Decreased willingness to pay TV licence fees blamed on poor public image of Finnish Broadcasting Company

Younger people prefer Internet to television

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The prospect of job cuts at the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) led to a walkout of personnel on Tuesday. One of the reasons given for the need to reduce costs at the public service broadcaster was the reduction in the number of people paying television licence fees, which are the main source of revenue of YLE.
      In 2004 the number of licence fees paid dropped by an unexpected 10,000. However, this year the payment of the fee has gone back to normal levels.
      Last year’s decline is the result of an increasing number of people cancelling their television licences. The number of new licences remained almost unchanged from previous years.
     
Esko Kotilainen, head of the Television Fee Administration of the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, says that the increased unwillingness to pay the fee, and the exceptionally high number of cancellations last year could have more to do with the poor image of the public service broadcaster than any general weakening of public morality.
      "Those who watch television without a licence have always been mainly single urban men under the age of 30. This group has always remained approximately the same size."
      Kotilainen says that last year the public image of YLE suffered fro a number of reasons.
      The increases in the licence fee itself brought negative reactions. The appointment of a new director-general was a somewhat confused process. Then there was the controversy over the planned construction of a massive music centre in Helsinki, and rumours of staff cuts.
      "Naturally it is possible that the fact that a television that is watched without a licence is no longer confiscated could encourage some", Kotilainen ponders.
      Also, the number of households without a television at all has doubled in recent years.
      About six percent of households in Finland do not have a television, up from between three and four percent in previous years. Many young people have stopped watching TV in favour of the Internet. Television is also becoming less popular among the better educated.
     
Heta Gylling, Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki, says that she felt sympathy for the YLE personnel when they staged their Tuesday protest strike.
      She says that events such as the personnel cutbacks at YLE lead to general frustration and greater overall cynicism. In her view, a sense of the common good disappears as people constantly see employers doing what they please with impunity.
      "People think, why should I worry about the common good, participate, and pay my way, when the big companies appear to be promoting their own interest and nothing else."
      Gylling does not see the phenomenon so much as a weakening of morality among the young, but rather a reflection of increased cynicism and frustration among adults.
      "In this way generations are growing up who have not even learned to think that we are one nation where everyone should think of the common good."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Disappointed employees silence YLE television and radio (7.9.2005)
  UPDATE: Finnish Broadcasting Company personnel stage walkout to protest planned job cuts (6.9.2005)
  Finnish Broadcasting Company appoints new Director General (17.11.2004)

Links:
  YLE web site: This is YLE

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