YLE merges divisions in restructure

Finnish public broadcaster YLE is merging its international acquisitions and domestic commissioning departments as part of a reorganisation of the group.

Tarmo Kivikallio

The merged department will be called YLE Acquisitions and Commissioning and include both international acquisitions, excluding children’s content, and factual, fact ent, entertainment and audio commissioning.

YLE Acquisitions and Commissioning will be part of the YLE Creative Content and Media department, with creative director Ville Vilen acting as director.

Current head of programme acquisitions Tarmo Kivikallio will take on the role of head of acquisitions and commissioning, reporting to Vilen.

The new department will launch officially on July 1.

“On a company level, this is a logical move as an organisational divide between international and domestic is not that essential,” Kivikallio told C21.

“Nowadays, we study audience data more and more and that is our guideline as we create our content ensemble, mixing international and domestic content to various audiences.

“On a personal level, after 12 great years in international acquisitions, this new challenge gives me a huge positive feeling. The new job is an interesting mix of something new and something old.

“My role in the international business will remain the same and I am looking forward to meeting all our international partners soon online and, hopefully, in person one day after the coronavirus crisis.”