Latvian Forefront:
Competing Public
Service Media vs.
Deficits of European
Regulatory Framework
Prof. Dr. Ainars Dimants, Chairman of National
Electronic Media Council (NEPLP) of Latvia
Vilnius, 29 October 2014
The dominance of Russian TV
channels for Russian-speakers
• National share in 2013: TV3 –13,4%, LNT –
10,5%, PBK – 9,8%, LTV1 – 9,4%, NTV Mir
– 6,8%, RTR Rossija – 5,7%, REN Baltija –
4,7%, 3+ – 3,7%,TV5 – 3,5%, LTV7 –
3,2%, TV6 – 2,9% (data from TNS Latvia)
• Main channels of Russian-speakers are
conducted from Russia, 25% of audience of
these channels are ethnic Latvians
• Decision from 3 April 2014 to suspend
Rossija RTR for 3 months
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The prospects of public service
media development
• Latvian TV (since 1954): LTV1 in Latvian,
LTV7 in Latvian and Russian
• Latvian Radio (since 1925): LR1, LR2, LR3
in Latvian, LR4 in Russian and other
languages of ethnic minorities, LR5 in
Latvian
• Common news portal of Latvian PSB
Lsm.lv (since 2013) in Latvian, Russian and
English
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The prospects of public service
media development
• Still no reorganization of PSB into one legal
person after the decision of government (in
2011) to create a new Latvian PSM jointly
working on TV, radio and Internet
• Since 2011 National Eletronic Media
Council, in an open process, has
elaborated and on 7th January 2013
approved Conception for unified PSM which
is not adopted by government as a policy
planning document until now
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The prospects of public service
media development
• According to Electronic Mass Media Law
exactly the Council has the authority to
reorganize and restructure PSB
organizations
• Latvian PSB organizations are financed by
state budget (and not by licence fees), two
PSB organizations are directly mentioned in
law, therefore decisions made by
government and parliament are necessary
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The prospects of public service
media development
• National EIectronic Media Council:
Independent authority (5 members) elected
by parliament (in 2012) for 5 years, 10 staff
members; Regulatory authority for AVMS;
Council for both PSB organizations
regarding public remit and as for these
state enterprises; Elaboration of state
media policy on the field of electronic media
by approving national strategy for 5 years
(2012–2017) as an external legal act
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The prospects of public service
media development
• Conception of Council envisages the stepby-step reorganization of LTV and LR (until
2018) into a real and strong PSM: working
for public (efficient synergy of existing and
new programme brands on TV, radio and
Internet), financed by public and supervised
by public
• Investment programme was agreed by
Ministry of Finance
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The prospects of public service
media development
• Increase of original content production
according to content priorities: 1) news
(+22%), 2) analytics (+15%), 3) education
and science (+15%), 4) culture (+7%), 5)
children, teenagers and youth (+10%)
• Step-by-step introduction of media tax
directed to PSM and leaving of advertising
market at the same time
• Creation of own PSM council approved by
parliament
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The prospects of public service
media development
• Introduction of public value test annually
measuring the satisfaction and trust of the
real PSM audience and setting the goals for
each year
• Establishing of new boards for LTV and LR
and coordination of common projects of
both PSB organizations: Lsm.lv,
multimedial programme LR5 – Pieci.lv for
youth, marketing, etc.
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The prospects of public service
media development
• After the economic crises since 2012
serious improvement in financing and
management of Latvian PSM
• Growing public trust to PSM: for LTV in
2014 in comparison to 2012 from 60% to
69%, for LR from 63% to 79%
• Initiative of LTV for common Baltic Russianlanguage TV channel, decision of Estonian
government on national Russian-language
channel
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Baltic cooperation on Russianlanguage TV channel
• Security issue, needs strategic cooperation
of Baltic States: agreement between PSM
• Russian-speaking population is mainly
watching 1) TV channels, not particular
news programmes etc.; 2) because of
entertainment content
• Concentration of financial, possibly EU etc.,
and creative resources for effectiveness
and competitiveness of the channel
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Baltic cooperation on Russianlanguage TV channel
• Information alternative in Russian language
• National content and common purchases,
cooperation with alternative Russianlanguage TV producers, direct competition
to PBK also on advertising market
• Accordingly to the principles of PSB
• Platform of Latvian/Estonian/Lithuanian
Russian speakers who are culturally
oriented towards Europe and the West
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Reaching goals of EU AVMSD
regarding Russian TV channels
• Goal: TV broadcasting space without
borders and at the same time no incitement
to hatred because of nationality (Paragr. 6)
• Jurisdiction: de iure EU, de facto Russia; no
effective monitoring, also regarding
European works
• Refit exercise: report of EC in May 2015
• Audiovisual policy conference of Latvian
presidency of EU, 9-10 March 2015
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