Short-term TV and radio licences in a digital terrestrial mass communications network

FICORA grants short-term licences for TV and radio broadcasting in a digital terrestrial mass communications network, if the operations do not last more than three months or if the weekly hours of operation do not exceed eight hours.

FICORA grants the licence if there is no justified reason to suspect the applicant of violating the provisions of the Act on Television and Radio Operations or any other related act. A licence for digital TV and radio broadcasting is granted regardless of frequencies. The licensee can agree upon the necessary frequencies with a network licence holder referred to in the Communications Market Act. The radio licence is granted to the network licence holder, while the applicant for a programme licence does not need a particular radio licence.

A short-term licence is not required:

• for operations where the transmissions may be received only in the premises of an educational unit, a hospital, a hotel or corresponding activity forming part of the operations;
• for operations in telecommunications networks through which programmes can simultaneously be followed via no more than 2000 subscriptions.

The applicant must be legally competent and the applicant's name must be given in the application in its official form.

The broadcaster shall, according to the Act on the Exercise of Freedom of Expression in Mass Media, primarily retain all recordings of each programme for at least 21 days after the date of broadcasting. The depository shall be indicated in the licence application.

Inadequate information will delay the handling of an application. The applications with sufficient and correct information are dealt with at first.

The licences cannot be granted in a way to allow several successive short-term licences of 3 months or several simultaneous licences permitting 8 hours broadcasting weekly. Long-term radio operations or operations that are otherwise subject to a licence to be granted by the Government cannot be carried out by making use of the licensing for short-term or small-scale radio operations. According to FICORA's procedures, applicants from or under the same organisation are regarded as one and the same applicant, who cannot have successive licences.

The application fee is 100 €. An invoicing address must appear from the application. You can make a licence application here. The average handling time is 2 weeks.

Further information:

Terhi Hannula, tel. +358 9 6966 330 and Merja Saari, tel. +358 9 6966 468