Public broadcasting of Latvia

Public broadcasting of Latvia

Type	Public service broadcasting and news portal
Country	Latvia
Availability	Online
Owner	Latvijas Televizija Latvijas Radio
Launch date	2013
Official website	lsm.lv/

Public broadcasting of Latvia, currently operating as the news portal lsm.lv, an acronym of Latvijas Sabiedriskais medijs; Latvian Public Media, is a news platform operated by both of Latvia's public broadcasters – Latvian Television and Radio Latvia. lsm.lv provides news, analysis, culture, entertainment and new experimental content, produced mainly by Latvian Television and Radio Latvia, and by the portal’s editorial personnel. The site was launched on 3 February 2013.^[1] Public broadcasting of Latvia (lsm.lv) is also available in Russian and English.^[2][3] News content in English was made available from 1 July 2014.^[4]

A unified news portal was one of the steps planned in a much wider convergence of both public broadcasters. In 2012 Latvia’s National Electronic Media Council (NEMC) approved the concept of creating a new Latvian public service media.^[5]

NEMC members had to decide from 3 different scenarios:

• partial convergence (institutional independence, but both media to engage in joint projects);
• full convergence with a new public service media with a single board and management;
• new single, minimal media (new structure itself would only produce news and current affairs programmes).

NEMC chose the 2nd proposal, and approved its realization, including a unified internet platform as a new Latvian public service media, on 7 January 2013.^[6] So far a unified news portal has been the only form the new Latvian public service media has taken due to the fact that the Cabinet of Ministers in summer 2013 adjourned its approval and since then no further decisions have been made in order to further develop the joint venture.^[7]

Lsm.lv in its first year showed rapid growth. According to “Google Analytics”, the news portal reached 200 000 – 250 000 page views per month, at the end of 2013 page view statistics doubled.^[8] In the first year of activity Public broadcasting of Latvia (lsm.lv) has explored the role and importance of social media in order to reach audiences and bring them to the news portal. According to an article, published on 3 February 2014, during first month 60% of all links to the site were from social networks such as Facebook, twitter and draugiem.lv. In fact, statistics shows decrease in audience numbers brought by social media after first month of increased interest. And as well a lack of activities on social media platforms such as Facebook.^[9] The peak of page views in November 2013 is objective possibly due to the increased interest in the site following the Zolitūde shopping centre roof collapse.^[10]

In its 2nd year of activity the portal was ranked among the 10 most popular sites in Latvia by Reach. By February 2015 lsm.lv reached 16.92% of the audience according to “Gemius” data. That placed the unified news portal 10th^[11] – it's highest ranking so far. The increase in ranking can be explained by a lessening of fragmentation of the public broadcasters presence online. Until the end of 2014 Latvian Television and Radio Latvia operated separate domains – ltv.lv and latvijasradio.lv. In order to strengthen the position of public broadcasting of Latvia (lsm.lv) among other internet resources in Latvia, they both became sub-domains under lsm.lv.^[12]

References