Yle Fem

Credits

Descriptions by
Logent

Captures by
Pyscowicz, Logent

Editions by
Logent, Thisisanswer, Pyscowicz

Video captures courtesy of
FinnTapes, Vuusteri, Antti Yrttiaho, Harjis, Suomen televisio

Background

Yle Fem was a Finland-Swedish television channel operated by Yle, the national public TV broadcaster of Finland. Launched on 1988 as a programming block on both TV1 and TV2, Yle Fem was originally named Finlands Svenska Television, or simply FST, and the programming block aired Finnish programs in Swedish. With the arrival of digital terrestrial television, FST received its own channel slot on August 27, 2001, while the channel was named YLE FST. Despite this, programming blocks were still featured on YLE TV1 and YLE TV2 until August 2006, when all Swedish programs were moved to the newly-renamed YLE FST5 channel, during the switch from analog to digital broadcasting. Between August 2001 and March 2012, the channel's main theme involved dice and its facet of five dots. When the company revamped its brand on March 2012, the channel was renamed to Yle Fem due the reason of the previous name being referred to as a combination of letters instead of a channel name by viewers. On October 25, 2016, it was confirmed that Yle Fem and Yle Teema will share the same channel slot and on April 24, 2017, the channel was revamped into Yle Teema & Fem.

Finlands Svenska Television

1st Logo (1988–1992)

Nicknames: "Steely FST", "Rainbow Steeliness"

Logo: A large sphere gets absorbed onto a grayish background. Both the shady background and the sphere itself then change their color to a bluish hue and we see many detailed lines appearing and moving to the center in front of the sphere for a better view, forming a large, stylized "FST". A multicolored reflection then scrolls down inside the logo and creates a multicolored line below, where the text "FINLANDS SVENSKA TELEVISION" ("FINLAND'S SWEDISH TELEVISION" in Swedish) scrolls up to letter-by-letter.

FX/SFX: The standard CGI background, the sphere, the FST itself, the small letters scrolling up.

Music/Sounds: A futuristic decreasing sound, followed by a long "whoosh" sound and a calm synth tune.

Availability: Extinct on TV. It could be spotted as startup and closedown ident for the programming block.

Legacy: The decreasing synth sound and long "whoosh" may startle some people.

2nd Logo (January 1, 1993–August 27, 2001)

Nicknames: "Blocky FST", "The Psychedelic Tunnel of FST", "Acid Playground Tunnel", "Finland's Swedish Tunnel"

Logo: We move through a tunnel of different-colored and shaped blocks with glimpses of a white background being visible through their gaps. The draw distance at the end of the tunnel remains black until we come close to it, where it becomes yellow. As we exit the tunnel, the screen tilts to a straight position and we see differently shaped and colored blocks (from left to right: blue, orange, green, red and purple) forming "FST", with each letter being formed by two blocks, in front of a yellow plate. We then see the text "FINLANDS SVENSKA TELEVISION", in a stacked and spaced-out font, fade in below the finished logo.

FX/SFX: The different colored blocks making up the tunnel, the animated blocks forming "FST". Okay for its time, but a little dated for its later years heading into the new millenium.

Music/Sounds: A hypnotic, yet confusing synthesizer tune occasionally featuring sounds played in reverse.

Availability: Extinct on TV. Much like the previous logo, it was used as both a startup and closedown ident for programming blocks aired on TV1 and TV2.

3rd Logo (August 27, 2001–September 2005)

Note: The logo can be seen here.

Nicknames: "Dice", "Italic Dots", "Five Dot Dice", "Always Five Dots", "The Finnish Casino", "Journey Around Finland (Live-action variants)"

Logo: On a complex green background with moving lines and multiple dots appearing and disappearing, a white dice with five dots on all of its six sides is thrown towards the center of the screen and starts rotating at one place. We then transition to the dice spinning far away from the camera, as we fade to a simple white background with the text "FST" and five slanted gray dots next to it, and the small text "FINLANDS SVENSKA TELEVISION" below them.

Variants:

• There exists a live-action variant with the dice flying across multiple locations. We see the dice flying across a stormy beach, bouncing outside a car on a street at night, and leaping behind an old boater in the summer and at daytime. A middle-aged woman then catches the dice and throws it towards the beach where it keeps bouncing away, as the screen fades to the white screen with the same logo as the normal variant.
• Another live-action variant is pretty much the same as the aforementioned one except right at the mid-point, we see the dice leaping behind an energetic old man and a couple of people at the background in the wintertime. The dice is then seen placed on a car, which crosses the wooden bridge and drives away on a ice road.

FX/SFX: The complex background, the CGI dice itself. The practical camera shots in the live-action variant.

Music/Sounds: A short and simple theme played with saxophone. The live-action variants had a different start for the tune and wind's humming at the end.

Availability: Extinct on TV. Both variants could be spotted both on the programming block and its own channel.

Legacy: With the exception of the live action variant, the silly saxophone theme described below does not fit all that well with the main CGI ident.

4th Logo (September 2005–September 1, 2007)

Note: The logo can be seen here.

