It was a public-service channel principally intended for Finland's Swedish-speaking minority.

Creating understanding over the language and culture border was also one of the channel's recognized objectives.

[1] Yle Fem was launched in 1988 as a late-evening programming block called FST (Finlands Svenska Television, literally "Finland's Swedish Television") which was broadcast on Monday nights on Yle TV2 and on Tuesday nights on Yle TV1, after the conclusion of MTV3's Kymmenen Uutiset (10pm evening news) on either channel.

It was relaunched as its own dedicated channel called YLE FST on 27 August 2001, and was called YLE FST5 from 2006 to 2012,[2] but the name was changed because the viewers thought the name was only a combination of letters (Fem is Swedish for five.).

In addition, Yle Fem simulcasts a significant amount of programming from SVT World, the international channel of Sweden's Public Broadcaster SVT.