Latvijas Neatkarīgā Televīzija
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![]() LNT logo. | |
Country | Latvia |
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Broadcast area | Latvia, online |
Headquarters | Elijas iela 17, Riga (1996–2017) |
Programming | |
Language(s) | Latvian |
Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) |
Ownership | |
Owner |
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History | |
Launched | 1996 |
Closed | March 1, 2020 |
Replaced by | TV3 Life |
Links | |
Website | LNT |
Latvian Independent Television (Latvian: Latvijas Neatkarīgā Televīzija, LNT) was a major private television company in Latvia, founded in 1996. LNT featured TV series, news and entertainment programmes, airing 24 hours a day in Latvian. It went off the air on March 1, 2020, and was replaced by TV3 Mini, that is a child targeted channel
It was the most viewed TV channel in Latvia in 2005 with 21.1% of the market share, while in 2014 it ranked 4th with 9.1% behind TV3 Latvia, First Baltic Channel Latvia and LTV1.
History[]
The predecessors of LNT were the first private Latvian TV station - news channel NTV-5 launched on 4 May 1992, and the morning television channel PICCA TV which was launched in 1994 by entrepreneur . Both companies merged into LNT in autumn of 1996. The new station positioned itself as a challenger to the then-monopoly in Latvia of the state broadcaster Latvian Television and declared itself as the "first nationwide, family entertainment channel", broadcasting locally produced news programs and imported films and entertainment, which at the represented 40% of the airtime.
In the beginning, most of the private programming was acquired from Russian media companies, but by 2002 it was reported that the company had made deals with Western companies such as Paramount, Warner Brothers and BBC.
On 9 January 2012 it was announced that the channel would be bought by the media conglomerate Modern Times Group together with the Russian language channel and the (now: ) for an undisclosed sum. The move was later approved by the Council of Competitiveness of Latvia on the condition that TV3, which MTG already owned, and LNT would retain independent news boards for at least five years.[1]
Since October 2017 the channel was a part of , a company owned by investment firm Providence Equity Partners.[2][3][4] LNT, as with other channels of the All Media Baltics group in the Baltic states, switched to HD broadcasting on 26 July 2018.[5]
On November 8, 2019, it was announced that the channel LNT would be replaced by a new channel for women named , a sister channel of TV3.[1] On December 1, 2019, the very last edition of LNT News aired. On January 1, 2020, LNT had new idents. On March 1, 2020, LNT was replaced with TV3 Life.
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Latvian Independent Television ceases independent operations". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 2019-11-08. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ "All Media Baltics to Deliver Top-quality TV Reception via SES Video". Business Wire. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
- ^ "SES inks All Media Baltics deal". Broadband TV News. 2017-12-19. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
- ^ "Acquisition of MTG's business in Baltics completed; new company to be named All Media Baltics". The Baltic Times. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
- ^ "All Media Baltics media group's TV channels in Latvia now available in HD". TV3 Group. 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2021-09-04.
External links[]
- Television in Latvia
- Companies based in Riga
- Television channels and stations established in 1996
- Television channels and stations disestablished in 2020
- Modern Times Group
- 1996 establishments in Latvia
- 2020 disestablishments in Latvia
- Defunct television channels
- All Media Baltics
- Defunct mass media in Latvia
- European television stubs
- Mass media in Latvia stubs