Baltic Weather / Latvia

Michael Hedges September 28, 2005

Russian influence in both Latvia and Estonia should not be underestimated. Both countries have substantial Russian speaking communities that maintain strong attachment to the Russian language and centricity to Russia. Broadcasters in both countries, public and private, radio and TV, offer Russian language channels. And Russian cable TV channels are numerous.

“During soviet times…” is the universal qualifier for any description of the Latvian audiovisual sector by its primary participants. The influence of both “soviet times” and the large population culturally attached to Russia.

Latvian commercial broadcasters, according to them, are enjoying the best of times. Ad spending is up. Competition is thick in the primary market Riga, home to 10 of the 30 licensed radio stations in Latvia.

Another theme common to Latvian broadcasters, public and private, is a fear of losing their competitive edge. For private commercial broadcasters this means, among other things, a concern over becoming complacent because the business-side is doing well.

Latvian public broadcasters base their concerns about competition – generally speaking, from the privately owned broadcasters – on the legal limbo of not having a clear (and sound) financing plan. A draft law on public broadcasting is winding its way through the Latvian Parliament but it’s been stalled on the financing issue.

With keen eyes focused on elections, politicians rejected recommendations for license fee financing. The alternative is a GDP-based state aid package unpopular with both the public and private broadcasters.

Editors note: Michael Hedges traveled through the new EU Member States in 2005 and 2006 surveying the audiovisual sector for European Commission Social Dialogue committee. The reports for ftm are his own observations and do not reflect the positions of the European Commission or any of the members of the Social Dialogue committee.

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