Kutonen (TV channel)
| Kutonen | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 1 September 2012 (Kutonen) 11 November 2004 (The Voice) 12 March 2004 (Viisi) |
| Owned by |
SBS Discovery Media (Discovery Communications) |
| Picture format | 16:9 |
| Audience share | 0.4 % (2011, ) |
| Slogan | Kuudes vaihtoehto (eng. The sixth choice), 2012– Me rakastamme musiikkia (eng. We love music), 2004–2012 Television rakenne on muuttunut (eng. The structure of television has changed), 2004 |
| Country |
 Finland
|
| Language | Finnish |
| Broadcast area | 95% of Finland |
| Headquarters |
Helsinki, Finland London, United Kingdom |
| Replaced |
Viisi (March 2004 – November 2004) The Voice TV (November 2004 – September 2012) |
| Sister channel(s) |
TV5 ( Finland) |
| Website | www.kutonen.fi |
|
Availability
|
|
| Terrestrial | |
| Digital terrestrial | Channel 11 |
| Cable | |
| Elisa | Channel 11 |
| Welho | Channel 11 |
| DNA | Channel 11 |
Kutonen (Sixth) is a Finnish general entertainment channel that replaced the music-video oriented The Voice TV in September 2012. Kutonen is very closely related to its Danish counterpart 6'eren, sharing its visual branding and much programming with it, as well as having close strategic connections to other brands owned and operated by SBS in other European countries.
In 2003, a Finnish multimedia corporation called Vizor Media Ltd. bid for a station in the digital terrestrial television network with a winning bid, putting aside bids from six other companies (including the country's largest media groups MTV Media and Nelonen Media). After winning the auction for the channel space, Vizor announced it would launch its station some time during 2004. Later that year they announced the name and the profile of the channel: Vitonen was due to become Finland's first cross media channel, widely utilizing the benefits of wireless technology and allowing viewers to participate in the broadcasts online, with their mobile phones and later, with the red button of one's set-top box (of which the latter never happened on this particular station). Regional broadcasts were also commenced to market products and services locally and more cost-efficiently. Test broadcasts were launched in December 2003 in the Otaniemi campus of the then-Helsinki University of Technology by the state-owned VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Previously that year various private companies also took part in an auction for the contract to provide red button services for Vitonen. The winning bidder, Icareus Ltd., started MHP tests in Otaniemi simultaneously with the DVB-T tests in co-operation with VTT.
The tests took three months to complete and on 12 March 2004 at 5:00 pm, the channel finally launched itself into the televisions of the digital nation on DTT channel 15. Note that at the final weeks preceding the launch, the name of the channel was simplified from Vitonen to Viisi The launch was preceded by a 10-hour countdown accompanied with white noise from 7:00 am that morning until the final hour – much like the launch of British digital station BBC Choice back in 1998. For the last ten minutes the precise seconds of the countdown were accompanied by the Greenwich Time Signal. At the point where one minute was left of the countdown, the decreasing numbers were joined by the famous Apollo 11 countdown sequence. At the 30 second mark, the first song of the station (namely Ready to Go by Republica) started to play and at "lift-off" – as it was called in the media – an explosion-like transition launched into the music video of Ready to Go. The first program officially transmitted on Viisi was an edition of the channel's music program Rumba.tv spanning the whole launch night. Its first months' programming consisted of interactive programs, music videos, movie/music/media magazines, low-budget import shows, teleshopping, infomercials and (mainly regional) chat shows. Viisi is also largely claimed to be responsible for introducing the TV advertising revolution in Finland, with overhead banners on top of broadcasts, adverts incorporated to station DOG's and showing classified MMS ads sent by viewers during normal breaks.
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Wikipedia