RTS Sport

What is RTS Sport?

RTS Sport is the sport output of Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), the unit of SRG SSR for French-speaking Switzerland, on the channels RTS 1 and RTS 2, on radio and on rts.ch. RTS's own site could not be retrieved, and the account here rests on the SRG's instruments and announcements and on the audience currency.

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 “Société de Radio-Télévision Suisse Romande”, alongside the German-and-Romansh, Italian and Romansh companies. Article 43 states that the concession came into force on 1 January 2019 and that its term “wird bis zum 31. Dezember 2028 verlängert”.^[1]

The statute behind it is the Bundesgesetz über Radio und Fernsehen (RTVG) of 24 March 2006, SR 784.40, read in the German consolidation “Stand am 1. Oktober 2024”. Under Article 24(1) the SRG supplies the whole population with equivalent programmes “in den drei Amtssprachen” and promotes understanding, cohesion and exchange between the parts of the country, language communities, cultures and social groups. Article 25(1) reads: “Der Bundesrat erteilt der SRG eine Konzession.”^[2]

What does RTS 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.”^[1]

RTS does not buy its rights alone. The SRG describes its Business Unit Sport as “our national centre of excellence for sports rights, productions, large-scale projects”, which “acquires all sports rights for SRG and manages the production of national sporting events” and acts “as a service provider for sports programming in all regions”.^[3]

Three dated announcements name RTS among the carriers. On 14 May 2024 the SRG, the Swiss Football League and blue Sport announced that for the seasons 2025/26 to 2029/30 the SRG would show one Super League match per round live, with highlights of all matches, on RSI, RTR, RTS and SRF.^[4] On 16 January 2023 the SRG announced that “SRF, RTS, RSI und RTR werden weiterhin live im TV und Radio sowie auf den Onlineplattformen über die Olympischen Spiele berichten”, covering the Winter Games of 2026 and 2030 and the Summer Games of 2028 and 2032, with the European Broadcasting Union as partner. The 2026 Winter Games have taken place.^[5]

How large is RTS 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 RTS 1 a 20.5 per cent share of viewing in French-speaking Switzerland. In the same table TF1 CH has 11.3 per cent, M6 CH 7.6 per cent and France 2 6.4 per cent. Those are one semester's readings, and they cover the channels as a whole rather than their sport programmes.^[6]

The Medienmonitor Schweiz, a Publicom study commissioned by BAKOM, gives RTS 1 a Meinungsmacht index of 31.86 in French-speaking Switzerland, in figures labelled Publicom 2025. The index is the study's own construction.^[7]

Since when has RTS Sport existed?

The SRG dates itself to 1931: “Founded in 1931 as the umbrella organisation for all radio companies, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (hence the abbreviation SRG)”. It records that in 1983 private radio stations began to compete with the SRG, and that ten years later the same happened to television. That is the SRG's own account.^[8]

No dated source for the formation of RTS as a unit was retrieved. The concession in force, from 1 January 2019, lists the Société de Radio-Télévision Suisse Romande as one of the four regional companies of the SRG.^[1]

The SRG's history page records the popular vote of March 2026, in which it gives the share of voters rejecting the initiative “200 francs are enough!” as 61.9 per cent.^[8]

Why does RTS Sport matter in Switzerland's sport?

RTS is the SRG's unit for the French-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, and to include popular and less widespread sports.^[1] It is named in the announcements of live Super League rights to 2029/30 and of Olympic coverage to 2032.^[4][5] In the first semester of 2026 RTS 1 had a 20.5 per cent share of viewing in French-speaking Switzerland, per Mediapulse.^[6]

Reporters Without Borders, in its 2026 index, writes that “The Swiss media landscape is marked by a strong public broadcasting network”, that “Public service broadcasting, in particular, has strong safeguards against political interference in programming”, and that “the public broadcaster remains obliged to implement cost-cutting measures amounting to around 17% of its budget in the coming years”. Those are RSF's words.^[9]