Television in Latvia was first tested in 1937 and introduced in 1954. Latvia was the first country in the Baltic States which started broadcasting.
Initial research into television broadcasting in Latvia started in 1932, and the first experimental broadcast of television in Latvia took place on 10 November 1937 during a public viewing at the Latvian Radio Society (Latvian: Latvijas Radio biedrība) in Riga, using an amateur-made oscilloscope with the screen size of 45x50 cm. A Philips custom-built Nipkow disk transmitter used a frequency channel provide by the Department of the Post and Telegraph (Pasta un telegrāfa departaments, PTD) to transmit moving images with the speed of 12,5 frames per second.[1] There were plans to launch regular broadcasts of "visual radio" by the Latvian Radiophone in the early 1940s, but these were suspended by the occupation of Latvia and World War II.[2]
The first contemporary test broadcasts started on 6 November 1954 from a studio in Soviet Riga in black-and-white, which were seen by all 20 then-owners of television sets. Regular scheduled broadcasting of Latvian Television (LTV) started on 20 November 1954 with a premiere of the 1954 Soviet Latvian war epic Victorious Return. At the beginning, LTV didn't have rights to create their own programming except live shows. In 1955, the Riga Television studio in Nometņu iela, Āgenskalns was created to produce its own programming and the first TV tower in Latvia was built. In 1986, a new TV building and broadcasting tower were unveiled in Zaķusala.[3]
Since 1991, the first private television studios started broadcasting. Color television was introduced in 1974. At the beginning, color system used was SECAM and only color programming that was available in color, was a retransmission of the Moscow Central Television. But in 1998 SECAM was swapped for PAL. Digital television was started testing in May 2002 and all terrestrial analogue stations stopped broadcasting on 1 June 2010 after introducing it.[3] Advertising on public broadcasters, such as Latvian Television (LTV) was phased out on 1 January 2021.[4]
The independent, state budget-financed National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) is the national media watchdog (similar to Ofcom in UK).[5]
Most of the non-Latvian television programs are dubbed, some are subtitled, but some are both dubbed and subtitled. This is a list of television channels that broadcast for a Latvian language audience.