About the Outlook
Switzerland's entertainment and media industry experienced slower growth in 2023, with revenues increasing by 1.7% to CHF 21.4 billion. This can be attributed to factors such as inflation, higher cost of living, and the waning impact of the post-COVID rebound. As a result, entertainment and media (E&M) providers are expected to face a more challenging operating environment in the coming years, with growth predicted to slow after 2024.
To remain competitive, the industry must embrace digital transformation, data analytics, and explore new revenue streams. This report provides a detailed outlook for the E&M market in Switzerland up to 2028, highlighting key findings and exploring the potential of generative artificial intelligence in the industry.
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Segment Highlights
Generative artificial intelligence
Generative AI has the power to stimulate revenue growth rather than simply enable cost reductions to be achieved. Owing to the strength of the industries that the technology is most likely to benefit, such as finance, media and technology, Switzerland is likely to benefit greatly from the increasing development of AI.
Virtual reality, augmented reality and metaverse
Strong growth is expected for total VR and mobile AR revenue over the forecast period. However, current growth in VR is slow owing to the relatively poor sales of a variety of VR headsets, with 2023 year-on-year growth of 36.4% in total VR and AR revenue almost entirely driven by mobile AR advertising revenue. This is increasingly growing thanks to the ongoing development of AR and its increasing sophistication, which is drawing more ad spending.
Business-to-business
B2B market growth in 2023 was driven by the ongoing strong return of trade shows, which increased by 38.8% year-on-year, contributing to 9.2% overall growth for the year.
Cinema
Like several other Western European cinema markets, the film sector in Switzerland is slowly recovering from losses sustained in the COVID-19 pandemic era. Overall box office revenue in Switzerland is predicted to be CHF 229 million by the end of the forecast period in 2028, up on the prepandemic figure of CHF 193 million in 2019.
Internet access
Switzerland is one of the more valuable internet access markets in Europe, despite its relatively small population. While Sweden and Denmark were ahead of Switzerland in terms of share of households with internet access in 2003, in 2023 almost every Swiss household had access to the internet (99.7% compared with the 93.1% EU average).
Internet advertising
Switzerland has an incredibly mature internet advertising market, and total revenue will see solid growth over the forecast period, increasing from CHF 3.1 billion in 2023 to CHF 4.0 billion in 2028 at a 5.5% CAGR.
Music and radio
Switzerland’s music and radio revenue saw year-on-year growth of 10.4% in 2023, largely driven by the continuing strong rebound of live music following the pandemic, although marginal growth is expected overall through to 2028.
Newspapers, consumer magazines and books
The total revenues generated by the newspapers, consumer magazines and books market in 2023 was CHF 1.9 billion, a 3.6% year-on-year drop. This decline is expected to persist until 2028, with total revenue decreasing at a -2.9% CAGR to CHF 1.7 billion. This is driven by continuing declines in print media, with the print formats of newspapers, consumer magazines and books all expected to see declines.
Out-of-home
Switzerland remains the fourth-largest OOH market in Western Europe, trailing only Germany, the UK and France. In 2023, the post-COVID-19 recovery in the Swiss market slowed to year-on-year growth of 6.7% from 17.0% in 2022.
Over-the-top video
The Swiss OTT market (Netflix & Co.) is competitive and nearly saturated, but revenues continue to grow because households are ‘stacking’ multiple streaming services.
Traditional TV and radio
Despite concerns over subscribers, Switzerland’s traditional pay TV players remain in a relatively strong position. Subscription TV revenue in Switzerland will increase at a 1.6% CAGR to reach CHF 1.6 billion in 2028, up from CHF 1.5 billion in 2023.
TV advertising
The TV advertising market had been declining prior to COVID-19, and this trajectory has not altered significantly enough to reverse this trend. Total TV advertising revenues were recorded at CHF 647 million in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 5.4%.
Video games
Total video games revenue reached nearly CHF 1.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach CHF 1.8 billion in 2028, growing at a CAGR of 4.0%. Physical PC game revenues will suffer a significant decline up until 2028 in line with other global markets, while physical console sales will also drop off, albeit at a much gentler rate.
Executive summary
This overview summarises the most important findings across each of the 13 sectors explored in the Swiss Entertainment & Media Outlook 2024 report.
