Latvian Forefront: Competing Public Service Media vs. Deficits of European Regulatory Framework Prof. Dr. Ainars Dimants, Chairman of National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP) of Latvia Vilnius, 29 October 2014

The dominance of Russian TV channels for Russian-speakers National share in 2013: TV3 –13,4%, LNT – 10,5%, PBK – 9,8%, LTV1 – 9,4%, NTV Mir – 6,8%, RTR Rossija – 5,7%, REN Baltija – 4,7%, 3+ – 3,7%,TV5 – 3,5%, LTV7 – 3,2%, TV6 – 2,9% (data from TNS Latvia) Main channels of Russian-speakers are conducted from Russia, 25% of audience of these channels are ethnic Latvians Decision from 3 April 2014 to suspend Rossija RTR for 3 months 2

3 The prospects of public service media development Latvian TV (since 1954): LTV1 in Latvian, LTV7 in Latvian and Russian Latvian Radio (since 1925): LR1, LR2, LR3 in Latvian, LR4 in Russian and other languages of ethnic minorities, LR5 in Latvian Common news portal of Latvian PSB Lsm.lv (since 2013) in Latvian, Russian and English

The prospects of public service media development Still no reorganization of PSB into one legal person after the decision of government (in 2011) to create a new Latvian PSM jointly working on TV, radio and Internet Since 2011 National Eletronic Media Council, in an open process, has elaborated and on 7th January 2013 approved Conception for unified PSM which is not adopted by government as a policy planning document until now 4

The prospects of public service media development According to Electronic Mass Media Law exactly the Council has the authority to reorganize and restructure PSB organizations Latvian PSB organizations are financed by state budget (and not by licence fees), two PSB organizations are directly mentioned in law, therefore decisions made by government and parliament are necessary 5

The prospects of public service media development National EIectronic Media Council: Independent authority (5 members) elected by parliament (in 2012) for 5 years, 10 staff members; Regulatory authority for AVMS; Council for both PSB organizations regarding public remit and as for these state enterprises; Elaboration of state media policy on the field of electronic media by approving national strategy for 5 years (2012–2017) as an external legal act 6

The prospects of public service media development Conception of Council envisages the step- by-step reorganization of LTV and LR (until 2018) into a real and strong PSM: working for public (efficient synergy of existing and new programme brands on TV, radio and Internet), financed by public and supervised by public Investment programme was agreed by Ministry of Finance 7

The prospects of public service media development Increase of original content production according to content priorities: 1) news (+22%), 2) analytics (+15%), 3) education and science (+15%), 4) culture (+7%), 5) children, teenagers and youth (+10%) Step-by-step introduction of media tax directed to PSM and leaving of advertising market at the same time Creation of own PSM council approved by parliament 8

The prospects of public service media development Introduction of public value test annually measuring the satisfaction and trust of the real PSM audience and setting the goals for each year Establishing of new boards for LTV and LR and coordination of common projects of both PSB organizations: Lsm.lv, multimedial programme LR5 – Pieci.lv for youth, marketing, etc. 9

The prospects of public service media development After the economic crises since 2012 serious improvement in financing and management of Latvian PSM Growing public trust to PSM: for LTV in 2014 in comparison to 2012 from 60% to 69%, for LR from 63% to 79% Initiative of LTV for common Baltic Russian- language TV channel, decision of Estonian government on national Russian-language channel 10

Baltic cooperation on Russian- language TV channel Security issue, needs strategic cooperation of Baltic States: agreement between PSM Russian-speaking population is mainly watching 1) TV channels, not particular news programmes etc.; 2) because of entertainment content Concentration of financial, possibly EU etc., and creative resources for effectiveness and competitiveness of the channel 11

Baltic cooperation on Russian- language TV channel Information alternative in Russian language National content and common purchases, cooperation with alternative Russian- language TV producers, direct competition to PBK also on advertising market Accordingly to the principles of PSB Platform of Latvian/Estonian/Lithuanian Russian speakers who are culturally oriented towards Europe and the West 12

Reaching goals of EU AVMSD regarding Russian TV channels Goal: TV broadcasting space without borders and at the same time no incitement to hatred because of nationality (Paragr. 6) Jurisdiction: de iure EU, de facto Russia; no effective monitoring, also regarding European works Refit exercise: report of EC in May 2015 Audiovisual policy conference of Latvian presidency of EU, 9-10 March