It is the second-oldest television channel in Finland, after TES-TV, and is the oldest currently existing television channel in the country.

More than 70% of the channel's programs are documentaries, news, or educational programmes.

It is commonly referred to as Ykkönen, deriving from Yle's ownership of channels Spots 1 and 2 by default in Finland, with the other channel spot being Yle TV2.

The channel started test transmissions on 13 August 1957 and began regular broadcasts on 1 January 1958 as Suomen Televisio, then the second television channel to operate in Finland.

When Yleisradio took over the Tampere-based[1] Tamvisio in 1964, Suomen Televisio was renamed TV-ohjelma 1, and Tamvisio became TV-ohjelma 2, and when they started broadcasting in colour in the 1970s, they were rebranded again, as TV1 and TV2.