The task force decided earlier this autumn to freeze the funding of YLE for 2025–2027, a decision that translates to a 47-million-euro budget cut, according to the public broadcaster. The budget will shrink by another 19 million euros due to a decision to raise the value-added tax the broadcaster pays on its appropriation from 10 to 14 per cent starting on 1 January 2026.
YLE on Wednesday said it will try to adapt to the smaller budget primarily by streamlining its organisational and management structures rather than scaling back its content and programme offering.
CEO Merja Ylä-Anttila added, though, that savings of this magnitude will inevitably also have an effect on contents across platforms.
Ylä-Anttila said to Helsingin Sanomat that there are presently no plans to discontinue any radio or television channels but admitted that some programmes may be taken off air. “That’s something this could well cause. We’ll start the negotiations and then evaluate how the savings will be realised. We’re trying to make sure the outcome doesn’t undermine our relationship with the audience or our statutory duties,” she commented.
Personnel costs account for roughly a half of the expenditures of YLE.
“There’ll be proposals to also cut back on operational costs,” said Ylä-Anttila. “For example, we’ll look to lower the level of management and shed managerial duties to form bigger wholes for someone to manage.”
Most of the savings, about 50 million euros, are to be generated during the first two rounds of negotiations, and the remaining 16 million euros in the third round to be held in early 2026 or 2027. Ylä-Anttila revealed that the first round of negotiations will focus mainly on news and topical programming, but cost savings will be sought also in the creative content and media, as well as technology and development divisions.
Antti Laakso, the chairperson of the association representing programming employees at YLE (YOT), said the consultative negotiations will be the largest in the history of the media industry in Finland.
“The number is already shocking,” he messaged Helsingin Sanomat.
Laakso estimated that the first round of negotiations will not be completed until after Christmas, with the lay-offs to be implemented possibly in early February.
“The mood is very gloomy and shocked. We were presented big numbers,” echoed Mikko Martikainen, the chief shop steward for YOT.
Also Hanne Aho, the chairperson of Journalists in Finland, said the lay-offs will be unprecedented in scope and have a tangible and wide-ranging impact on not only journalism and dissemination of information more broadly, but also on Finnish culture. The parliamentary task force, she added, demonstrated a degree of indifference toward the importance of independent media with its decision on the budget adjustments.
“In these times, we all have a tremendous need for reliable reporting and high-quality contents. Politicians have mostly demonstrated an indifference toward this,” she said in a press release on Wednesday.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
