Radiotelevisione svizzera, officially Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (; "Swiss Radiotelevision of the Italian Language"), shortened to RSI (formerly RTSI until 2009), is a subsidiary of the

Swiss Broadcasting Corporation The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (; ; ; ; SRG SSR) is the Swiss public broadcasting association, founded in 1931, the holding company of 24 radio and television channels. Headquartered in Bern, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation is a non-pro ...

(SRG SSR), operating in

Italian-speaking Switzerland The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian, and Romansh. German, French, and Italian maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the federal administration of the Swiss Confederation, ...

. Besides Italian, it also handles the production and broadcasting of programs in Lombard. Its administrative headquarters are located in Via Canevascini in

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

History

''Radio svizzera di lingua italiana'' was established in 1925 as ''Radio Monte Ceneri'', originally named after

the mountain The Mountain () was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards (), sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. The term, first used during a session of the Legislative Assembly, came into ge ...

where the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

was placed. After several years of experimental broadcast, in 1933 the ''Società svizzera di Radiodiffusione'' (Swiss Radio Broadcasting Corporation) began regular transmissions in

Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...

and

Grigioni The Grisons (; ) or Graubünden (),Names include: * ; * Romansh: ** ** ** ** ** **; * ; * ; * . See also other names. more formally the Canton of the Grisons or the Canton of Graubünden, is one of the twenty-six cantons of Switzerland. I ...

. The intentions of its founders were to promote cohesion in the

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

while promoting the value of the

Swiss Italian The Italian language in Italian Switzerland or Swiss Italian (, ) is the variety of the Italian language taught in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland. While this variety is mainly spoken in the canton of Ticino and in the southern part ...

culture. In the 1930s and 1940s, when most of Switzerland's neighboring states were under

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

(

Italian Fascism Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...

and

National Socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

), Radio Monte Ceneri was the only

Italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...

radio free of

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

, becoming the only reliable voice for the Italian population and a prominent outlet for Italian intellectuals: during these years it hosted people like

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce, ( , ; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography, and aesthetics. A Cultural liberalism, poli ...

and

Delio Tessa Delio Tessa (18 November 1886 – 21 September 1939) was an Italians, Italian poet from Milan who wrote dialect poetry. Biography He studied at the Secondary school, High school Cesare Beccaria, Beccaria in Milan and graduated as a lawyer in t ...

. The first TV broadcasts date back to

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

, at first produced in studios in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

and transmitted with

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

subtitles. In

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

, with the foundation of

Televisione svizzera di lingua italiana Radiotelevisione svizzera, officially Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (; "Swiss Radiotelevision of the Italian Language"), shortened to RSI (formerly RTSI until 2009), is a subsidiary of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR ...

(TSI), the studios were relocated in Paradiso, near

. This was eight years after the experimental debut of television in Zürich and

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. The channel began broadcasting in colour in

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

. During the 1970s, when

Italian television Television in Italy was Timeline of the introduction of television in countries, introduced in 1939, when the first experimental broadcasts began. However, this lasted for a very short time: when fascist Italy entered World War II in 1940, all ...

was still under the

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

monopoly, Swiss television in Italian was the only alternative to the public network for Italians living in

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

and

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

: the signal reached the city of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. Some important personalities of Italian television, such as Corrado, Mina, Enzo Tortora and the founder of the first commercial television in Italy, Telebiella, Peppo Sacchi worked with TSI. RSI launched two new thematic radio stations, a cultural one,

Rete Due RSI Rete Due is the second Italian-language radio station from Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI). It was launched in 1985. Its headquarters are at the RSI-building in Lugano-Besso, reaching a daily average of between 26,000 and ...

, in 1985 and another more youth-oriented,

Rete Tre RSI Rete Tre is the third Italian-language radio station from Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI), aimed at younger listeners broadcasting popular and alternative music. It was launched at 00:03 on 1 January 1988 and is available ...

, in 1989. In

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

a second channel was created, called

TSI 2 RSI La 2 (''RSI La due'') is a Switzerland, Swiss public television channel owned by Radiotelevisione Svizzera di lingua Italiana. It is a sister channel of RSI La 1, broadcast in Italian language, Italian. It mainly airs sport programmes, but al ...

. The first TSI channel thus was renamed

TSI 1 RSI LA 1 (''la uno'', formerly TSI 1) is one of two television channels produced by Radiotelevisione Svizzera di lingua Italiana for the Italian-speaking community of Switzerland. LA 1, which can be received in all parts of the country, is a gen ...

