Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is

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, ...

's national

public broadcasting Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

company, founded in 1926. It is a

joint-stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareho ...

, 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 (1927–1976) and television sets (1958–2012) 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 Since 2013, the license fee has been replaced by a public broadcasting tax (known as the Yle tax) collected annually from Finnish citizens and corporations.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 (payable by an individual with a yearly income of €20,588 or more) 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 The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

, 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 In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...

. 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 Svenska Yle ( English: ''Swedish Yle'') is the Swedish-language department of Yle, Finland's public service broadcaster for TV, radio and the web. As Finland is constitutionally bilingual—around 5.5% of the population speaks Swedish as their n ...

. As is customary in Finland, foreign films and TV programmes (as well as segments of local programmes that feature foreign language content, like news reports) are generally subtitled on Yle's channels.

Dubbing Dubbing (also known as re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and the video production process where supplementary recordings (known as doubles) are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production audio to cr ...

is used in

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

s 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 Nuntii Latini is the name of several news services that broadcast in Latin. Finnish ''Nuntii Latini'' The Finnish ''Nuntii Latini'' was a Finnish news service broadcast in Latin between September 1989 and June 2019 by the Finnish national broad ...

, the news in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, which was broadcast worldwide and made available on the

. Yle was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

in 1950. It hosted the

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Helsinki, Finland, following the country's victory at the with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Lordi. Organised by the European Broadcasti ...

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 ...

History

''Suomen Yleisradio'' (Finland's General Radio) was founded in

on 29 May 1926. The first

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

programme was transmitted on 9 September that year 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, (Tampere Radio Society) 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'' (Finland's Television), 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'' (TV-news) and TV-nytt switched to colour. In 1996, Yle's operations in

Åland Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

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 A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

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 Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

switchover. A completely new digital channel, ''Yle Teema'' (Yle Theme) was introduced, and the Swedish-language FST (''Finlands Svenska Television,'' Finland's Swedish Television) was moved from its analogue channel to its digital one, YLE FST5 (later renamed Yle Fem). In addition to these four channels (TV1, TV2, Teema, and Fem), 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 (without having to enable the TV's or digital set-top box's subtitle function).

Logo history

File:Oy-Suomen-Ab-Logo-1930.png, alt=, Yle's first logo was used from 1926 to 1940. File:Yleisradio logo 1940.svg, Yle's second logo used from 1940 to 1965. Yle Radio Suomi used a modified version of this logo from 2010–12. File:Yleisradio logo 1965.svg, Yle's third logo used from 1965 to 1991. File:Yleisradion logo 1990.svg, Yle's fourth logo used from May 1990 to 30 September 1999. File:YLE logo.svg, Yle's fifth logo used from 1 October 1999 to 4 March 2012. File:Ylen logo.svg, Yle's sixth and current logo since 5 March 2012. File:Ylen logo (white).svg, Variant of Yle's sixth and current logo since 5 March 2012.

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

. * 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 Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism, grassroots journalism, or street journalism, is based upon members of the community playing an active role in the pro ...

. Children's programming includes ''

Pikku Kakkonen ''Pikku Kakkonen'' (Finnish language, Finnish for "the little number two") is an ongoing Finland, Finnish magazine-type children's TV show shown on Yle TV2. The first episode aired on January 11, 1977 in television, 1977. It finished with a bedtime ...

'' (a children's magazine show modelled on BBC's '' Blue Peter'') and ''Galaxi'', its counterpart for older children, and '' Sirkuspelle Hermanni''. The channel's headquarters are 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 ...

. * Yle Teema & Fem: Yle Teema & Fem (~ Yle Theme & Five) 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 Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

, Teema & Fem shows selected broadcasts from

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...

, 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 Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipped television sets. Teletext sends data in the broadcast signal, hidden in the invisible vertical blanking interval area at the to ...

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, (2008) and (2011–2014).

Radio

* : A radio channel for culture, in-depth current affairs, and other speech-based programming. Classical music (concerts by the

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Finnish: ''Radion sinfoniaorkesteri'', Swedish: ''Radions symfoniorkester''; abbreviated as RSO) is a Finnish Radio orchestra, broadcast orchestra based in Helsinki, and the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasti ...

), 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 (formerly Radiomafia): 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. ;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 Helsinki metropolitan area (, ) or Greater Helsinki (, ) is the metropolitan area around Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. It also includes the smaller Helsinki capital region, capital region. The terms Helsinki metropolitan area, Greater H ...

, digital in southern Finland, and via digital television. * (worldwide on short and medium wave) – 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 (in the capital region and parts in Turku, Lahti and Kuopio). * FSR Mixkanalen or Finland's Swedish Radio (FSR) – 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. * (formerly Yle Radio Peili): 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 (e.g. in a living room as well as a bedroom). 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.

Controversies

In 1965–69, during the term of director-general Eino S. Repo, who got the position with the backing of the Agrarian League and President

Urho Kekkonen Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (; 3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as Prime Minister ...

