays, each individual has their own listening and viewing habits with regard to time, place, and vector (radio, television, mobile phone, internet, iPod). SRG SSR must therefore provide multimedia services.

Change in journalism: Technology permits an infinite volume of information and increasingly rapid turnaround times. These days, anyone can post film or text on the internet at any time. Deadlines are a thing of the past. The explosion in unverifiable services and in the costs of news management has been enormous. Yet people still need to know where they are in this information maze. This is a great opportunity for a public service provider. SRG SSR takes on a lighthouse role in a sea of news.

Technological change: Technology has brought multifunctionality. Mobile phones can now be used not only to make calls, but also to listen to the radio, watch TV and send text messages, etc. In the past, there was a huge difference between the way radio and television journalists worked. This gap is closing as production technologies bring them together. PCs can now be used to edit both images and sound. And digitisation means that transmission paths have become much faster.

One project, two pillars

The "Media Convergence and Efficiency" project is being managed at a national level. It comprises two subprojects:

• The "Media Convergence" subproject  encompasses three regional convergence projects in German, French and Italian-speaking Switzerland. These concern the products and primary processes of news-gathering, as well as how it is organised. In many areas – referenda, education, sport, science, music, etc. – it makes sense for editorial teams to work together. The goal is variety and independence in journalism, which must be defended at all costs.
• The objective of the national "Optimisation of Support Processes" subproject is to optimise support functions from the business perspective.

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