Television in Finland

People gather to watch the first television transmission of Finland in May 1955.

On 24 May 1955, the first public television broadcast in Finland was aired by the Radioinsinööriseura (later Elektroniikkainsinöörien seura).[4] The project eventually developed into TES-TV (later Tesvisio), the first television channel in Finland that began regular broadcasts on 21 March 1956.[5][6] The public broadcaster Yleisradio began their television project in 1957, with regular broadcasts starting from 1 January 1958. Suomen Televisio (now Yle TV1), as the channel was called, also featured commercial programming from MTV, a separate channel that leased programming blocks from Yleisradio. This arrangement would last until 1993.

Promotional photograph for Yleisradio's Yle TV2 quiz show Ristisana with hosts Kaarina Elo and Jouko Sinkkonen in 1971.

Yleisradio acquired Tesvisio in 1964 and reorganized its assets into a second TV channel (now Yle TV2). Despite MTV's demands that the second channel be in their control, Yleisradio maintained ownership of the second channel but sold MTV more time on it. In 1986, a third channel Kolmoskanava was introduced as a joint venture between Yleisradio, MTV and Nokia. MTV gradually purchased Kolmoskanava into their ownership and in 1993, turned it into MTV3. Once MTV3 was introduced, MTV moved all of its programming there.

Since 2021, around 75% of the Finnish population watch television content online via YouTube, Vimeo, and other, in addition to online TV broadcasting companies.[7]

Digital terrestrial television was launched on 21 August 2001. The analogue networks continued its broadcasts alongside the digital ones until 1 September 2007, when they were shut down nationwide.

Before the analogue switchoff, the terrestrial network had three multiplexes: MUX A, MUX B and MUX C. MUX A contained the channels of the public broadcaster Yleisradio and MUX B was shared between the two commercial broadcasters: MTV3 and Nelonen. MUX C contained channels of various other broadcasters. After the analogue closedown, a fourth multiplex named MUX E was launched.

In addition the free-to-air broadcasts, two companies are providing encryption cards for pay television: Canal Digital and PlusTV. Canal Digital was the first to launch, originally only offering four Canal+ channels (the Disney Channel was added later on). PlusTV was launched in November 2006, originally only broadcasting MTV3 Max and Subtv Juniori (later on adding Subtv Leffa and Urheilu+kanava). Both packages got more channels with the launch of MUX E in September 2007: SVT Europa and MTV3 Fakta was added to PlusTV and KinoTV was added to Canal Digital, while Discovery Channel, Eurosport, MTV Finland and Nickelodeon were added to both packages.

September 2007 also saw the launch of the SveaTV package in Ostrobothnia which broadcasts channels from Sweden.

The digital channel YLE Extra was closed on 31 December 2007 and was replaced by YLE TV1+, a simulcast of TV1 with subtitles included in the video stream. TV1+ was closed on 4 August 2008 due to its low viewing share.[8]

Finland has started DVB-T2 switchover that will be finished on 31.3.2020.

Analogue cable television were switched off in Finland on 1 March 2008, but digital cable television is widespread all over the country and its infrastructure used for cable internet services.

The major cable operators are DNA, Welho and TTV, operating in Turku, Helsinki and Tampere areas. All pay television uses digital broadcasts, DVB-C set-top boxes have been available since 2001.

Digital satellite television started in Nordic countries, and also in Finland, by Multichoice Nordic pay-TV platform during 1996. The first set-top boxes available were manufactured by Nokia and Pace. After that the service merged with Canal Digital in late 1997. Competing pay television Viasat and Yle's channel TV Finland started digital broadcasts in 1999.

Canal Digital launched some HDTV channels, like Discovery HD, on their digital paytv-package during 2006. Pan-European HDTV-channel Euro1080 HD1 is available also in Finland.

All Yle channels are broadcast free-to-air and so are a few commercial ones including MTV3, Nelonen, MTV Sub, Jim, TV5, Star Channel and Kutonen. Yle channels are state owned and are funded by a ring fenced so-called "Yle tax".

Most of the channels are the same throughout mainland Finland. In Ostrobothnia and Åland there is an extra multiplex available which provides encrypted channels from Sweden, along with respective local stations,[9] and of course due to overlapping signals, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian and Estonian stations are able to be seen near the border areas and vice versa.

• Media of Finland

• Viestinävirasto - Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority
• Digita - Terrestrial Broadcast Operator
• DNA - Terrestrial Broadcast Operator
• Finnpanel - Measures TV viewing and radio listening
• Telkku.com - TV-guide