MTV3 Channel, the first Finnish commercial TV channel, started broadcasting on January 1, 1993. It is owned by MTV Finland, the third oldest commercial TV station in Europe (not to be confused with the MTV music channels). The number '3' in the name is propably derived from the fact that it was the third TV channel in Finland, preceded only by YLE TV 1 and TV 2 owned by Finland's national public service broadcaster. MTV3 Text Channel (a teletext sevice) started in March 3, 1994 and the company web site www.mtv3.fi in November 9, 1995. Both deliver information about the channel's content and also -being commercial media- tons of annoying advertisements.
According to the Finnpanel TV survey MTV3 had an audience share of 39,3% in Finland, measured in July - September 2000. The Top 5 Shows list of the last week of year 2000 shows pretty well the average content of the channel: licensed-format game shows, soap operas, news and an old movie every now and then.
- Greed (a game show)
- BumtsiBum (musical game show of the Lyrics Board format)
- Salatut elämät (a Finnish soap)
- Seitsemän Uutiset (newsflash)
- Napakymppi (a blind date game show loved by elderly people)
Sources of information: MTV3 web site http://www.mtv3.fi, Finnpanel surveys at http://www.finnpanel.fi and YLE web site http://www.yle.fi.