For Swiss viewers in the UK reading these headlines…. Don’t PANIC!

SSR SRG have decided the time is right to end transmission of their programmes in Switzerland by aerial (terrestrial) transmitter only. Not satellite, which will continue and is their recommended method of replacement for the now less than 2% of the population still receiving their channels this way. With satellite it is a lot easier to change over to HD.

Unlike Germany, when the time to end SD ( standard definition ) transmission came, they had considerably higher numbers to consider and changed all the transmitters to HD .

Fortunately in the UK, the Swiss SSR SRG channels on Hotbird will continue and no change is required.

These are encrypted and to obtain your Swiss card, for reception, you can apply via the Swiss Embassy or there are some online vendors selling these, although at a slightly raised price.

The SSR SRG Satellite channel access Card enables the following channels to be seen, covering the interests of Italian, (RSI 1 and 2), French ( RTS 1 and 2 ) and German (SRF1 and 2, SRF info and 3+ ) Swiss citizens.
Note that for full coverage a dish having both Hotbird AND Astra 1 coverage is needed.

For those unable to obtain the card, there are also some Swiss variants of the following German channels:
RTL, RTL2, Sat 1, Pro7, Kabel 1, Vox Plus the Swiss Schweiz 5. All these are free on the Astra 1 satellite.