RSI Sport

What is RSI Sport?

RSI Sport is the sport output of RSI, which describes itself in these words: “La RSI – Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana è un'emittente di servizio pubblico che fa parte della SRG SSR”. It states that it has three radio networks and two television channels, and that it is financed 75 per cent by the reception fee and 25 per cent by advertising, sponsorship and commercial activities.^[1]

Its web section, rsi.ch/sport, lists Calcio, Hockey, Motori, Ciclismo, Tennis, Atletica, Nuoto, Basket, Sci alpino, Sport invernali, Altri sport and Risultati, together with a section for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and names LA2 among its offers.^[2]

The SRG concession of 29 August 2018, in the version “Stand 19. Juni 2024” served by BAKOM, names among the SRG's regional companies the “Società cooperativa per la radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana”. Article 43 states that the concession came into force on 1 January 2019 and that its term “wird bis zum 31. Dezember 2028 verlängert”.^[3] The statute is the RTVG of 24 March 2006, SR 784.40, in the German consolidation “Stand am 1. Oktober 2024”, under whose Article 24(1) the SRG supplies the whole population with equivalent programmes “in den drei Amtssprachen”.^[4]

What does RSI Sport cover?

Article 10(1) of the SRG concession reads: “Das Angebot im Bereich Sport beinhaltet in erster Linie die Berichterstattung über: a. Sportereignisse mit Beteiligung von schweizerischen Athletinnen und Athleten sowie schweizerischen Teams; b. bedeutende internationale Sportveranstaltungen in der Schweiz”. Its letter c adds the major sporting events listed in an annex to a UVEK ordinance of 5 October 2007. Article 10(2) reads: “Die SRG berücksichtigt in ihrem Angebot im Bereich Sport auch Breitensportarten und wenig verbreitete Sportarten.”^[3]

The navigation of rsi.ch/sport on 26 September 2026 gives football and ice hockey the first two places, followed by motor sport, cycling, tennis, athletics, swimming, basketball, alpine skiing and winter sports.^[2]

In football, the SRG announced on 14 May 2024, with the Swiss Football League and blue Sport, that for the seasons 2025/26 to 2029/30 it would show “ein Spiel pro Runde der höchsten Schweizer Liga im Männerfussball live” and highlights of all matches, naming RSI among the four units that carry them.^[5]

How large is RSI Sport's audience?

Television audiences in Switzerland are measured by Mediapulse. Its publication for the first semester of 2026, 1 January to 30 June, counting persons aged 3 and over including guests, on all platforms, overnight +7, gives RSI LA 1 a 17.1 per cent share of viewing in Italian-speaking Switzerland and RSI LA 2 11.0 per cent. In the same table Canale 5 has 9.8 per cent, Rai 1 7.7 per cent and teleticino 2.7 per cent. Those are one semester's readings for whole channels, not for sport programmes.^[6]

RSI writes of “i 350 mila abitanti del Canton Ticino e del Grigioni italiano”, the 350,000 inhabitants of Ticino and Italian-speaking Graubünden, and describes itself as “Leader di mercato nella Svizzera italiana”; those are RSI's own words.^[1] The Medienmonitor Schweiz, a Publicom study for BAKOM, gives RSI LA 1 a Meinungsmacht index of 37.21 in Italian-speaking Switzerland, in figures labelled Publicom 2025.^[7]

Since when has RSI Sport existed?

No dated source for the founding of RSI or of its sport department was retrieved; the RSI pages read give no founding year. The concession in force from 1 January 2019 lists the Società cooperativa per la radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana as one of the SRG's four regional companies.^[3][1]

RSI's financing rests on the fee that was put to a popular vote in 2026. The federal department UVEK records: “Am 8. März 2026 hat das Stimmvolk die Initiative «200 Franken sind genug!» mit 61,9 Prozent Nein-Stimmen abgelehnt.” It records that the Federal Council decided instead to reduce the household fee step by step to 300 francs by 2029.^[8]

Why does RSI Sport matter in Switzerland's sport?

RSI is the SRG's unit for the Italian-speaking region. The SRG concession requires the SRG to report in the first place on events with Swiss athletes and teams and on major international events in Switzerland.^[3] It is one of the four units named in the Super League rights announcement for 2025/26 to 2029/30.^[5] In the first semester of 2026 its two channels held the shares given above in Mediapulse's table for the region.^[6]

Complaints about its programmes go first to an ombudsman office and then to the Unabhängige Beschwerdeinstanz für Radio und Fernsehen (UBI), which states that it “beurteilt Beschwerden gegen Radio- und Fernsehsendungen schweizerischer Veranstalter und gegen das übrige publizistische Angebot der SRG”.^[9]