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 (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. 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 was phased out on 1 January 2021.[4]

The independent, state budget-financed National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) is the national media watchdog (similar to Ofcom).[5]

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[]

No. Channel name Free-to-air Available in HD Description
1. LTV1 Yes Yes documentaries, news, politics, satire, series, films
2. LTV7 Yes Yes news, sport, entertainment, series, films, children's programming
3. TV3 No Yes films, series, sports, news
4. Yes Yes sports, educational programmes, discussion events, conference live streams[6]
5. No Yes women's programmes, lifestyle programmes, series, films
6. No series, films, documentaries
7. TV6 No Yes men's programmes, series, films, sports
8. No women's programmes, lifestyle programmes, series
9. No Yes children's programming, series, films
10. Yes Yes news, politics, series, culture
11. Yes regional programmes, news, documentaries
12. No Yes sports
13. TV3 Sports No Yes sports
14. FOX Latvia No Yes entertainment, series, films
15. Fox Life Latvia No Yes entertainment, series, films
16. National Geographic Latvia No Yes nature, science, documentaries
17. Discovery Channel Europe No science, documentaries
18. No music, mostly Schlager
19. No Yes *Only website music
20. KidZone TV No children's programming (from 06:00 to 23:55 hrs. only), music (from 23:55 to 06:00 hrs.)
21. No children's programming in Latvian, Russian.
22. Duo 3 No Yes series, films
23. No Yes films, comedy series
23. No Yes Russian, films, series, news

Local / regional / international TV stations[]

Defunct channels (Channels that were interrupted or replaced in broadcast)[]

  • MTV Latvia - Interrupted broadcast at November 2009.
  • RBS TV - Interrupted broadcast in October 1995.
  • (Latvijas Ziņu kanāls – Latvian News Channel) - Announced defunct at 9 December 2011.
  • TV5 - Interrupted broadcast on 31 March 2016.
  • LNT - Interrupted broadcast in 28 February, replaced by TV3 Life on 1 March 2020.
  • - Interrupted broadcast in 28 February, replaced by TV3 Mini on 1 March 2020.
  • - Interrupted broadcast on 1 January 2022, and all sports moving to TV4.

References[]

  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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "televīzija Latvijā" [Television in Latvia]. Latvian National Encyclopedia (in Latvian). Retrieved 2021-04-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b "Vēsture un Fakti / LTV.LV" [History and Facts | LTV]. ltv.lsm.lv. Retrieved 2021-04-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "Public media exits the advertising market". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 2021-01-02. Retrieved 2021-01-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ "NEPLP - About us". www.neplpadome.lv. Retrieved 2021-04-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "Another television program will be available in Latvia - TV4". World Today News. 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
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