Tesvisio (earlier TES-TV) was the first television channel in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. It began regular broadcasts on March 21, 1956 and continued broadcasting until March 1965, when it was turned into Yle TV2. The channel began as a television experiment by (later ), an association of radio and electronics engineers who had begun test broadcasts as early as 20 April 1955, from premises rented from the

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; ; , HUT in international usage) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the Helsinki metropolitan area, and it was one of the three universities from which the modern d ...

. Their first public broadcast, which was aired on 24 May 1955, is considered the first broadcast in Finnish television history. Regular broadcasts began in 1956 after the foundation began supporting the project;

Yleisradio Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

was then more focused on building and expanding its FM radio network and considered television to be less of a priority. The channel was soon named ''TES-TV'' after them. The final name ''Tesvisio'' was adopted in 1960 after the management was spun off into a separate company. Tesvisio was a commercial channel funded by

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

. The main channel aired initially only in and around the capital

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, while the sister channels Tamvisio and Turun TES-TV aired in

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

and

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

, respectively. The three stations regularly also broadcast each other's programmes. The company began to suffer economic difficulties in the early 1960s. After the public broadcaster

Yle Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

isradio began their television broadcasts in 1957, a new commercial broadcaster, Mainostelevisio, had begun broadcasting programme blocks on Yleisradio's channel. As the coverage of Yleisradio's and thus indirectly Mainostelevisio's broadcasts expanded, Tesvisio found it increasingly harder to attract advertisers. In 1964, Yleisradio acquired the nearly bankrupt company. There were initially plans to absorb the assets into the existing public TV channel, but in the end a decision was made to reorganize them into a second TV channel (TV-ohjelma 2, now Yle TV2), which would be headquartered in Tampere in the offices of then Tamvisio. Tesvisio's final broadcast was on 6 March 1965, and TV2 commenced broadcasts the following day.

References

Defunct television channels in Finland Television channels and stations established in 1956 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1965 1956 establishments in Finland 1964 mergers and acquisitions 1965 disestablishments in Finland {{Finland-tv-stub