How to Watch TV in Switzerland for Less in 2023

The year’s end presents the ideal opportunity to review your budget and rid yourself of unnecessary expenses. The money you spend to watch television is one point to look at, as it can quickly add up to hundreds of francs per year. That is why moneyland.ch performed a year-end comparison of Swiss TV offers, and their costs. The analysis shows that watching TV does not have to be expensive.

TV plans can be divided into three main categories:

• Free TV plans which can be accessed over any Internet connection
• Paid TV plans which can be accessed over any Internet connection
• TV plans which are sold in combination with Internet plans

For the analysis, moneyland.ch each of these categories separately, accounting for all plans which include popular TV channels. The tables below also show how many HD channels are included, as well as the options and prices for TV time shifting.

Free TV plans

The cheapest way to watch TV is not to pay anything for it at all. There are now a number of free TV plans. All that is required to use these is an Internet connection from any service provider. These offers are ideal for watching live TV broadcasts.

Table 1: Free TV in Switzerland

Zattoo includes just 72 channels in HD quality. Swisscom, Teleboy, and Yallo offer twice that number. Free TV plans generally do not include a TV time shifting or TV recorder function. The only exception to this rule is Yallo, which lets you record up to 60 TV shows and watch them up to 14 days after recording.

“For viewers who primarily watch live TV broadcasts, the free offers are perfectly sufficient,” says moneyland.ch telecom expert Ralf Beyeler. “If you do ever want to watch a show after it has broadcast, you can find numerous shows on Youtube and in TV stations’ online media libraries.”

Paid TV plans which can be accessed over any Internet connection

Free TV plans are not sufficient if you want TV time shifting and a recording function. In this case, you need to look at paid offers. A handful of service providers sell stand-alone TV plans which you can use with any Internet connection. You do not need to use an Internet plan from the same telecom service provider.

Table 2: Stand-alone TV plans

With the exception of the Swisscom offer, all offers include seven-day time shifting and high-capacity TV recorders for saving shows. For a TV plan with forced advertising breaks which cannot be skipped using time shifting, you will pay 12 francs for Zattoo, 14.90 for Teleboy, and 20 for Yallo. Without forced advertising, the cheapest is Teleboy (19.90 francs), followed by Zattoo (20 francs) and Yallo (27.95 francs).

“Getting a stand-alone TV plan is usually cheaper than getting bundled TV and Internet plans,” says Beyeler. “Another advantage is that you can terminate your TV plan any time you choose, and you normally are not bound to a service provider by long contract terms,” adds the expert.

TV Plans which are bundled with Internet plans

If you need a paid TV plan, you will soon notice that many telecom service providers only offer TV plans in combination with an Internet plan, or as bundled plans which include both Internet and TV. Swisscom, Sunrise, and Salt are prominent examples. When you get a bundled offer, the costs of Internet come on top. Depending on the service provider and the Internet speed you want, you have to count on paying between 30 and 100 francs per month for the Internet connection.

Many of the cheaper offers do not include TV time shifting or a TV recorder. But there are exceptions. However, most of these plans include seven-day time shifting and high-capacity TV recorders.

Init7 customers can watch live TV without time shifting for free. More expensive offers include those from Quickline (10 francs per month) and Green (12 francs per month). Both of these offers include a set-top box in the basic price. Init7 customers have to get their own set-top box, such as an Apple TV or Android TV device.

Table 3: The 10 cheapest TV plans available in combination with Internet plans (with forced advertising)

Many service providers give you the option of removing forced advertising in exchange for a markup on the standard plan fees. The cheapest offer with forced advertising is Teleboy, at 9.90 francs per month. Many service providers are much more expensive. Examples include Sunrise (up to 30 francs per month) and Swisscom (up to 34.90 francs per month).

Table 4: The 10 cheapest TV plans available in combination with Internet plans (without forced advertising)

Many TV service providers have options for people who want to watch time shifted TV without being forced to sit through advertisements. Init7 has the cheapest TV plan without forced advertising (11 francs per month) but this plan does not include a TV recorder. Next in line are Teleboy (14.90 francs), M-Budget, and Wingo (both 21.90 francs per month). Sunrise is the most expensive, costing up to 37.90 francs per month, and Swisscom, which costs up to 41.80 francs per month. But the more expensive offers include additional features which are not included on cheaper plans.

“When choosing a paid TV plan, it is absolutely vital that you look at the features and services included,” concludes Beyeler. For example, many TV plans include a TV recorder with more than 1000 hours of recording capacity, but there are huge differences. The TV plan from Solnet (18 francs per month with forced advertising) only lets you record up to 20 hours. “That kind of recording capacity is hardly in keeping with current norms,” observes the telecom expert.

Other important factors

When analyzing Swiss TV plans, moneyland.ch looked at how many popular TV channels in HD quality were included, and at TV time shifting functions. These features are important for most TV viewers. But depending on your individual needs, other criteria may also play an important role. These may include whether or not specific TV channels are included, whether or not you can access a media library or a streaming service, how quickly TV recording expire, and whether or not you can download recordings.

Special promotional offers are not accounted for in the analysis, but in contrast to mobile plans, there are few special promotions for TV plans. Often, promotional offers are only available to new customers and not existing customers.

More on this topic:
Download all the tables from the 2022 Swiss TV plan study here (German PDF)
Compare Swiss TV plans now