Switzerland’s investment obligation scheme saw broadcasters and streamers invest $24.6m (CHF19.9m) in local Swiss production in 2025, according to provisional figures unveiled by the Federal Office of Culture (BAK) in Locarno.
It marks a 25% increase on the $19.6m (CHF15.9m) invested during the first year of operations in 2024. The programme is informally known in the industry as “Lex Netflix”.
Some $40.4m (CHF32.7m) was raised via the 4% levy on the $1.1bn (CHF817m) annual gross turnover generated by the audiovisual services from their activities in Switzerland.
That was a 9% year-on-year increase on the $37.1m (CHF30.1m) generated in 2024 from gross turnover of $928m (CHF752m).
In 2025, $14.8m (CHF12m) was invested in acquisition and production, with $9.1m (CHF7.4m) going to series and $5.7m (CHF4.6m) to features. Fiction projects attracted the lion’s share of the investment - $11m (CHF8.9m) - while documentaries received $3.8m (CHF3.1m).
More than half of this production investment - $7.8m (CHF6.3m) - went to projects from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, while productions from the German-speaking half received $7m (CHF5.7m).
In addition, $9.8m (CHF7.9m) was provided last year for supporting such measures as promotional campaigns for new film releases and contributions to Swiss film festivals to strengthen film culture.
The streamers and other AV services have until the end of 2027 to meet their obligations and invest the outstanding $15.8m (CHF12.8m) of the $404m (CHF32.7m).
According to BAK, any monies not invested by that date would then pass to its own film funding programme to be used for measures that it is currently not, or only partially, supporting. These could be investments in the production of larger-scale Swiss series or in projects by the up-and-coming generation of filmmakers in the country.
Swiss productions benefiting from the investment obligation in its first two years of operation have included series such as Netflix’s Winter Palace, two seasons of Sky’s crime comedy series Tschugger and French broadcaster TF1’s cyber thriller series Log Out, while Swisscom subsidiary Blue TV came onboard such feature films as Johanna Moder’s Berlinale 2025 competition title Mother’s Baby and Michael Krummenacher’s Second World War drama The Traitor.
In addition, part of the financing for three local hits at the Swiss box office last year came via the investment obligation programme.
Pierre Monnard’s comedy Hello Betty, about the 1950s fictional cooking icon Betty Bossi, was the second most successful domestic film after Petra Volpe’s Leonie Benesch-starring drama Late Shift, posting 114,877 admissions (it has since reached 146,000 admissions), while Simon Helbling’s four-part documentary series Game Over - The Fall of Credit Suisse sold 54,000 tickets for its feature film spin-off and Chris Niemeyer’s romantic comedy Love Roulette attracted 25,000 cinema-goers.
Switzerland’s investment obligation was introduced into the country’s amended Film Act after a referendum of the Swiss people in May 2022, in which 58% of the population voted for a scheme where, as of 2024, all AV services providing film content - whether international streamers based in Europe and the US, German or French broadcasters with advertising windows in Switzerland, or Swiss private broadcasters or on-demand services - must invest at least 4% of their annual gross turnover in Swiss film production or its promotion.
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