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Television in Latvia

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Television in Latvia was first tested in 1937 and introduced in 1954. Latvia was the first country in the Baltic States which started broadcasting.

Initial research into television broadcasting in Latvia started in 1932, and the first experimental broadcast of television in Latvia took place on 10 November 1937 during a public viewing at the Latvian Radio Society (Latvian: Latvijas Radio biedrība) in Riga, using an amateur-made oscilloscope with the screen size of 45x50 cm. A Philips custom-built Nipkow disk transmitter used a frequency channel provide by the Department of the Post and Telegraph (Pasta un telegrāfa departaments, PTD) to transmit moving images with the speed of 12,5 frames per second.[1] There were plans to launch regular broadcasts of "visual radio" by the Latvian Radiophone in the early 1940s, but these were suspended by the occupation of Latvia and World War II.[2]

The first contemporary test broadcasts started on 6 November 1954 from a studio in Soviet Riga in black-and-white, which were seen by all 20 then-owners of television sets. Regular scheduled broadcasting of Latvian Television (LTV) started on 20 November 1954 with a premiere of the 1954 Soviet Latvian war epic Victorious Return. At the beginning, LTV didn't have rights to create their own programming except live shows. In 1955, the Riga Television studio in Nometņu iela, Āgenskalns was created to produce its own programming and the first TV tower in Latvia was built. In 1986, a new TV building and broadcasting tower were unveiled in Zaķusala.[3]

Since 1991, the first private television studios started broadcasting. Color television was introduced in 1974. At the beginning, color system used was SECAM and only color programming that was available in color, was a retransmission of the Moscow Central Television. But in 1998 SECAM was swapped for PAL. Digital television was started testing in May 2002 and all terrestrial analogue stations stopped broadcasting on 1 June 2010 after introducing it.[3] Advertising on public broadcasters, such as Latvian Television (LTV) was phased out on 1 January 2021.[4] TV4 and TV24 ceased free-to-air broadcasting on 1 January 2025. Currently only LTV1, LTV7, ReTV, Radio SWH TV, EWTN TV and the Ukrainian Rada channel are the only such channels.[5]

16 July 2026 Tet announce the end of DTT Pay-TV services from 1 January 2027[6]

The independent, state budget-financed National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) is the national media watchdog (similar to Ofcom in UK).[7]

Most of the non-Latvian television programs are dubbed, some are subtitled, but some are both dubbed and subtitled. This is a list of television channels that broadcast for a Latvian language audience.

