Over | CEO Merja Ylä-Anttila: Redundancies mean change negotiations

On public radio is facing change negotiations due to cuts in its funding, says Yle’s CEO Merja Ylä-Anttila.

“There will definitely be change negotiations at some point. When and how, that will be clarified here,” Ylä-Anttila states.

According to Ylä-Anttila, the need for surgery will not be offset simply by staff retirements, downsizing of the administration or giving up program rights. However, Ylä-Anttila does not want to assess the possible need for staff reduction in the change negotiations in advance. About half of Yle’s budget goes to personnel costs.

“Yes, our whole house is going to be gutted.”

Parliamentary On Thursday, after eleven months of negotiations, the Yle parliamentary working group reached an agreement that Yle’s funding will be cut in such a way that in 2027 its appropriations will be approximately EUR 66 million less than in a situation where nothing would be done.

Will the Finns lose something with the cuts?

“I hope that we will be able to make such reasonable decisions that we will not lose in the end result. If you lose something, then hopefully you will also get something in its place. Life in the media is such that programs normally end and new ones are created, and that will happen now as well.”

According to Ylä-Anttila, even though operations have to be cut, it does not mean that efforts will not be made to invest in new things in the future. It just means that something else is subtracted.

“We have to constantly think about how to take care of new audiences and be a media and culture house that is relevant to everyone from babies to adults.”

Whence then actually cut? Ylä-Anttila does not want to give a precise answer to that, or “speculate on the subject”, even though the plans are probably already well advanced. Next year, Yle will be affected only by index freezes on funding, but the full cuts will be visible from the beginning of 2027.

“In that way, you can’t say that some genre somehow plays a more significant role than others when making these savings. We look through all of these.”

“Certainly during this autumn we will be able to return to more detailed information”, Ylä-Anttila promises.

You can’t even cut everything with this schedule. For example, Yle’s broadcasting rights for the Olympics have been agreed until 2032. However, according to Ylä-Anttila, it is not necessarily possible to continue all sports contracts when they come to an end.

“For example, next spring’s World Cup skiing will be the last of the contract period, and after them, the rights holder will certainly use a tender to bid for who will receive the ski package next. You never know where, for example, it will settle down.”

In an interview Ylä-Anttila emphasizes several times that Yle does not want to cut his crown jewels. For example, with regard to news work, the final report of the parliamentary working group emphasizes how the importance of reliable news and current affairs information increases in exceptional circumstances.

Besides news work, what are these crown jewels?

“They include programs for large audiences, and children’s programs are also quite important. We are the only ones who make drama and children’s programs in Finnish and Swedish, which is a terribly important cultural issue. We also make sure that there is content for young people, that no group of viewers is more important than the other.”

Significantlyeven Ylä-Anttila says that it is a relief that a parliamentary agreement was finally reached on the funding. A parliamentary group of only one person, Harry Harkimon Liike Nyt was not involved in that.

“The fact that matters concerning Yle are decided together in the parliament has a strong value in itself and will continue to be important in terms of strengthening our independence in the same way as it has been up to now. It’s been a good feeling here,” says Ylä-Anttila.