Tesvisio (earlier TES-TV) was the first television channel in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. It began regular broadcasts on March 21, 1956 and continued broadcasting until March 1965, when it was turned into

Yle TV2 Yle TV2 ( fi, Yle TV Kaksi; sv, Yle TV Två) is a Finnish television channel owned and operated by Yle. TV2 was launched in 1965 as the successor to the former television channels TES-TV (Tesvisio) and Tamvisio, and broadcasts public service p ...

. The channel began as a television experiment by Radioinsinööriseura (later Elektroniikkainsinöörien seura), an association of radio and electronics engineers who had begun test broadcasts as early as April 1955. Their first public broadcast, which was aired on May 24, 1955, is considered the first broadcast in Finnish television history. Regular broadcasts began in 1956 after the foundation Tekniikan edistämissäätiö began supporting the project. The channel was soon named ''TES-TV'' after them. The final name ''Tesvisio'' was adopted in 1960 after the management was spun off into a separate company. Tesvisio was a commercial channel funded by

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

. The main channel aired initially only in and around the capital

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, while the sister channels ''Tamvisio'' and ''Turun TES-TV'' aired in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

and

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

, respectively. The three stations regularly also broadcast each other's programmes. The company began to suffer economic difficulties in the early 1960s. After the public broadcaster

Yle Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...

isradio began their television broadcasts in 1957, a new commercial broadcaster, Mainostelevisio, had begun broadcasting programme blocks on Yleisradio's channel. As the coverage of Yleisradio's and thus indirectly Mainostelevisio's broadcasts expanded, Tesvisio found it increasingly harder to attract advertisers. In 1964, Yleisradio acquired the nearly bankrupt company. There were initially plans to absorb the assets into the existing public TV channel, but in the end a decision was made to reorganize them into a second TV channel (TV-ohjelma 2, now Yle TV2), which would be headquartered in Tampere in the offices of then Tamvisio. Tesvisio's final broadcast was on March 6, 1965, and TV2 commenced broadcasts the following day.

References

Defunct television channels in Finland Television channels and stations established in 1956 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1965 1956 establishments in Finland 1964 mergers and acquisitions 1965 disestablishments in Finland {{Finland-tv-stub