. In December 2005, RSI began digital broadcasts using the DAB system on the Saint Gottard autoroute. On 26 July

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

at 12:45,

SRG SSR idée suisse The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (; ; ; ; SRG SSR) is the Swiss public broadcasting association, founded in 1931, the holding company of 24 radio and television channels. Headquartered in Bern, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation is a non-pro ...

interrupted

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

broadcasting in

making it the first all-digital

canton of Switzerland The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the Federated state, member states of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the . Two important ...

. This affected the Italians in northern Italy, as they were deprived of all the TSI channels, with the sole exception of those near the border. Starting from 1 January 2025, all RSI's radio stations stopped transmitting in FM.

Logo history

File:Logo RSI 1936-1961.jpg, RSI's first logo used from 1936 to 1961. File:Logo RTSI 1961 1975.jpg, RSI's second logo used from 1982 to 1985. File:RTSI alt.png, RSI's third logo used from 1985 to 1993. File:No image available.svg, RSI's fourth logo used from 1993 to 1999. File:Rtsi-logo.svg, RSI's fifth logo used from 1999 to 28 February 2009. File:Radio Svizzera.jpg, Logo used by RSI's radio division. File:Televisione Svizzera.jpg, Logo used by RSI's TV division. File:RSI-Logo.svg, RSI's sixth and previous logo used until 29 February 2012. File:Radiotelevisione svizzera 2011 logo.svg, RSI's seventh and current logo since 1 March 2012.

Direction

General Director: * Mario Timbal

Headquarters

The administrative headquarters of RSI are located in Via Canevascini in

- Besso. RSI television studios are found in Comano, 5 km north of

Operations

Radio

RSI's radio department is in charge of production and transmission radio programs in the

for the Italian speaking Swiss. Its studios are located in Via Canevascini in

- Besso. It was known as ''Radio svizzera di lingua italiana'' (RSI) until 2009. *

RSI Rete Uno RSI Rete Uno () is the principal radio channel of the Swiss public-service broadcasting organization Radio Svizzera Italiana, which launched in 1933 as Radio Monte Ceneri. Broadcasting in Italian, it is receivable via DAB, cable, and satel ...

– general programming * RSI Rete Due – cultural, intellectual programming, classical music *

RSI Rete Tre RSI Rete Tre is the third Italian-language radio station from Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI), aimed at younger listeners broadcasting popular and alternative music. It was launched at 00:03 on 1 January 1988 and is available ...

– youth-oriented programming The three networks can also be listened to via the Internet in streaming on the broadcaster's website. Some programs are distributed as podcasts and on Play RSI. SRG currently uses two data streams (transponders 17 and 123) to transmit its radio programs via satellite. New technologies now allow greater efficiency in the exploitation of existing satellite capacity. Therefore, from 9 March, SRG will reconfigure its new transponder and transfer its 26 radio networks to transponder 123. Transponder 17 will operate in parallel until the end of June and will then be deactivated. The audio quality will remain unchanged.

Television

RSI's television department is in charge of production and transmission of television programs in the

for the Italian speaking Swiss. Its studios are found in Comano, 5 km north of

. It was known as ''Televisione svizzera di lingua italiana'' (TSI) until 2009. *

RSI La 1 RSI LA 1 (''la uno'', formerly TSI 1) is one of two television channels produced by Radiotelevisione Svizzera di lingua Italiana for the Italian-speaking community of Switzerland. LA 1, which can be received in all parts of the country, is a ge ...

RSI La 2 RSI La 2 (''RSI La due'') is a Swiss public television channel owned by Radiotelevisione Svizzera di lingua Italiana. It is a sister channel of RSI La 1, broadcast in Italian. It mainly airs sport programmes, but also reruns and music shows. It ...

Swiss public broadcaster SRG terminated the digital terrestrial distribution of its TV channels (DTT) via DVB-T nationwide on 3 June 2019. DTT viewers were informed about the switch-off, which was announced in September 2018, through a caption on the TV screens from January 2019. SRG recommended affected households to switch to an alternative reception infrastructure, such as DTH satellite, cable, IPTV or internet streaming.

References

External links

RSI Official site

RSI podcast

DAB in Switzerland

Television

La storia della SSR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radiotelevisione Svizzera Di Lingua Italiana Swiss Broadcasting Corporation Television networks in Switzerland Italian-language television networks Radio in Switzerland 1925 establishments in Switzerland Mass media in Lugano Radio stations established in 1925 Television channels and stations established in 1958