FINLAND

Expert assessment: public service media funding

Although it is true that the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) manages the administration and accounts of the State Television and Radio Fund, citing FICORA's role in the given context is misleading. The role FICORA plays in relation to the Fund is purely administrative. It plays no role in decisions about the level of funding for Finnish public service media or in deciding how the Fund's assets—which are used directly to finance the activities of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE)108—are utilised. It has no budgetary authority over the activities of YLE. Consequently, the example of FICORA and the Finnish State Television and Radio Fund does not seem relevant to the criticism that the new funding structure for the Hungarian public service media poses a risk to its independence.

The operations of the Finnish public broadcasting company YLE are financed through license fees ("television fees"), the level of which is decided by the Government and collected into an extra-budgetary State Television and Radio Fund.109 The management of the State Television and Radio Fund, and the role therein of FICORA, is governed by the Act on the State Television and Radio Fund.110 This law stipulates that the assets in the fund are used to finance the activities of YLE, and are otherwise only used to cover the costs of collecting the fees and promote television and radio operations. FICORA's role in relation to the Fund is purely administrative: it collects the license fees which each household and place of business that uses a television set must pay into the State Television and Radio Fund.

Decisions concerning the assets in the Fund are made by the Government not by FICORA. The Government establishes a utilisation plan that determines the installments and times of payments of assets from the Fund to YLE. However the Government has no say in how this funding is used by the YLE. The YLE itself exclusively decides on the allocation of these funds to TV, radio and other public media services, and on the distribution of funding for individual YLE activities.

The Fund has no appointed members. The Ministry of Transport and Communications annually appoints two auditors to review the administration, finance and accounts of the Fund. However, it important to point out that the funding for the YLE has been one of the most debated media policy issues in Finland in recent years. The current funding scheme on the basis of license fees is generally considered adequate in safeguarding the independence of public service media. The feasibility of license fees as a source of funding, however, has been questioned on several grounds, including for the practical difficulties of collecting these fees and on the grounds that it is an unfair burden for economically disadvantaged households.

Alternatives to the license-fee funding system have included direct budgetary funding from the Government, but such a solution has been feared to make public media more susceptible to political pressures and financial fluctuations. Another alternative funding model that has been raised is a system of a so-called "media fee" of around €175, which would replace the current license fee and would be paid by all Finnish households irrespective of whether they own a television, following a model similar to that in used in Germany.

107 See "Criticism 14" in "Criticisms and answers formulated on the subject of the proposed media act examined in a European context," Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, December 20, 2010, available at: http://www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-public-administration-and-justice/news/criticisms-and-answers-formulated-on-the-subject-of-the-proposed-media-act-examined-in-a-european-context.
108 Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE): http://avoinyle.fi/www/en/index.php.
109 The annual television license fee in Finland has been EUR 231.05 since the beginning of 2010. See YLE 2010 Annual Report http://avoinyle.fi/www/en/liitetiedostot/yle_annualreport_2009.pdf.
110 Act on the State Television and Radio Fund (745/1998; amendments up to 1069/2007 included), http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset/1998/en19980745.pdf.