Finnish Broadcasting Corporation (Yle)

Yleisradio Oy is Finland’s public-service media company, founded in 1926 and celebrating its centenary in September 2026. Its public-service remit is defined in section 7 of the Act on Yleisradio Oy, Law 1380/1993. Marit af Björkesten became chief executive in October 2025, succeeding Merja Ylä-Anttila.

Media assets

Television: Yle TV1, Yle TV2, Yle Teema & Fem and TV Finland

Radio: Yle Radio 1, YleX, Yle Radio Suomi, Yle Vega, Yle X3M, Yle Sámi Radio, Yle Mondo and Yle Klassinen

Streaming and digital: Yle Areena, yle.fi, svenska.yle.fi and Elävä arkisto

Yle Teema and Yle Fem share a linear television channel. Yle Areena provides streaming video and audio, while Elävä arkisto is an online archive.

Yle Puhe ceased broadcasting on 7 January 2024. Its closure left five nationwide FM networks: Yle Radio 1, YleX, Yle Radio Suomi, Yle Vega and Yle X3M. The wider radio portfolio also includes Sámi-language broadcasting, the multilingual Mondo service and the digital classical-music service Yle Klassinen.

Ownership and governance

Yle is a limited liability company 99.98 per cent owned by the Finnish state.

Its highest governing body is the 21-member Administrative Council, elected by Parliament. The Council supervises fulfilment of the public-service remit, approves strategy and major organisational changes, and appoints and dismisses the Board of Directors. Two staff representatives may attend and speak at Council meetings but do not vote. Its chair is Sinuhe Wallinheimo of the National Coalition Party.

The Board is responsible for the company’s administration, budget and executive appointments. It appoints the chief executive and responsible editors. Yle’s published selection criteria exclude serving MPs and government ministers from Board membership. Kari Kivelä became Board chair in 2026.

The statutory framework changed in August 2025. Following the parliamentary working group’s September 2024 settlement, amendments made by Law 412/2025 entered into force on 8 August 2025. They require Yle to promote openness in its finances and operations, strengthen the Council’s supervision and reporting responsibilities, and update Yle’s duty to maintain information provision in emergencies. The law also introduced specific safeguards for responsible editors.

The parliamentary settlement additionally calls for purchases of domestic independent productions, production services and relevant rights payments to increase by 15 to 20 per cent by 2030, compared with the average for 2021 to 2023.

Source of funding and budget

Yle has been financed principally through tax-based public appropriations since 2013. The state collects the broadcasting tax, while Parliament determines the appropriation through the budget process. Funding passes through the State Television and Radio Fund, an off-budget fund administered by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, before reaching Yle.

Since 1 January 2025, the standard individual broadcasting tax has been 2.5 per cent of the portion of net earned and capital income exceeding EUR 15,150, capped at EUR 160 annually. It applies to liable adults in mainland Finland; Åland has a separate media fee. Qualifying corporate entities pay EUR 140 when taxable income reaches EUR 50,000, plus 0.35 per cent of the excess, subject to a EUR 3,000 ceiling.

Yle is prohibited from carrying advertising in its public-service content and from producing sponsored programmes, under section 12 of the Act on Yleisradio Oy.

In 2025 the public appropriation accounted for 98.4 per cent of total income, and Yle recorded a profit of EUR 19.3 million.

An index freeze and a VAT increase reduce available funding. The statutory index adjustment is suspended for 2025 to 2027. The parliamentary working group estimated in 2024 that the freeze would leave annual funding approximately EUR 47 million lower in 2027 than under normal indexation.

The VAT rate on Yle’s appropriation rose from 10 to 13.5 per cent on 1 January 2026. Yle puts the resulting annual revenue reduction at EUR 16.7 million, with the net appropriation falling to approximately EUR 523.0 million in 2026.

Restructuring

Yle launched a multi-year restructuring and savings programme in response to the funding settlement.

In January 2025 it announced the removal of 309 positions, comprising 156 redundancies and 153 reductions through retirement and other staff changes. Those figures described the announced outcome of that negotiation round.

The full-year account records different figures. During 2025, 142 employees were dismissed and 217 accepted retirement incentives. Negotiations affected 2,162 employees.

Average employment fell from 3,343 person-years in 2024 to 3,063 in 2025. These are annual labour-input figures rather than a headcount. At the end of 2025 Yle employed 2,702 permanent monthly salaried staff.

Editorial independence

Finland’s Constitution protects freedom of expression. Political attempts to influence Yle’s content are rare and not tolerated, while recognising the political role of its parliamentary supervisory body.

Specific statutory safeguards protect editorial decision-making. Section 6d of the amended Yle Act establishes professional requirements for responsible editors. Their employment cannot be terminated because they have exercised their editorial authority, unless continuation in the role would be manifestly unreasonable for the company. Other employment-law provisions also apply.

Yle’s Ethical Guidelines for Content and Publishing, effective from 15 August 2025, bind everyone creating content at or for the company. They require independence from political and commercial pressure, verification of information and prompt correction of significant errors. Final editorial decisions rest with responsible editors.

Yle follows the Guidelines for Journalists and participates in the Council for Mass Media’s system of journalistic self-regulation. Audiences can seek corrections and replies through Yle’s published procedures, and journalistic conduct is subject to the Council’s complaints process.

AI and digital policy

Yle has published both general responsible-AI principles and specific rules for generative AI in content production. The latter took effect on 20 February 2025. They retain human responsibility and require content to pass through normal editorial verification procedures. Journalists must check and, where necessary, revise AI-assisted article summaries, which must carry a visible disclosure.

As a general rule, Yle does not use realistic AI-generated images or videos in news journalism. It requires disclosure when synthetic fictional material could be mistaken for reality and when AI has played a significant role in the finished content. Its broader principles address privacy, copyright, transparency and continuing assessment of risks and bias.

Adoption is documented. Yle’s 2025 annual report states that more than 2,500 employees regularly used YleGPT. Its public documentation describes applications including transcription, summarisation, video processing, synthetic speech and identifying potential news stories in municipal documents.

Classification rationale

Yle is classified Independent State-Managed (ISM).

It is state-owned and subject to parliamentary governance. The state owns 99.98 per cent of its shares. Parliament elects the Administrative Council, which appoints the Board; the Board appoints executive leadership. This creates a political role in institutional governance, and is the basis on which Yle is classified as state-managed.

Its funding is public rather than state-allocated. Yle is financed through a dedicated broadcasting tax paid by individuals and qualifying companies, which reaches the company through the off-budget State Television and Radio Fund. Although Parliament sets the appropriation, the money originates with the public rather than from discretionary government expenditure, in the manner of a licence fee. That distinction is why the state-funded condition is not engaged and Yle is classified ISM rather than ISFM.

The funding settlement nonetheless illustrates the limits of that distinction. The index freeze for 2025 to 2027 and the VAT increase from 1 January 2026 were both political decisions that reduced the money available to Yle, notwithstanding the tax-based mechanism.

Its editorial autonomy is supported by statutory safeguards, binding professional rules and external journalistic self-regulation. Responsible editors hold editorial decision-making authority, and the 2025 legislation protects the exercise of that authority.

September 2026