Image: Yle

Management of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle has charted big changes for its English-language news service, Yle News, in 2017. According to a recent decision, the last 15:05 television broadcast will take place on 26 February, following which the unit will focus on reaching its audience online and the daily TV bulletins will be discontinued.

Radio broadcasts will remain as before, with bulletins at 15:30 on Yle Mondo and at 15:55 on Radio 1.

The first Yle News television bulletin aired on TV Channel 1 on June 7, 1999, three weeks before Finland assumed the rotating Presidency of the European Union for the first time.

The time was ripe for a news service that would deliver comprehensive English-language coverage about Finland for television, radio and online audiences, including global investors and business leaders, foreign governments and diplomats, international media and newcomers to Finland.

At the time, the number of people in Finland whose native language was not Finnish, Swedish, Russian or Sami stood at roughly 72,000. This number has since grown almost fourfold, reaching more than 257,000 by the end of 2015.

Prior to Yle News, Radio Finland produced multilingual radio programming, including news in English. Finland’s first English-language radio news aired during World War II.

For more information, contact Marjo Ahonen on 040 522 4661.