Nicknames: "Italic Dots II"

Logo: On a plain white background, a large lime green dot appears and stretches horizontally and vertically, covering the middle half of the screen. As we see multiple large dots moving around on a green background, four transparent dots with orange outlines zoom in on the center of the screen, leaving multiple frames behind. Almost all of the frames then disappear, leaving only one at the center of the row on the screen. This frame breaks down into four separate dots, while creating a fifth dot in the middle during the process. The four outer dots start spinning around the center one for a short amount of time, before they all disappear as the green background fades out, and five large, slanted dots appear on the screen. The dots briefly keep the green background's color and texture, before becoming gray.

FX/SFX: The lime green background, the orange-outlined dots, the slanted dots fading in.

Music/Sounds: A mellow tune played with different instruments such as trumpets and an electric guitar.

Availability: Extinct on TV.

5th logo (September 1, 2007–May 5, 2011)

Nicknames: "lYLEl FST5", "Dots on a Line"

Logo: On a moving live-action background with the words "|YLE| FST5" at the bottom, we see a semi-transparent, orange lateral line moving past the screen at a high speed several times, as its acceleration increases so much that the line becomes opaque and a stylized "5" appears on the left end of the line as it stops. Right next to it, we see five dots zooming in, with the top left one being connected to the center dot and the others located gradually further from it. The line becomes transparent again, as the entire logo widens and vanishes.

Variants:

• An alternate variant has the thick line in light blue, and it only moves once before stopping at the start. There's also a bluish background of what seems to be crystals. Unlike the main variant, the entire logo stays clean and doesn't widen or vanish.
• Another one has a solid yellow thick line on a yellowish background of a building viewed from below, while the camera is moving to the left.

FX/SFX: The transparent lateral line, the dots popping up.

Music/Sounds: A boisterous and rhythmical tune played with electric guitar.

Availability: Extinct on TV. Could be spotted as a startup ident at the time. It's unclear if there are more variants to be found.

6th Logo (May 5, 2011–March 5, 2012)

Note: The logo can be seen here.

Nicknames: "lYLEl FST5 II", "White and Lime Green"

'Logo: On a white background with "|YLE| FST5" at the bottom of the screen, we see a side or top view of a clean water surface in motion. A lime green circle then starts growing on the right corner, while a few circles dissolve from the larger one while remaining connected to it, but only one on the corner grows to be about the same size as the first one. Right after, the text "FST5" appears on the lime green circle with an animation of five dots being formed next to it, with four dots being connected to each other and the fifth one on the bottom right corner separated from the others.

Variants: There are numerous variants where the background is slightly different and the logo animation of the circle forms either upwards or downwards. One variant also shows round ice cubes rising to the surface on the background. Despite this, the concept is relatively the same on all variants.

FX/SFX: The background, the logo forming.

Music/Sounds: A calm theme that has a four-note synth jingle playing repeatedly.

Availability: Extinct on TV. It could usually be spotted before the next program started.

Yle Fem

7th logo (March 5, 2012–April 24, 2017)

Nicknames: "yle FEM", "White and Lime Green II", "Black Stamp II"

Logo: In a relatively similar concept to that of the previous logo, we see an active water surface with waterdrops falling and splashing in slow motion on a white background and the text "yle FEM", with "yle" in a black rounded square and "FEM" next to it, on the center of the screen.

Variants:

• On December 2012, several water surface-based variants featuring an easter egg in the form of a stop-motion mouse could be spotted. The mouse is seen hiding and then waving its hand.
• A different variant starts with the screen quickly fading in to a white background featuring the channel logo and six light bulbs: four of them placed on the roof and the rest being set to the ground, pointing straight up. A lime green dot then grows on the left side of the straight light bulb, while another one separates from it. The third of the four light bulbs on the roof fades out and is replaced by another lime green dot.
• Another variant features several spheres falling and bouncing around on a white background. The background then becomes fuzzier and we can see lime green dots appearing on the screen, with one of them below and another one having a smaller dot separating from it.
• One variant features an apple falling to the ground, while lime green dots are formed on the bottom right corner. The apple becomes blurrier as it keeps bouncing closer on the screen in slow motion.
• When Yle Fem was about to switch its transmission with SVT World to feature the Swedish channel's programs, an exclusive variant was used. We see the channel logo sliding in from the top to the center of the white background featuring lime green dots on the corners and an upper view of the water surface, where a round shadow is seen dropping down to the surface and causing a large splash. We then see the channel logo rotating around obliquely, as it then transforms into the 2012-2017 SVT World logo with the lime green dots disappearing from the screen.

FX/SFX: The active water surface background or the lime green dots.

Music/Sounds: A re-arranged version of the tune heard in the previous logo.

Music/Sound Variants:

• An alternate tune also exists, with a weird decreasing sound being heard and then slowly fading out.
• One variant featuring the spheres has a completely different bassoon theme.
• Another version of the tune exists with a male vocal humming the tune.

Availability: No longer current since the channel's unification with Yle Teema into Yle Teema & Fem on April 24, 2017. It could usually be spotted before the next program started.