70 years old | “The situation is worse than in years” – TV star Jorma Sairanen tells what's wrong with the Finnish TV industry

An interview Barely five minutes have passed when the TV industry kingpin Jorma Sairanen has already had time to shoot such a number of cutting-edge views that it is difficult to fit them all into this article.

“I have planned this interview in advance. When we made my book a few years ago, I wanted each chapter to have some interesting insight and not just ramble on about something non-existent. In the same way, I think about my birthday interview”, explains Sairanen.

Then interesting thoughts start to come.

“Sanoma Group needs to buy MTV for itself,” he begins.

Sick a smile appears on the face. The manager, who has had a career in the media industry for decades, knows that many people get their coffees down the wrong throat for this kind of talk.

“The situation of Finnish production companies is worse than in years. Companies fire and furlough people. No one is currently ordering anything. For years, Finnish drama production has been under fire. In reality, most of it is mostly mediocre.”

“The level of entertainment in Finland is weak. And now I'm not even talking TIS-, ADD– and other similar programs where simple-looking tattooed young people talk about irrelevant things. Or god Naked Attraction, in which we watch when a person strips himself to his balls and the other giggles at it. What the hell TV show is that?”

Sairanen is sitting at home in an armchair in a two-story terraced apartment in Munkkiniemi. The demeanor is calm, but he has clearly been waiting to say these things.

“And then there is one more thing. In sports, politics and many other fields, veterans over the age of 70 constantly qualify as expert commentators. In the media industry, according to general opinion, a person is dead when he turns 50. No one has asked me my opinion for years.”

Let's take it in the meantime, a quick review of Sairanen's career.

Sairanen, who already ran a movie club at a young age, started his career in the TV industry in 1986, when he moved from an advertising agency to MTV's program manager responsible for buying foreign programs. During the recession, Sairanen flew to places like Monte Carlo and Los Angeles to negotiate deals and drink champagne. Back home in Finland, you didn't dare to talk about the trips to your furloughed friends.

Sairanen defected from MTV in 1997 to found another commercial TV channel in Finland, Nelo. Whe
n MTV's program director Tauno Äijälä retired in 2001, Sairanen was brought back to Maikkari in that wash.

Between 2001 and 2014, Sairanen was in charge of all of MTV3's domestic programming, drama and entertainment until he retired at the age of 60. During the illness, a large number of long-running programs were canceled on MTV3, such as Wheel of Fortune, Ten tons and Pole ten. Many new hits came instead.

In the best years, the company made huge profits. The situation was quite the opposite of today. Big change negotiations about the problems of MTV that took place last fall is impressively written.

Sick has not shied away from taking his share of the credit for Maikkar's successful years, but on the eve of his 70th birthday, he is ready to admit that the time was also right.

“The golden age of TV in Finland was very short, around 2000-2010. The situation started to turn around when streaming services came in to compete and companies like Facebook and Google started taking a large part of the advertising revenue.”

He even admits a mistake in his own work.

“I was a pretty bad PR manager. I never asked politicians, business people or other stakeholders to visit. I could have tried to highlight the social importance of Maikkar much more.”

Polemics Sairanen is also ready to justify his claims.

In his opinion, Sanoma should buy MTV because it would “bring better quality” and help Sanoma compete better for advertising money against foreign companies. Due to its huge losses, MTV is now available for purchase, says Sairanen.

The retired TV executive says that Nelonen and MTV3 are currently spending millions of euros on the “hegemony competition” for the position of Finland's largest commercial channel, and that the sale would save money. The channels could be pruned, each of them created their own profiles, and one of them could seriously compete with Yle's news and current affairs content by combining Sanoma's content expertise and Maikkar's visual experience.

“In the past, there was talk that such a deal could not pass the competition authority, but I claim that nowadays it would. Google and Meta control such a large part of the advertising market that there would be no advertising dominance,” Sairanen downloads.

On the contrary breathless, he continues to tell what should be done about the miserable situation of Finnish production companies.

“A certain kind of bubble has developed in Finland. A huge number of drama series have been made with the assumption that they would have a significant export to foreign countries. It has turned out to be a vain hope because the quality is not enough. At the same time, domestic channels have been competing for their lives by ordering way too many programs,” Sairanen says.

“We should do less and better quality. Every drama series should be a landmark case. Then international funds would be involved, Mikko Kodisojan actors like the studio he founded and so on.”

Sick says he wants to think positively: reducing the amount of production would mean better programs, better results for surviving companies and jobs for the best workers.

“Jobs will not disappear for everyone, but everyone will no longer have the same job. Production companies will probably decrease in Finland. Estonia made by Fisher King has already filed for bankruptcy, and unfortunately I think there will be more to come.”

Helsingin Sanomat and Nelonen belong to the Sanoma Group.

Picture: Kalle Koponen / HS

• Born in 1954 in Helsinki.

• Master of Business Administration from the Helsinki School of Economics.

• Worked as program manager of MTV 1986–1997, channel manager of Nelonen 1997–2000 and program manager of MTV3 2001–2014.

• After retiring from MTV, founded the TV consulting company Carmeli, of which he is the CEO.

• Wrote a memoir with journalist Kalle Kinnusen Daddy Cool – Three decades at the top of the television world (2017).

• Enjoys golf, collecting and listening to music from the 1960s and 1970s, and good wines.

• Lives in Helsinki. The family includes a 15-year-old boy.

• Turns 70 on Tuesday, January 23rd.

What would you tell your 20-year-old self?

“Always be positive and optimistic. Still question as much as possible.”