According to this data, Yleisradio has 11 directors, 52 managers, and 218 supervisors. The figures are mainly inflated by Svenska Yle, where the average team size is 7.3.
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Surely everyone in Finland who uses YLE’s or commercial companies’ services at all could ask: “what on earth are these 36 channels???”. For example, a large number of radio channels are run by commercial operators. And listener numbers are orders of magnitude higher than YLE’s, even though budgets are in the hundreds of thousands or millions. That is, well under 0.5% of YLE’s budget. A really good example of why YLE’s role should be limited to what a publicly tax-funded organization should do, and leave other activities to the commercial side.
YLE should take care of essential information services. In addition, everyone who thinks there is a “good efficiency” could pay for YLE’s “additional services” themselves. What do you think is wrong with this?
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Wait, what? YLE’s local radio stations are by a landslide the most popular channels in Finland. They are also at the core of public service: for instance, a radio station focused on Lapland would hardly be a real money-maker for anyone, but as a public service, there is a clear demand for it.
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Radio listening is split evenly between Yle and commercial stations
Listening to Yle and commercial channels was divided evenly across the entire population, with 51 percent for Yle and 49 percent for commercial. The most-listened-to channel was Radio Suomi, which accounted for 34 percent of all listening.
Yle could certainly be abolished if some private entity handled things better than the inefficient public service.
Have the private attempts just been that poor, or why isn’t the displacement succeeding?
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Quite an astounding comparison. Two completely different products: commercial radio and a mandatory-fee equivalent.
Should we set up a Yle snack bar while we’re at it, serving tax-funded portions at a subscription price of €0/serving? It would be quite something to bask in Yle’s superior efficiency while the kebab-pizzeria next door finally closes its greedy doors.
As far as I’m concerned, Yle could offer these undeniably superior entertainment radio services in the future via a monthly fee (or some other funding model that is voluntary from the user’s perspective, such as advertising revenue) to those who want them. Let’s take another look at those listener distributions when the comparison makes even a lick of sense.
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To each their own, but I have Yle channels playing in the car precisely because I can’t stand listening to hours of commercials, and the commercial side’s “wannabe-funny” bullshitters (who call themselves journalists) make steam come out of my ears.
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Well, if you consider that to be in the public interest and necessary, then just go ahead and start a citizens’ initiative!
Well, if public services should be run that way, then shouldn’t roads and especially motorways be funded by tolls? A person without a driver’s license who takes the tram doesn’t need a motorway, even if it affects their life indirectly.
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Many people have a strange idea that only content that sells to the masses is valuable.
That is exactly what this “put YLE on a monthly fee” talk means.
If you think about that idea and compare it to the content of commercial operators, from this perspective, the cost-effective ways to produce good programs are all kinds of reality TV that commercial channels churn out at every turn. Tempparit (Temptation Island) and all kinds of “sex islands” or whatever. Where are the nature and science documentaries? Where are the factual programs? Commercial operators are only interested in politics near elections, when they can get high viewership and sell ads.
YLE, on the other hand, produces a wide variety of truly important and interesting programs that might not meet the criteria for a commercial hit. Nor should they have to. It’s true that there is also plenty of “useless” content, but what is truly useless? It’s worth noting that what is useless to you is not necessarily useless to others. In many respects, YLE’s programs tend to fill the void left by commercial operators and offer it “for free” even to those minorities who cannot find content from commercial providers. I think this is valuable.
I must personally admit that I watch very little regular television and mostly watch factual programs, science documentaries, sports, etc., and in that regard, YLE has a very interesting selection. That is why Areena (Yle Areena) is in weekly use.
I believe YLE provides information and various other types of content for thinking people. Its value is difficult to compare to the profit-seeking of commercial operators.
In short: There is certainly room for fine-tuning, but it should be done with moderation and over time. An index freeze is a pretty good start for now.
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This isn’t about whether the content is valuable to the masses or not. It’s about what YLE’s role should be and what it should be doing. Specifically, it shouldn’t be involved in buying rights to series like Game of Thrones or similar, producing “Au Pairs in [wherever]”, or buying expensive rights to international sporting events… People should pay for entertainment themselves; it shouldn’t be the role of a tax-funded public sector entity. At some point, we can probably start discussing how much current affairs or nature programs should be produced with tax money (for clarity: I think some amount is quite desirable), but could we first stop the most bizarre excesses?
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Let’s switch to a completely different topic: employment, or perhaps more accurately, the unemployed.
In this Yle article ( Pelastaako vety Suomen? Olemme samassa tilanteessa kuin Norja löytäessään öljyä 70-luvulla, hehkuttaa asiantuntija | Uutiset | Yle), experts paint a vision of 10,000 to 100,000 new jobs being created in Finland over the next decade. Hydrogen is being framed as the savior of Finland’s economy, which from the chemical industry’s perspective sounds more plausible than as a method of electricity “production,” but I believe there’s a dedicated thread for that topic.
In my view, not many of those newly created jobs will go to the currently unemployed. They might employ some people who have become unemployed in the forest industry, but as far as I understand, the employment situation for tech experts in Finland has always been quite strong. Hopefully, the government will fine-tune work-based immigration processes to perfection so that this opportunity doesn’t slip through our fingers.
