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On 11 May 2012 the Latvian Competition Council (CC) adopted an eagerly awaited decision on the merger clearance application submitted by Latvia’s two largest commercial television broadcasters, TV3 and LNT. The decision permitted the merger, but subject to strict conditions. The merger proposal involves the full acquisition of the LNT group companies by the MTG group. MTG is a Swedish broadcasting group, represented in Latvia by TV3 Latvia, which owns the largest commercial free-to-air television channel TV3. MTG also owns Viasat, which is acting both on the wholesale level by offering Pay-TV channels,...

The Ministry of Culture has developed a new concept paper on the creation of a new public service broadcasting medium in Latvia and, on 17 April 2012, the concept was approved by the National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP), selecting one of the three alternative models suggested by the Ministry. The concept is an extensive political planning document, providing a detailed analysis of the current situation of public service broadcasting (PSB) in Latvia, its deficiencies and potential solutions, taking into account also the experience of PSB systems in other member states of the EU. The main reason...

On 21 February 2012, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) released its latest reports on Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Montenegro and Ukraine, adopted in the fourth cycle of its monitoring of the laws, policies and practices to combat racism in the Member States of the Council of Europe (for commentary on earlier reports, see IRIS 2011-4/3, IRIS 2010-9/2, IRIS 2010-4/3, IRIS 2009-10/109, IRIS 2009-8/4, IRIS 2009-5/4, IRIS 2008-4/5, IRIS 2006-6/4 and IRIS 2005-7/2). With the exception of the Report on Montenegro, all of these reports contain sections focusing specifically...

The Latvian Competition Authority has concluded an investigation into SIA Lattelecom, the company introducing digital terrestrial television into Latvia, without finding an abuse of its dominant position. As previously reported (see IRIS 2010-4/33) the Competition Authority was investigating complaints that SIA Lattelecom (Lattelecom) had abused its dominant position in the implementation of digital terrestrial broadcasting. One complaint alleged that Lattelecom charged television broadcasters unfair prices for the inclusion of their channels in the free-to-air package. Another complaint argued...

The Latvian legislator has adopted amendments to the Likums Par presi un citiem masu informācijas līdzekļiem (Law on Press and Other Mass Media), which inter alia require the revealing of the true owners of media and confirm the objective to safeguard editorial independence. As previously reported (see IRIS 2011-5/31) the Latvian Saeima (Parliament) is reviewing amendments to the Law, which would require printed and electronic media to reveal their true beneficial owners. On 22 September 2011 the Saeima adopted the amendments in the third and last reading. The final amendments to the Law include...