Yle

Yleisradio Oy, abbreviated as Yle, translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock company, which is 99.98% owned by the Finnish state and employs around 3,000 people in Finland.
Yle was long funded by revenues obtained from a broadcast receiving license fee payable by the owners of radio sets and television sets and through a portion of the broadcasting license fees payable by private television broadcasters. Since 2013, the license fee has been replaced by a public broadcasting tax collected annually from Finnish citizens and corporations. The main part of the Yle tax is collected from individual taxpayers, with payments assessed on a sliding scale. Minors and those with an annual income less than €7,813 are exempt. At the lower limit, the tax payable by individuals is €50 per annum, and the maximum is €140. The rationale for the abolition of the television license fee was the development of other means of delivering Yle's services, such as the Internet, and the consequent impracticality of continuing to tie the fee to the ownership of a specific device. Yle receives no advertising revenue, as all channels are advertisement-free. Yle has a status that could be described as that of a non-departmental public body. It is governed by a parliamentary governing council. Yle's turnover in 2010 was €398.4 million. In 2024, Yle's annual budget was about €600 million.
Yle operates three national television channels, 13 radio channels and services, and 25 regional radio stations. As Finland is constitutionally bilingual—around 5.5% of the population speaks Swedish as their native language—Yle provides radio and TV programming in Swedish through its Swedish-language department, Svenska Yle. As is customary in Finland, foreign films and TV programmes are generally subtitled on Yle's channels. Dubbing is used in cartoons intended for young children who have not yet learned to read; off-screen narration in documentaries is also frequently dubbed.
In the field of international broadcasting, one of Yle's best-known services was Nuntii Latini, the news in Latin, which was broadcast worldwide and made available on the Internet. Yle was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. It hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki.

History

Suomen Yleisradio was founded in Helsinki on 29 May 1926. The first radio programme was transmitted on 9 September 1926 in a studio at Unioninkatu 20, generally considered the birthdate of regular broadcasting activities in Finland. The name Yleisradio was taken from the Defense Forces, where Yleisradio meant a radio broadcast that could be heard by everyone. Before YLE, Radio broadcasts were done by Radiola in Helsinki from March 23, 1924, the radio battalion of the Finnish Defense Forces in Santahamina at the former Russian Empire Baltic Fleet officer casino, now Katajanokka casino starting in April 1923 and by Tampereen radioyhdistys, in April 1924. Not until 1928 did Yle's broadcasts become available throughout the country. By the beginning of the 1930s, 100,000 households could listen to Yle programmes, and in 1933, Yle moved to Fabianinkatu 15, were it would stay until 1968 were it moved to Ylen Kesäkatu and then Mediatalo in 1978.
In 1957, Yle made its first television broadcast tests, and regular TV programming began the next year under the name Suomen Televisio, which was later renamed Yle TV1. Television's popularity in the country grew rapidly. In 1964, Yle obtained TES-TV and Tamvisio, which were merged into Yle TV2. In 1969, the Finnish Broadcasting Company began broadcasting television programmes in colour, but due to the high cost of colour technology, colour only became standard in the late 1970s. On 1 May 1977, Tv-uutiset and TV-nytt switched to colour. In 1996, Yle's operations in Åland were transferred to Ålands Radio and TV, and in 1998, Yle's transmitter network and related assets were spun off into a separate company called.
In radio, Yleisradio was a legal monopoly until 1985, when local radio stations were permitted, and maintained a national monopoly until 1995, when national radio networks were allowed.
In the 2000s, Yle established several new radio and television channels. In 2007, there was a digital television switchover. A completely new digital channel, Yle Teema was introduced, and the Swedish-language FST was moved from its analogue channel to its digital one, YLE FST5. In addition to these four channels, a fifth channel, YLE24, was launched in 2001 for 24-hour news programming. This channel was replaced by YLE Extra, a channel attempting to cater to the youth, which was in turn decommissioned in 2007. Until 4 August 2008, the fifth channel was used to broadcast Yle TV1 with Finnish subtitles on programmes in foreign languages.

