Photo from Yle’s election night broadcast. Photo: Seppo Ahava / Yle
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Finns showed strong interest in the country’s first joint regional and municipal elections, with Yle reporting millions of viewers and online users engaging with its election programming and digital services.
Yle’s Finnish-language TV election night broadcast on Sunday 13 April reached nearly 2.1 million viewers. The average audience was 706,000, peaking at 1.1 million at 21:00.
Yle Areena, Yle’s website and app recorded 732,000 starts of the programme.
The Swedish-language election night broadcast on Yle Fem reached 166,000 viewers, with a peak audience of 33,000 at 21:30. On Yle Areena, the Swedish-language programme had 48,000 starts.
Yle’s online results service registered over 4.1 million page views during the vote count. The service provided real-time updates on vote tallies. Yle’s election compass tool, launched in March, also remained popular, drawing 3.5 million front page views.
Yle’s major election debates also attracted wide audiences. The grand debate aired on 10 April reached 1.1 million viewers. The party leader debates from 25 to 27 March averaged 921,000 viewers. The small party debate on 8 April drew 955,000 viewers. A bilingual party leader debate broadcast on 7 April by Svenska Yle reached 224,000 viewers.
Across Yle’s digital services, a total of 713,000 video starts were recorded for all election programming on Areena and the website. Coverage on Yle.fi and its app saw 10.2 million page views during the election period. On election day alone, there were 2.5 million visits to the Yle.fi homepage and app, with the traffic peaking at 20:00.
Live chat discussions during election broadcasts were also active. A total of 2,400 unique visitors took part in the Finnish- and Swedish-language chats during the result night programmes.
Yle’s coverage aimed to provide nationwide perspectives.
“While headlines have been dominated by Trump and the war in Ukraine, we kept regional and municipal issues in the spotlight and encouraged broad public engagement,” said Paula Pokkinen, editorial manager for elections at Yle. “I’m especially pleased with the content we produced from across Finland, covering topics from long school commutes for children to the entrepreneurial spirit in various regions. These elections were truly national, yet every municipality and region had its own story.”
The use of Yle’s election compass also indicated continued demand for tools that help voters engage with politics.
HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