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How many ministers have we had who had to leave after being caught lying? Orpo has claimed that he didn’t know about the investigation into Pelttari, but now he admits that he did know. Why is a lying prime minister okay this time?
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Let’s see if the opposition takes up the issue. Based on those Iltalehti articles, the case is clear: Supo (Finnish Security and Intelligence Service) has been operating in a gray area. The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) wants to hush up the matter and protect its long-term political appointee. However, the matter is sensitive and relates to foreign policy toward Russia. Due to the difficult global situation, this and the previous government have, nonetheless, enjoyed a certain level of protection from the opposition, especially in security-related matters. Perhaps that practice will continue.
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It is probably best to refrain from deep-reaching foreign policy analysis until we have a better source of information than our country’s second-worst tabloid at our disposal. Of course, in matters of this nature, all information is never made public, and that, if anything, is an excellent thing in the current global situation where the undisturbed operation of security authorities is absolutely vital. It ranks even higher in priority than the measures to manage the “hurt feelings” of the red-green “intelligentsia”. This has only been the case for less than two government terms, so I understand if there is still something to be learned.
I don’t know what you’re basing that view on, but in my opinion, Jarno Liski is one of the best political journalists in Finland today. He is certainly also disliked, as he diligently performs the role of a watchdog of power and snaps at everyone’s heels as needed, regardless of ideology or party.
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I personally know Jarno Liski from his time at the Jyväskylä Student Magazine, after which he moved to Yle. He really is among the top tier of domestic political journalists, even though he works for the publication in question.
On this forum, Orpo’s lying won’t spark much of a discussion because the party and the government coalition are the “right” ones. Imagine the uproar there would be if “Party-Sanna” had been caught lying in a similar way.
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I don’t remember what was written on this forum, but it’s true, Sanna Marin certainly got her share of attention in the press, including from Liski, and there were plenty of alcohol-fueled stories;
- hanging out with the “flour” gang
- boozy weekends
- handling the Fortum-Uniper multi-billion business via text message while on “vacation”
- various restaurant after-parties at Kultaranta
- Kesärata – the Ruisrock after-parties at Kesäranta
- Vogue covers
- The breakfast scandal
- some restaurant/phone episode
- going to a restaurant after being exposed to COVID
- etc., whatever else there was
Actually, I would have hoped for some inquiry from journalists as to why nothing was really being attempted except for some money-handout schemes.
It was always enough to just point out – COVID and Russia.
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A bit of light relief, so my post belongs on the scrap heap, but I found this “top-quality” news item amusing.
A researcher has concluded that the Slovakian Social Democrat, Fico, is far-right 
Furthermore, the researcher apparently has clear evidence that Fico’s case and Vornanen’s antics are part of the same plot 
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Where did they reach that conclusion? The article used the term right-wing populist. It is not exactly a secret that Fico’s party has the characteristics of a right-wing populist party and has also cooperated in government with the country’s far-right several times. As a result, the Smer party’s membership in the Party of European Socialists has also been suspended at times.
As for the concept of right-wing populism, its characteristics include strong nationalism as well as anti-foreigner and anti-immigration sentiment. These are met very well in the case of Fico and Smer. Left-wing populism, on the other hand, has different definitions. Albeit the political spectrum is more like a circle than a line, where the extremes are close to each other.
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Yes, but in this case, a nationalist, xenophobic, and anti-immigration friend of Putin can probably be called a SOCIAL DEMOCRAT, as he declares himself one and his party is a member of the European Social Democratic party you mentioned. As far as I’m concerned, Fico can be a far-right social democrat 
After all, he used to be a communist.
So, in your opinion, a Social Democrat can’t be a racist or a friend of Putin, but even comrades like this are classified as right-wing populists? Or are you protecting the reputation of the Social Democrats here? Sorry, but that movement has seen all sorts of characters!
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You are free to call him a Social Democrat. And that’s what he is. But instead of social democracy, right-wing populism is the framework that connects him and many of his political allies in Europe. And in that group, he finds more resonance than among European Social Democratic parties.
In a one-party system, I wouldn’t draw very far-reaching conclusions from that just yet. But when it comes to extremes, even in free Western countries, it is quite noticeable how the far right and the far left find each other on political issues. A good example is Paavo Väyrynen’s Seven Star Movement, on whose candidate lists many far-right individuals and hardline Taistoist communists (Taistolaiset), who had preserved their ideology, appeared in perfect harmony and behind a common program. As has been stated, the ideological spectrum is a circle rather than a line, where the extremes meet.
And years ago, Olavi Mäenpää, a star politician of the Finnish far right, did form an electoral alliance with hardline communists. Specifically with the KTP (Communist Workers’ Party), next to which the more well-known communist party looks like quite a moderate bunch.
Of course a Social Democrat can be a racist, and many Social Democrats are racists. For example, our current Minister of the Interior, who spewed racist crap on social media, is a former Social Democrat, and I don’t believe her worldview suddenly went dark the day she changed parties.
Hardly any party is free from the darkest values of the human mind when it comes to its membership or supporters. What distinguishes parties is that only a few of them stoop to gathering support by relying on those values.
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