TV channels

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No.Channel nameFree-to-air Available in HD OwnerDescription
1.LTV1YesYes Latvijas Sabiedriskais medijsdocumentaries, news, politics, satire, series, films, children's programming
2.LTV7YesYessport, entertainment, series, films
3.TV3NoYes All Media Latviafilms, series, sports, news
4.TV4NoYes 4.varasports, educational programmes, discussion events, conference live streams[citation needed]
5.TV3 LifeNoYes All Media Latviawomen's programmes, lifestyle programmes, series, films
6.360 TVNoYes Helio Mediaseries, films, documentaries
7.TV6NoYes All Media Latviamen's programmes, series, films, sports
8.STVNoYes Helio Mediawomen's programmes, lifestyle programmes, series
9.TV3 MiniNoYes All Media Latviachildren's programming, series, films
10.TV24NoYes TV Latvijanews, politics, series, culture, lifestyle programmes
11.ReTVYesYes *Only website Re MEDIAregional programmes, news, documentaries
12.Radio SWH TVYesYes AS RADIO SWHbusiness, entertainment, culture, music, popular science, sports, news, lifestyle, leisure, economy, art
13.Best4Sport TVNoYes B4 Media UPsports
14.Go3 Sport 1NoYes All Media Estoniasports
15.FX LatviaNoYes Fox Networks Group Espanaentertainment, series, films
16.FX Life LatviaNoYesentertainment, series, films
17.National Geographic LatviaNoYes NGC Europe Limitednature, science, documentaries
18.Discovery Channel EuropeNo Discovery Corporate Services Limitedscience, documentaries
19.Latvijas ŠlāgerkanālsNo Mūzikas Video Kanālsmusic, mostly Schlager
20.Mūzikas VideoNoYes *Only websitemusic
21.KidZone MaxNo Duo Media Networks OÜ (DMN Latvija)children's programming (from 06:00 to 23:45 hrs. only), music (from 23:45 to 06:00 hrs.)
22.PingvīnsNo Teledistributionchildren's programming in Latvian, Russian.
23.Duo 3NoYes Duo Media Networks OÜ (DMN Latvija)series, films
24.Duo 6NoYesfilms, comedy series
25.Kanal 7NoYesRussian, films, series, news
26.8TVNoYes Helio MediaRussian, entertainment, films, series
27.Duo 5NoYes Duo Media Networks OÜ (DMN Latvija)crime, series
28.Animal Planet EuropeNo Discovery Corporate Services Limitednature, documentaries
29.TLC EuropeNo Discovery Corporate Services Limitedlifestyle
30.Food Network EuropeNo Discovery Corporate Services Limitedcooking food
31.HGTV EuropeNo Discovery Corporate Services Limitedlifestyle
32.Investigation Discovery EuropeNo Discovery Corporate Services Limitedinvestigations, crime
33.TLC EuropeNo Discovery Corporate Services Limitedlifestyle
34.Nat Geo Wild LatviaNoYes NGC Europe Limitednature, animal documentaries

Local / regional / international TV stations

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Defunct channels

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  • MTV Latvia - Interrupted broadcast at November 2009 due to budget issues. Later replaced with MTV Lithuania & Latvia, which closed at the end of 2009 due to the same budget issues.
  • RBS TV - Interrupted broadcast in October 1995.
  • LZK (Latvia) (Latvijas Ziņu kanāls – Latvian News Channel) - Announced defunct on 9 December 2011 and closed on 30 December.
  • NTV-5 - Interrupted broadcast in August 1996.
  • Picca TV - Interrupted broadcast in August 1996, which was succeeded by LNT.
  • TV5 - Interrupted broadcast on 31 March 2016 due to budget issues.
  • LNT - Interrupted broadcast in 28 February due to rebranded television model in TV3 Group. Channel got replaced by TV3 Life on 1 March 2020.
  • 31. kanāls - Interrupted broadcast in September 1998, which was succedeed by TV3.
  • Kanāls 2 - Interrupted broadcast in 28 February due to rebranded television model in TV3 Group. Channel got replaced by TV3 Mini on 1 March 2020.
  • Sportacentrs.com TV - Interrupted broadcast at January 1, 2022, with all sports programs of the channel moving to TV4.
  • PBK Igaunija – Estonian branch of the Russian Channel One, closed on 2 March 2022, after checking.
  • PBK Lietuva - Lithuanian branch of the Russian Channel One, closed on 2 March 2022, after checking.
  • TV Rain - Revoked license on 6 December 2022 and closed on 8th December 2022 due to violations.

References

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  1. ↑ "Šodien televīzijai Latvijā 80 gadu. Latvija bija viena no pirmajām pasaules valstīm, kas raidīja savu TV signālu" [Television in Latvia turns 80 this year. Latvia was one of the first countries to broadcast its own TV signal]. Sandra Veinberga | Blogs (in Latvian). 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
  2. ↑ "televīzija Latvijā" [Television in Latvia]. Latvian National Encyclopedia (in Latvian). Retrieved 2021-04-07.
  3. 1 2 "Vēsture un Fakti / LTV.LV" [History and Facts | LTV]. ltv.lsm.lv. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
  4. ↑ "Public media exits the advertising market". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 2021-01-02. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  5. ↑ "Fewer free TV channels in Latvia as of 2025". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 27 December 2024.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ "NEPLP - About us". www.neplpadome.lv. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
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