Logo history

Services

Television

Yle TV1: TV1 is Yle's oldest channel and its flagship TV channel. It serves as Yle's main news, current affairs and factual journalism outlet, and also broadcasts documentaries, drama, cultural, and educational programmes. Satirical entertainment, cinema, and shows of British production are also included in its programming. The channel's headquarters are in Helsinki.
Yle TV2: TV2, founded in 1964, is the main channel for sports programmes and children's and teenagers' broadcasting. The channel also broadcasts drama, entertainment, and factual programmes. Emphasis in current affairs output is on domestic items, regional content and citizen journalism. Children's programming includes Pikku Kakkonen and Galaxi, its counterpart for older children, and Sirkuspelle Hermanni. The channel's headquarters are in Tampere.
Yle Teema & Fem: Yle Teema & Fem combines the operations of the previously separate Teema and Fem channels. Teema & Fem is Yle's channel for culture, education, and science. It focuses on recordings of performing arts, classical music, art, and history documentaries, films, and theme broadcasts. The channel also broadcasts Swedish-language full-service channel broadcasting news, factual and children's programmes, and entertainment. It also shows many Nordic films and series and Sámi-language Ođđasat. Finnish subtitles are available for most programmes; they can be enabled using the digital set-top box. Outside prime time, Teema & Fem shows selected broadcasts from Sveriges Television, Sweden's equivalent of Yle.
TV Finland: TV Finland is a digital satellite channel showing a selection of Yle's programmes in Sweden.
Yle Text-TV: a Teletext channel shows information on news, sports, and TV programmes around the clock. It has theme pages for weather, traffic, work, and leisure.

All of Yle's TV channels are in high definition, as of April 2025. Formerly discontinued channels are: Kolmoskanava, YLE24, YLE Extra, and .

Radio

: A radio channel for culture, in-depth current affairs, and other speech-based programming. Classical music, jazz, folk, world music, and religious music also feature. Yle Radio 1 was established in June 1990, as part of Yle's restructuring of its radio channels and was known as Radio Ylen Ykkönen until 2003.
YleX : A fast-tempo programme-flow channel featuring new music in tune with popular culture, targeted at 17- to 27-year-olds. The percentage of music is 70%. New domestic and foreign pop, rock, and several themed music programmes.
Yle Radio Suomi: The national and regional news, service, and contact channel, as well as sports and entertainment. Musical fare comprises domestic and foreign hits and adult and nostalgic pop.
Yle X3M: Swedish-language youth channel for current affairs debate and popular culture, broadcasting news as well. New pop and rock and special music programmes.
Yle Vega: News, current affairs, and culture in Swedish for all audience groups, also offering culture and regional programmes. Adult pop, jazz, and classical music.
Yle Sámi Radio: A Sámi-language network covering most of Lapland. Produced in co-operation with SVT and NRK.

;Digital services
Yle phased out digital radio broadcasts by the end of 2005. Three channels continued to be available as DVB audio services until they were shut down on 30 June 2016.

: The 24-hour digital supplementary service of classical music is also broadcast on digital television.
: Streaming media where you can watch and listen to content purchased and produced by Yle, either live or recorded.

;International services

: Broadcasts in English and other languages, mostly compiled from international radio services. Yle Mondo is available on FM in Helsinki and throughout the country via digital TV.

;Former stations:

– Features, political shows, and popular culture programmes for young adults. Broadcasting was analogue in Greater Helsinki, digital in southern Finland, and via digital television.
– international station, broadcast in Finnish, Swedish, English, German, French, Russian and a news programme in Latin. The short and medium-wave broadcasts were discontinued on December 31, 2006.
YLE Capital FM – broadcaster combined parts of Yle World and Yle Mondo.
FSR Mixkanalen or Finland's Swedish Radio – an automated station that broadcasts a mixed selection of programming from both Yle Vega and Yle XFM.
– digital station primarily aimed at young adults, especially women, with domestic and foreign pop and rock music, news and current affairs programming alongside lifestyle talk shows.
: The news and current affairs channel presenting talk programmes from Yle's other radio and television channels. Also broadcast on digital television.
Yle tax

Until the end of 2012, Finnish citizens paid Yle a license fee for the use of a television, set at 252 euros per year in 2012. The television license was per location, which could hold several sets. The public broadcasting tax, also known as the Yle tax, replaced the license fee in 2013. The tax ranges from 50 euros to 140 euros per person and per year, depending on income. Minors and persons with low income are exempt from the tax.