Latvia moves to ASO

Latvia is well on the way to completing the transition to digital broadcasting. According to a forecast published by TeliaSonera-backed Lattelecom, 170,000 households will be receiving DTT signals by June 1 this year.

Lattelecom, which launched a DTT service last summer, says that 30,000 homes are already watching the service and 220,000 still relying on analogue TV signals.

Yesterday (January 19), it signed an agreement with LNT, the country’s leading broadcaster, that will see the station go all-digital in the capital, Riga, and environs on April 1 and the rest of the country exactly two months later.

The same switch off dates have already been fixed by LTV1, the country’s leading public TV channel, while the second public channel LTV7 will go digital on March 1.

The commercial station TV5 went digital last month, while Viasat’s TV3 has yet to decide when to complete the switch and, says Lattelecom, risks a fall in audience share if it delays for too long.