The number of digital free to air TV channels available to viewers in Lithuania has started to shrink as the country moves to digitisation.
VZ reports that as of April there were a total of 14 such channels, though that fell to 13 at the end of the month following the encryption of Balticum TV.
Commenting on the move, Virginijus Jurgelevicius, the director of Balticum TV, said that while it did not signal a further reduction of free channels, this could not be excluded as the Lithuanian ad market is not large enough to support so many such services.
Nerijus Ivanauskas, the chief marketing officer at the incumbent telco TEO LT, added that 13 free channels was already a lot, bearing in mind that the other Baltic Republics Latvia and Estonia had only four and five respectively.
Lithuania has set its analogue switch off date as October 29 this year.
