MTV’s free-to-air television channels have returned to Elisa’s services after the broadcaster and the telecoms operator reached a new distribution agreement, ending a dispute that affected hundreds of thousands of households across Finland.
The agreement took effect at 12pm on Friday, restoring the live broadcasts of MTV3, MTV Sub and MTV Ava to Elisa Viihde and Elisa’s cable television network.
The channels reappeared automatically on customers’ services without requiring any action from subscribers.
The companies announced they had reached a comprehensive agreement covering the distribution of MTV’s advertising-funded television channels through Elisa’s platforms, the recording service available on Elisa Viihde and the distribution of MTV’s pay television channels.
Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the agreement.
The dispute began in May after negotiations over a new distribution contract broke down. MTV subsequently withdrew its free-to-air channels from Elisa’s services, affecting around 800,000 households, according to Elisa.
The broadcaster argued that changes in the television market required a different commercial model. Finnish media reported that MTV sought higher payments from Elisa for distributing its channels, while Elisa said it was prepared to continue under the existing arrangement.
The disagreement followed changes at MTV after Norwegian media group Schibsted acquired the broadcaster in 2025 and began renegotiating distribution agreements with platform operators under a new financing model.
Elisa Chief Business Officer Sami Aalto thanked customers for their patience during the interruption.
“We want to thank our customers for their patience during the unfortunate outage. MTV’s free live content can be watched normally again,” Aalto said in a joint statement. He added that the new agreement would allow the companies to work together to improve services and the viewing experience.
MTV Chief Executive Officer Johannes Leppänen said the objective had been to secure broad availability of the broadcaster’s content through Elisa’s services while creating a long-term basis for future development.
“It is great that we can now build even stronger cooperation with Elisa,” Leppänen said. He also thanked viewers and advertisers for their patience during the negotiations.
HT