Yle’s services are provided on equal terms so that everyone is able to watch, read and listen to our content, regardless of their financial standing or place of residence.
Our goal is that Yle’s services are available to everyone living in Finland, conveniently and where they want to use them.
Our development is increasingly based on smart data. Furthermore, we are investing in the development of online and mobile services in order to provide more flexible and targeted content in different situations.
According to studies, we have the most popular and respected online services in Finland. In addition, our TV and radio channels have the highest number of viewers and listeners in Finland.
In terms of television, we improved the accessibility of Yle TV2 programmes and gave the channel a new look. We increased Swedish subtitles on all channels and in Yle Areena.
We made changes to the content of FM radio channels. In addition, we continued to develop audio content and, for example, released 20 new podcast series in Areena.
Yle Areena is Finland’s best online brand when measured both nationally and internationally
In 2018, we developed the range of Areena and improved its accessibility on different devices. Areena is the most popular streaming service in Finland and reached up to 3 million users per month.
In the “Verkkobrändien arvostus ja suosittelu 2018” (Valuation and recommendation of online brands in 2018) survey, Finnish people selected Yle Areena as the best online brand for the sixth year in succession. For the first time, Areena reached first place in an international survey, involving 146 Finnish and international brands.
Areena’s video content openly accessible to travellers in the EU region
As the second public broadcasting company in Europe, we put the EU cross-border portability regulation into practice. This significantly improved the accessibility of Yle Areena in other countries. Since November 2018, Areena’s video content has been accessible to permanent Finnish residents travelling within the EU by using Areena apps.
The use of Areena in the EU region requires that users confirm that their place of residence is in Finland and that they have the Yle ID.
Audio content will be available and Yle Areena will be accessible through a web browser in the EU region starting from the first half of 2019.
Get the most out of Yle services using the Yle ID
By using the Yle ID, our goal is to improve the level of personal service and to develop content. For example, users can get more out of Areena by selecting programmes as their favourites and by continuing to watch programmes from the spot where they stopped on another device.
The one million mark was hit on 9 October 2018, and at the end of the year, there were nearly 1.1 million Yle IDs. They are used evenhandedly by users of all ages.
Registered users spend nearly four times more time in Yle Areena than non-registered users. Registered users of over 45 years spend the most time in Areena.
Many loyal users of Yle's services have the Yle ID, but it also helps less frequent users to find more interesting content. Registered users also use more audio content. The Yle.fi service succeeded in significantly increasing the use of Yle IDs by Finnish people, particularly by offering more sports content.
New technologies and artificial intelligence
We have taken significant steps to use modern technology and launched a variety of pilots. For example, Yle’s Swedish-speaking unit Svenska Yle was the first Finnish media company to introduce voice control for content. As a result, users can listen to the most recent news, podcasts, current affairs programmes and radio channels in Swedish using Google Assistant on their smart devices.
We also tested live interviews using the AR technology for the first time at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. AR technology was used to show the interviewee in a real environment.
We also improved the accessibility of Areena’s content using an audiovisual content analysis assisted by artificial intelligence.
In October, we published the world’s first smart news notifications, as the Voitto robot in the Uutisvahti app started to recommend news directly on the lock screen of mobile devices. More than 10,000 users have already subscribed to these notifications.
