“the fee for radio and television for households can be reduced to significantly less than CHF 400 per year . The Federal Council will set the amount of the fee in good time before the new system enters into force.”
That is because it changes from "a household which has a reception device" to "a household which has ears or eyes" a.k.a "new fee-system" a.k.a "everyone pays" a.k.a "no more separate radio and TV licenses" as approved by the people on 14 June 2015 https://www.admin.ch/ch/d/pore/va/20150614/index.html
Still dont get the point of this "Fee"... everything is online now, the Tv and Radio as we know it is dissapearing, soon we will be paying Fees to Youtube...
That's tragic for the employees. But a company that after 20 years of existence has 2 clients - one that brings in 99% of the turnover and one, logic conclusion, that brings in the other 1% - has a crap management.
Or to look at it differently: If Swisscom founds a subsidiary (Tochtergesellschaft) solely to collect what we know as Billag-fees, it is a clear statement by Swisscom that "if we lose that contract, we don't want to be responsible for / want to be able to fire you - 240 - folks"
No?
On the other hand, the Bund (that's us! Btw.) owns 51.22% of Swisscom. So somehow the governement has just gotten rid of 240 indirect governemental employees ....?
And who is Serafe AG? When you try to google it, all you get is this Billag-news. They don't seem to have a website of their own. And it's a subsidiary (Tochtergesellschaft) of Secon AG, who provides software-solutions for insurances.