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

Abstract

One of the most common arguments in the current debate about financing public service media in Finland is that the traditional TV fee has become obsolete due to the technological development. However, instead of having abandoned TV for new media, people are actually using their traditional TV sets even more like before. Rather than being a victim of technological obsolescence, the problem of the TV fee is its diluting social acceptance due to a growing dominance of a neoliberal media paradigm.

Key Words:

• Public Service Broadcasting
• Public Service Financing
• YLE
• media development
• Finland