Communication Facts in Finland | Newspapers in Finland | Television Channels in Finland |
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Public Service Broadcaster
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Finland only has one national public broadcasting company, YLE, founded in 1926. YLE can be compared with the British BBC. |
The company is owned by the Finnish state (with a 99.98% share), with five national television channels and thirteen radio channels and services complemented by 25 regional radio programmes. In contrast with other broadcasting companies, YLE doesn’t need to obtain an operating licence for analogue public service broadcasting of TV or radio within the frequencies that have been allocated to it. Neither is YLE required to obtain an operating licence for digital public service broadcasting of TV or radio. Because YLE is owned by the state, YLE is ensured by the state that it has sufficient terrestrial TV and radio network capacity for these purposes and that YLE is able to use this capacity appropriately |
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YLE has the following public service tasks:
• support democracy and each person’s opportunities for participation by providing a range of information, opinions and debates as well as opportunities for interaction
• produce, create and develop domestic culture, art and stimulating entertainment
• take account in programming of educational and equality considerations, provide an opportunity for learning and self-advancement, emphasise programming targeted at children and to provide devotional programmes
• treat in programme activity the Finnish and Swedish-speaking populations on equal grounds, to produce services in Sámi, Romany and sign language and as agreed also in the languages of other language groups in the country
• support tolerance and multiculturalism and to deal with programme output also for minority and special groups
• promote interaction of cultures and to maintain programme output targeted abroad carry official announcements to be laid down more precisely by decree and to make provision for running television and radio operations in exceptional circumstances.
Activities
Because Finland is officially a bilingual country, YLE provides television- and radio channels, in different languages. Around 5.5 % of the population has Swedish as their mother tongue, so YLE broadcasts also through one separate department of channels to reach this targetgroup: Finlands Svenska Television and Finlands Svenska Radio. There is also Latin channel, Nuntii Latini, which is broadcast worldwide as well as being made available over the internet. Besides television channels which broadcasts programs, it also has a channel, Teksti TV. This channel only provides information in a teletext format. One can find information about for example the weather, jobs and so on.
Digitalisation YLE
With the arrival of digital television, YLE was in 2001 the first broadcasting company which used digitalized processes to broadcast their programmes, while commercial media companies follows them. On August 2007, all analogue broadcasts of Finland will be digitalised. As of this date, Finland will be the first fully digitalised TV nation in Europe. The digital network already covers 99.9 % of Finnish households. Now YLE has three digital channels:
• YLE24: This channel provides round-the-clock news and current affairs service in a variety of media. YLE24 will be starting up as a television channel with news and live broadcasts. An important element in YLE24’s service will consist of news and sport on Teletext, Superteletext, the Internet and in wireless terminal devices.
• YLE Teema: This channel is devoted to culture, science and learning.
• FST digital: The digital Swedish-language full service channel which are broadcasting news, factual- and children's programmes and entertainment. They also broadcast Nordic films and series. Many programmes are subtitled in Finnish
In addition to these new channels, YLE’s TV1 en TV2 are also available in digital format. Radio channels which are also provided digitally are Ylen Klassinen. This 24-hour digital supplementary service of classical music also broadcast on digital television. Other channels are YLE Vegaplus and YLE Radio Peili. Outside Finland, YLE can be reached digitally by for example YLE Radio Finland. This channel broadcasts in Finnish, Swedish, English and Russian via satellites and internet. Other channels are YLE World and YLE Mondo.