MTV3


MTV3 is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV, due to the channel carrying advertising for revenue. Number 3 was added later, when the channel was allocated the third nationwide television channel and it generally became known as "Channel Three"—Finnish Broadcasting Company’s Yle TV1 and Yle TV2 being the first two—and also to distinguish it from the later MTV Finland, which is a Finnish version of ViacomCBS's MTV channel. From 1957 until 2001, the channel's logo was a stylised owl, changed to an owl's eye after an image renewal in 2001, which was then used until 2013. MTV3 currently has about 500 employees. It is also known as Maikkari.

History

MTV3 was launched on 13 August 1957, the first commercial television network in Finland, and one of the earliest nationwide commercial TV stations in Europe. In Finland it was preceded by the regional TES-TV commercial channel. It was originally known as MTV with programmes broadcast on the two channels of Yle. MTV was allocated its own channel after 1986, when Kolmoskanava was born as a joint venture between Yle, MTV, and Nokia. MTV3 was born in 1993 when MTV took over the shares of TV3 from Yle and Nokia and MTV programming switched from the Yle frequencies to the TV3 transmitters. The same year MTV Oy was admitted as a full active member of the European Broadcasting Union. This membership ended in 2019.
In 2005 Alma Media sold MTV3 and its sister channels to Swedish Bonnier. In 2018 Bonnier sold the channel to the Swedish telecommunication enterprise Telia.

Programming

MTV3 broadcasts everyday from morning to small hours. The pre-dawn hours are allocated to a SMS-based online chat.
Much of the output of MTV3 is a mixture of Finnish versions of popular program formats and of American and British imports. However, MTV3 has also its own Finnish programming. For example, many of Spede Pasanen's productions were produced for MTV3.
MTV3 broadcasts two main news broadcasts every day on prime time. Seitsemän uutiset at 19:00 EET and Kymmenen uutiset at 22:00 EET. MTV3 also broadcast news every morning and short bulletins at 21:00 EET.
MTV3 brought the first daily soap opera to Finland, by showing the American The Bold and the Beautiful, which in 1990s became the most popular show on the channel. In 1999, MTV3 started showing Finnish daily soap opera Salatut elämät.

Football