(a member of the Agrarian League), as he was Kekkonen's personal friend. Repo was accused of favouring leftist student radicalism and young left-leaning reporters with programmes critical of capitalism that demanded reforms to bring Finland closer to the Soviet Union, as such, Yle was given the nickname "Reporadio". After Repo resigned, he was demoted to director of radio broadcasting, on the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

-led People's Democratic League mandate. Repo resigned in 1969, but according to Yle, a "political mandate" remained, as Erkki Raatikainen was named director-general directly from the Social Democratic Party's office. All directors after him until 2010 were Social Democrats. This was ended by the appointment of the conservative

National Coalition Party The National Coalition Party (NCP; , Kok; , Saml) is a liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland. It is the current governing political party of Finland. Founded in 1918, the ...

's Lauri Kivinen as director-general in 2010. During the finlandisation period, Yle contributed to Kekkonen's policy of "neutrality" by broadcasting the program ''Näin naapurissa'' about the Soviet Union. This program was produced in co-operation with the Soviets and supported Soviet propaganda without criticism. Kivinen's appointment in 2010 received much criticism, as he was previously head of Nokia Siemens Networks, which had sold monitoring equipment to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, allowing them to arrest political dissidents throughout the protests in the fall of 2009. English-language newscaster Kimmo Wilska was fired on 13 October 2010 after pretending to be caught drinking on camera following an alcohol-related news story on ''Yle News''. His stunt was not well-received by Yle's management, which fired him that day. Wilska received substantial support after his termination from the company. Yle has been criticised for buying many

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series. It has responded by emphasising the suitability of the HBO series to channels with no ad breaks, citing the programming's quality and low price, and stating that American programmes constitute only 7% of its programming.

Decision to close shortwave

The broadcasts on

shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30& ...

from Yle Radio were closed at the end of 2006. Expatriate organisations had been campaigning for continued service, but their efforts did not succeed in maintaining the service or even in slowing the process. The decision also affected a high-powered medium wave on 963 kHz (312m). A smaller medium wave covering the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

region (558 kHz, 538m) remained on air for one more year.

Parliamentary question about shortwave

In November 2005, MP Pertti Hemmilä ( N) submitted a question in

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

about Yle's plans to end the availability of shortwave bands internationally. In his question, Hemmilä took up the low cost of the world band radio to the consumer travelling or living abroad. In her response, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Susanna Huovinen ( S) noted that Yle would now be available via other means, such as through

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

and the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. She also underlined the fact that Yle is not under government control, but under indirect parliamentary supervision.

Ylegate 2017

The

Council for Mass Media in Finland The Council for Mass Media in Finland (, abbr. ''JSN''; ) is a self-regulatory organ of the Finnish mass media. It controls journalists related to publishers who have adopted ''the good journalistic'' guidelines and makes resolutions on the bases o ...

criticised Yleisradio for restricting news reports about Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's investments and business in 2017. The chief editor of Yle threatened the council by stating that the public broadcaster would resign from the council. Sipilä had been angry over Yle's reporting on the Talvivaara mine and Katera Steel (a company owned by Sipilä's relatives). Several reporters were barred by Yle's upper management from publishing news stories about the political connections between Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, the companies owned by his relatives and the state financing of the Talvivaara mine owned by Terrafame.Mitä Missä Milloin. ''2018 Annual News Book''. Otava 2017. pages 109 and 341-342

List of YLE directors

* L. M. Viherjuuri, 1926–1927 (acting) * Yrjö Koskelainen, 1927 (acting) *

Armas Deinert The Arma people is an ethnic group of the middle Niger River valley, descended from Moroccan invaders of the 16th century. The name, applied by other groups, derives from the word ''ar-rumah'' () 'fusiliers'. N. Levtzion, "North-West Africa: fr ...

, 1927 (acting) * Hjalmar Woldemar Walldén (since 1935 Jalmar Voldemar Vakio) 1927–1945 * Hella Wuolijoki, 1945–1949 * Einar Sundström, 1950–1964 * Eino S. Repo, 1965–1969 * Erkki Raatikainen, 1970–1979 * Sakari Kiuru, 1980–1989 * Reino Paasilinna, 1990–1994 * Arne Wessberg, 1994–2005 * Mikael Jungner, 2005–2010 * Lauri Kivinen, 2010–2018 * Merja Ylä-Anttila, 2018–in office

Notable news anchors

*Pietu Heiskanen *Hanna Visala * Marjo Rein, 2014–2025 *Kreeta-Maria Kivioja * Matti Rönkä, 1990–2024 *Tommy Fränti *Petteri Löppönen *Ilkka Lahti *Mikko Haapanen *Milla Madetoja *Saija Nironen *Tuulia Thynell *Antti Parviala *Jussi-Pekka Rantanen *Arto Nurmi, 1983–2015 *Marjukka Havumäki * Piia Pasanen