BERLIN – A new poll suggests the Swiss are willing to continue paying fees for public broadcasting before a referendum being closely watched across Europe.
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The survey published Friday by Tamedia group found 59 percent of respondents would reject a proposal to abolish the current system of financing public TV and radio stations.
The online poll of 15,197 voters, conducted Jan. 15, found 40 percent would back the so-called No Billag proposal, named after the company tasked with collecting the fee.
The survey has a margin of error of 1.1 percentage points.
Backers of the proposal, to be voted on March 4, say charging households 451.10 Swiss francs ($472.30) a year to use radio and television is excessive.
Opponents warn it could imperial an important public service in multilingual Switzerland.
