Highlights of 2020

Yle Olohuone (Living Room)

In the spring, Yle launched its new Yle Olohuone concept that provided virtual music, entertainment and culture events and featured more than 70 Finnish artists.

Uudenlainen Linnan juhlat 2020 (Independence Day)

Covid-19 safety guidelines were introduced for newsrooms

Rankka vuosi (A Tough Year) documentary

As soon as the pandemic began, Yle launched a large-scale documentary project that focused on how Finnish society and its decision-makers coped with this novel situation throughout the year. The resulting documentary series, Rankka vuosi, was broadcasted in spring 2021.

Tilipäivä

Talk show hosted by Ina Mikkola was not afraid to touch even the hardest topics.

Red Nose Day

YleX Laugh-ahton

Urheilun Nostalgiaviikonloppu

To replace the sports events broadcasts that were postponed throughout the year, Yle created the Nostalgiaviikonloppu (Nostalgic Weekend) series to highlight memorable Finnish achievements in sports. These broadcasts amassed hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Rauhantekijä (Peacemaker)

Yle’s channels featured several drama series debuts that sparked a great deal of interest worldwide, such as The Paradise, a Finnish–Spanish co-production; Peacemaker, a look into the challenging world of peace work; and White Wall, a co-production between Yle and SVT, Sweden’s national public television broadcaster.  All three shows were selected as Golden Venla candidates. 

White Wall

Verta, hikeä ja t-paitoja (Blood, Sweat, and T-shirts)

Logged In

Documentary series Logged in followed the story of five young men.

Elämäni Biisi (The Song of My Life)

SuomiLOVE

Melodi Grand Prix 2020

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (Competition for New Music)

Before the start of the Covid-19 shutdown, Yle organised its renewed Competition for New Music UMK, which involved six artists instead of an invited artist as in previous years. Finland’s representative for the Eurovision Song Contest was chosen jointly by Finnish viewers and an international panel. 

Antti Holman oopperajuhlat 

In addition to its comprehensive offering of radio programming, Yle invested in a distinctive offering of podcasts in 2020. Some of the year’s most successful debuts included Antti Holman oopperajuhlat (Antti Holma’s Opera Festival), the true crime seriesViimeinen johtolanka (The Final Clue), and the historical series Pieleen mennyt historia (History Gone Wrong). 

Takaisin Pasilaan

Yle Mix

Yle Mix brings news for children in a way that's suitable for them.

Etäkoulu (Remote School)

After the Covid-19 shutdown began, Yle supported schools and teachers by offering its contents for distance learning purposes. Yle’s Etäkoulu service provided educational contents on television, Yle Areena and the Triplet application, and these contents were widely used by Finnish schools and educational institutions.

Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Radio Symphony Orchestra’s concerts were mostly remote productions. In autumn 2020, Yle began broadcasting live concerts on Yle Teema, in addition to airing concerts from previous years on Yle Areena and the radio.

Mikaela & Thomas - Talk Show in sign language

Multilingual news

In addition to Finnish and Swedish, Yle provided information on the Covid-19 situation in sign language, plain Finnish and Swedish, Sámi, Russian and English. In spring, Yle added Arabic, Kurdish, Somali and Persian to its selection of languages so that it could reach as many language groups in Finland as possible.

Yle Kielikoulu – Yle Språkskolan (Language School)

Yle launched a new service Yle Kielikoulu – Yle Språkskolan (Language School) that supports learning and following media in Finnish and Swedish.

Well Said-project

At the end of the year, Yle launched the Hyvin sanottu – Bra sagt (Well Said) project, which is a new type of societal project that seeks to promote a constructive conversational culture with the help of over a hundred Finnish partners. Its goal is to increase mutual understanding.