Mixed year for Latvian TV

2009 was a mixed year for Latvia’s TV industry, with overall viewing time up but the audience share of most main channels falling.

Data published by TNS Latvia shows that News Corp’s LNT was still the market leader with 16.8%, though this was down from the 19.3% posted in 2008. MTG’s TV3 was in second place, its share of 15.4% being identical to that in 2008, while its thematic channel 3+ was down year-on-year from 4% to 3.4%.

The public broadcaster LTV meanwhile saw its first channel slump from 10.7% to 10.1% over the same period.

The biggest winners amongst the leading stations in 2009 were the Russian channel RBK (up from 10.7% to 11.2%) and the regional TV5 Riga (up from 3.3% to 3.9%).

Amongst the smaller players, the Russian channel RTR Planeta Baltija saw its share grow much more impressively, from 0.4% to 3.3%.

Average daily viewing time in Latvia in 2009 amounted to 5 hours and 11 minutes, or 13 minutes more than a year earlier.

By comparison, it fell by two minutes to 5 hours and 15 minutes in Estonia and rose by 5 minutes to 4 hours and 55 minutes in Lithuania.