Saturday 26 May 2018

Bright Future for Commercial Radio in Finland

FM radio is secured until 2030. The Baltic Sea region will be DAB free.
January 2020 is the start of a new ten-year license period for the commercial radio in Finland. There will be seven national FM licenses, with a coverage of at least 75 percent of the population. In addition, eleven partially national radio networks (at least 40% in household coverage) are announced as well as a number of regional and local states. Among other things, there is room for AM and also eight stations in Helsinki.


It will be possible to broadcast on three long/medium wave frequencies in Pori (92.2 and 1485 kHz) and Tampere (648 kHz). - Commercial radio in Finland continues to be the most profitable in the Nordic region and has increased its turnover by ten percent in April 2018. There are no concession fees for commercial radio in Finland.

There are no plans for DAB radio in Finland, which in 2005 decided to use the full spectrum of VHF band III for television only (DVB-T). Sweden and Latvia are other Baltic Sea region countries which have rejected proposals to replace FM with terrestrial DAB. But digital radio listening online is increasingly strong in the three countries thanks to the smartphone population and full coverage and low cost of 4G LTE for mobile broadband.

More details by FICORA - The Finnish Communications Authority
Applications open for radio programming licenses

Also read
Final Stop For DAB Radio in Sweden
Latvia Rejects DAB Broadcasting