Former Latvian Radio 4 frequency in high demand / Article

NEPLP Chairman Ivars Āboliņš stated that three tenders have currently been announced for the three former LR4 frequencies in Rīga, Liepāja, and Ventspils, and that the greatest interest from commercial operators is in the Rīga frequency.

“There is very active interest, and even those who have not previously operated in the radio market are asking questions. This is not an auction, and no price is set at all; businesses do not pay any license fee, it is an open competition. Afterwards, the state will grant this highly valuable state resource to specific businesses free of charge. The requirements are that it must be an informative music program and must be broadcast in the Latvian language. Then each council member evaluates the applications based on each criterion, and the winner is determined by totaling the points earned. Once the application deadline has passed, we will be able to publicly discuss how many applicants have applied,” said Āboliņš.

Filips Rubenis, commercial director of Radio “SWH,” assessed that there is room in the Latvian market for another new radio station.

“I think there are definitely a number of formats and musical genres that could be interesting and are not currently represented in Latvia’s FM landscape, or in Rīga, such as a hip-hop format, and then some specific jazz formats. Musically, there is enormous diversity in genres. We can see this from global experience, looking at what radio stations exist in other major cities. In Riga, of course, a number of formats are not represented. I think all commercial radio station groups will definitely participate in this competition,” said Rubenis.

The head of the NEPLP noted that the council does not plan to issue new licenses for broadcasting in Russian in the future; on the contrary, it plans to reduce the number of radio stations broadcasting in Russian.

“There are a great many Russian-language radio stations – 14 frequencies, to be exact – which were historically issued for reasons unknown to me. The NEPLP has approached the Saeima with a proposal to gradually phase out these Russian-language broadcasts over an eight-year period. The NEPLP has also publicly called on Saeima factions to support our proposal. And there is great confidence that this Russian-language radio broadcasting will finally come to an end,” noted Āboliņš.

What do Russian speakers choose to listen to? Jānis Juzefovičs, a researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Riga Stradiņš University, explained that in a survey conducted last year in Russian online, respondents were asked: “How regularly do you use the media to follow the latest news in Latvia and around the world?” Since the previous study in 2019, Russian-speaking residents’ interest in radio as a source of the latest news has declined, and news portals are now preferred. Although there is a segment of the population that uses media in both Latvian and Russian, overall public habits are changing slowly.

“What we see is that Russian-speakers still have a greater interest in content in Russian. There is greater interest in private commercial radio stations, slightly less interest in the then-existing Latvian Radio 4, which was still broadcasting at the time, and significantly less interest in public radio in Latvian, namely, Latvian Radio 1. We cannot expect any rapid changes to occur there in the short term, as media consumption habits do not change that quickly. People are looking for alternative ways to access this content, the Kremlin’s messages. In any case, if the goal is to attract Russian speakers to more content in Latvian, then that can happen, but over the long term; it certainly won’t happen here and now,” said Juzefovičs.

Applications for the bidding process regarding broadcasting rights in the Latvian language on the former LR4 Riga frequency must be submitted by April 9 of this year. The NEPLP has promised to announce the winner by July 9.

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