Social Obsolescence of the TV Fee and the Financial Crisis of Finnish Public Service Media

Ala-Fossi, Marko

doi:10.1080/16522354.2012.11073535

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Digitalization multiplied the number of channels, but on the edges of the coverage area, actual TV reception did not improve. Increased interference and the need to replace receivers were part of the reason why 55,000 households gave up TV at the digital switchover in 2007 (Ala-Fossi 2012;.…”

Section: Digitalization Of Televisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Finland: Media welfare state in the digital era?

Ala-Fossi

2020

Journal of Digital Media &Amp; Policy

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The concept of media welfare state is a combination of the democratic corporatist media system and social democratic welfare state model, describing the distinctiveness of the Nordic countries and their media systems with four basic principles. Media welfare state is based on communication services understood as public goods, freedom from editorial interference, cultural policy and economic support for media pluralism as well as preference for consensual solutions involving cooperation between main stakeholders. However, identifying a joint media welfare state model in recent media and communication policy decisions made in Nordic countries on developing communication infrastructures, media delivery and universal access turns out to be difficult. During the last three decades, none of the four largest Nordic countries has strictly followed all the four principles. In most cases, Finland has ended up with different solutions than its Nordic neighbours and sometimes also in contradiction with the Media Welfare State model. There is evidence that the Nordic media markets have been losing their distinguishability over the years. But the main reason why the present-day Nordic countries do not fit into media welfare state model is that they no longer are welfare states ‐ not at least in the same fashion as they used to be. In Finland, this transition from the welfare state to the competition state has been more rapid and extensive than elsewhere in the Nordic region, partly because of its geopolitical position. The Finnish economy has also been exceptionally dependent on a single mobile technology corporation.

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Section: Digitalization Of Televisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The collapse of the Soviet trade and a recession in Finland only made things worse. By the time Nokia's TV division was sold in August 1996, it had generated losses of €1.3 billion; without its increasing revenues from mobile phones, the company could have faced bankruptcy (Ala-Fossi 2012, 2016Häikiö 2001a).…”

Section: Saved By Mobile Phones and Nokiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Finland: Media welfare state in the digital era?

Ala-Fossi

2020

Journal of Digital Media &Amp; Policy

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“…These levies were eventually dropped in 2007 in response to the lobbying of commercial broadcasters. After this, the funding of YLE has relied solely on the licence fee, which created a deficit that forced YLE to slim down its operations (see Ala-Fossi, 2012). Leading up to the eventual political agreement on the PSM funding reform, in late 2011, the funding of YLE was the most debated media policy issue in Finland for several years.…”

Section: The Psm Funding Reform In Finlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The industry also bitterly contrasted the increasing struggles of the commercial media sector with YLE getting ‘bags of money thrown at them and free hands to do whatever they wish with public money’, as one industry interviewee put it. The coordinated campaign by newspapers that propagated the views of the media industry contributed to the fact that public opinion was largely critical of the new media fee (Ala-Fossi, 2012: 41). This was reflected, for instance, in the opinion polls commissioned by newspapers and in a number of Facebook groups opposed to the proposal, the largest of which had over 100,000 members (Ala-Fossi and Hujanen, 2010: 18).…”

Section: The Psm Funding Reform In Finlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy streams and public service media funding reforms in Germany and Finland

Herzog

Karppinen

2014

European Journal of Communication

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On 1 January 2013, Germany and Finland made the switch from the traditional broadcasting licence fee tied to television-set ownership to a compulsory excise duty collected from all citizens, households and places of business. This article compares the changes in these countries' public service media funding arrangements on the basis of John Kingdon's 'multiple streams' framework of public policy-making which, to date, has been rather neglected in studies of media policy-making processes. Drawing on the analysis of policy documents and interviews with policymakers and other stakeholders involved in the respective processes, we investigate how the actual reforms materialized, which other possibilities were neglected and why this has been the case.

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“…One such case is the Netherlands, which abolished the licence fee on 1 January 2000 and replaced it by direct state subsidies (D’Haenens, 2017; Lowe and Berg, 2013: 91). Moreover, a new form of PSM funding was instituted in Finland in 2013 when the licence fee was replaced by a special public broadcasting tax, linked to personal income (Ala Fossi, 2012; Karppinen and Ala-Fossi, 2017). At the same point in time, Germany moved to a household levy, replacing the appliance-based licence fee (Herzog and Karppinen, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The end of the television licence fee? Applying the German household levy model to the United Kingdom

Ramsey

Herzog

2018

European Journal of Communication

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While the United Kingdom (UK) government has renewed the BBC Royal Charter until 2027 and confirmed that the television licence fee will last for this period, a medium-term shift from the television licence fee to a household levy is still a policy option. Drawing on the German experience, we discuss the probable difficulties, possible benefits and the overall implications of such a shift in the UK. The article employs a comparative media policy analysis. After a brief history of public service broadcasting funding in the UK, we provide an outline of the recent German public service media funding reform. We point out the difficulties from the German model to predict the future total revenues and elaborate on the suitability of it in the UK context, contrasting the possibilities of policy transfer and policy failure.

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Social Obsolescence of the TV Fee and the Financial Crisis of Finnish Public Service Media

Cited by 13 publications

References 6 publications

Finland: Media welfare state in the digital era?

Finland: Media welfare state in the digital era?

Policy streams and public service media funding reforms in Germany and Finland

The end of the television licence fee? Applying the German household levy model to the United Kingdom

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