A new poll suggests the Swiss are willing to continue paying fees for public broadcasting ahead of a referendum being closely watched across Europe.

The survey published by Tamedia group found 59% 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 on January 15, found 40% 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 say charging households 451.10 Swiss francs (£340) a year for radio and television is excessive.

Opponents warn it could imperil an important public service in multilingual Switzerland.

The vote will take place on March 4.