Yle or the Finnish Broadcasting Company is Finland’s version of BBC. But instead of funding it by tv fees, it gets funded by taxpayers’ money. The public broadcasting tax is very controversial among the Finns, and some people want to get rid of it, and go back to the tv fee model. The tv fee model has some loopholes, like it can be avoided more easily than taxation. Dodging taxes is a crime, you see? The Yle’s own streaming service, Yle Areena, is basically the poor man’s Netflix. In this article, let’s dive what the Yle has to offer.
Let’s start with the basic stuff. You can watch the news, the weather, and even watch the three tv channels of the Yle, Yle TV1, TV2, and Yle Teema & Fem. Yle Teema and Fem were used to be separate channels, but they were merged in 2017. Yle TV1 is still the number one most watched tv channel in Finland, mainly because many baby boomers and older people mostly watch tv in 2023. At least the tv channels have zero ads. Yle’s news service is very controversial, because many right-wingers accuse it for left-wing bias. Well, Yle is pretty much left leaning centrist news outlet, which is also reliable. In democratic countries, the state-run media doesn’t spread propaganda unlike in China or Russia.
Yle’s children’s content is almost mainly imported foreign content, with Finnish dub of course. But there’s still some old live-action shows from the past, and Moominvalley. Yle was supposed to show the 90s moomins, but after a disagreement with another Finnish media company MTV, Yle lost it’s rights to show moomins on it’s channels and streaming services. Moominvalley is very controversial among the moomin fans. Many older fans hate that show, but many younger fans like it. It’s like the Star Wars effect, older fans hate the new movies, while younger fans like them.
Yle also imports programmes from the other Nordic countries, like Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Finland is a billingual state, which means Finland has two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. Yle has it’s own programmes in Swedish, like Detta om Detta, Buu-klubben, Hajbo, and many others. Detta om Detta was pretty funny, and it starred to Swedish-speaking comedians, Stan Saanila, and André Wickström. It was pretty good, but it was cancelled. Other good programme in Swedish is ”The history of Finland, but in a new way”. Althrough you may think the programme’s name says the programme is in Finnish, but it’s in Swedish. The show only shows Finland’s history until Finland’s independence, which is the only bad part of the show. The show was too short, but it was still good.
What comedies has Yle Areena to offer? Well, that’s a good question. Of course, there is the good-old Pasila, but also some other animated comedies, like Kallio’s animals, Bruno and a Beard, Gamers, Crazy crazier Middle School, and The Autocrats. Kallio’s animals flopped very badly, but it was a fairly good show. It got 2 seasons, but it was cancelled after that. Bruno and a Beard is made by a very popular Finnish animator called Sillis, who has his own Youtube channel. He uploads pretty rarely, because animations take a long time to make. The show follows a guy named Bruno, and his beard, which wants to make him a real man. The show Gamers follow some boys who chat while playing video games, but the 3D animation feels like South Park. Crazy crazier Middle school feels like South Park, and the show follows three middle school kids, and their misadventures at the middle school. It pretty much criticizes the Finnish education system and society in general. The Autocrats is a pretty old show, which aired from 2001 till 2008. It’s a satirical Spitting Image-like show which featured Finnish politicians from that time. The animation is crappy, which makes the show even funnier. I can recommend it.
There are also the Daily Show-like show called ”About a Week’s news” or ”About a Week’s studio”. The show supposed to feature Jukka Lindström as the host, but it was changed after 2017, and the show’s name was changed from ”About a Week’s news” to ”About a Week’s studio”. The show was cancelled on 2021, and the show was pretty controversial among the Finns. Many right-wingers blamed the show for making fun of the right-wing parties, while actually the show made fun of all of them. A spin-off of the show called ”Jukka Lindström’s browsing history” was released, which featured a satirical version of the future, like the movie Idiocracy. The show was very enterntaining to watch. Another spin-off was released on the April 15th on 2023, which was called ”Hard week’s night”. The show’s format was changed towards a more talk show-like format, but the show was still enterntaining to watch. It was still criticized for not just making fun of the right-wing parties, but also about the show’s format. I think some people are afraid of new things. Some old Finnish classics like Kummeli are available at Yle Areena, and they are pretty good shows. Of course, there are also some imported foreign films too.
Speaking of which, Yle has been criticized for importing foreign movies with taxpayers’ money. Although the Finnish state-run broadcaster’s purpose is to inform people, educate people, entertain people and most importantly, endorse the Finnish culture. Endorsing the Finnish culture doesn’t mean importing foreign shows, but endorse the local production. Most Finnish people don’t watch the new Finnish shows and movies, mainly because their quality is pretty low, and the same actors are used over and over again.
Yle also has to offer some podcasts about almost anything. Politics, news, culture, science, comedy, drama, documentaries, talk shows, and many others.
Yle has also some good documentaries. Nature documentaries, historical documentaries, true crime, culture, and celebrities. One good show about neuroatypical people is called ”At the spectrum”. I had read a review about the show on the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, but the article’s comments were mixed. Some people despised it for showing the autistic people that have the mild version of it, and some people despised it for promoting neuroatypical people.
So, what do I think of the state-run broadcaster? Well, the state-run broadcaster has some good content, but not perfect. Sometimes the right content is pretty difficult to find, but hey, that’s a large problem in streaming services. There’s a lot of content, and still nothing to watch. It’s still fairly good media, but it has it’s downsides. Like there are too much dramatization at the documentaries, and also there are too many programmes about sexuality, and one radical feminist podcast. Beside those flaws, I can safely recommend Yle Areena to you if you are interested in Finnish content.
From the eyes of Eltskale 
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