TV5 was a Latvian television channel, created in June 1996. All programs were broadcast in Russian. The channel showed Russian serials, movies and hockey nightly news broadcast out of Arēna Rīga. Until October 2001 the name was ''TV Riga''. TV5 was owned by

Modern Times Group Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosoph ...

. Financial reasons forced TV5 to cease broadcast in March 2016.

History

In June 1996, ''TV Riga'' started broadcasting. This channel broadcast took place in the

Riga Radio and TV Tower The Riga Radio and TV Tower ( lv, Rīgas radio un televīzijas tornis) in Riga, Latvia is the tallest tower in the European Union. It was built between 1979 and 1989 with funding from the central government of the Soviet Union. Its highest point r ...

. The broadcasting radius was 70 kilometers around Riga. In 1999, for a short period, the channel license was revoked because the ''National Radio and Television Council'' complained about channel activity, but in order to obtain the permission to broadcast the channel in March 2001, it resumed its activities. On 1 October 2001 ''TV Riga'' changed its name and began to broadcast as ''TV5''. Initially, ''TV Riga'' broadcast in Latvian and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, but with the renaming the Latvian ceased. ''TV5'' reached 80% of the Latvian territory. It was one of the Latvian television channels, who shot completely in Russian. Records were subtitled in Latvian, but live programming in Russian was not translated. This channel was also available on cable television and internet. In March 2010, together with ''TV5'', LNT acquired the Latvian company "Independent national media".Kabeļtelevīzijas operatori spiesti pārtraukt TV5 retranslāciju
BNS, 2010-12-14 On 14 December 2010 at 14.00 the signal of ''TV5'' via

Astra 4A Astra 4A is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES at the Astra 5°E orbital slot providing digital television and radio broadcasts, data, and interactive services to Nordic countries, eastern Europe and sub-Saharan ...

satellite, served by

SES Astra SES Astra SA was a corporate subsidiary of SES, based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg, that maintained and operated the Astra series of geostationary communication satellites between 2001 and 2011. Formed in 1985 as Société Européenne de ...

, was paused. SES Astra explained it with the channel debts, but the channel management avoided giving any explanations. On 9 January 2012, the channels ''TV5'', LNT and Kanāls 2 became the owner of the Swedish media company

. ''TV5'' had extended periods of time worked at a significant loss and to reduce the channel LNT losses, it was decided that ''TV5'' will be terminated for financial reasons on 31 March 2016.

References

External links

* {{TV channels in Latvia Television channels in Latvia Companies based in Riga Television channels and stations established in 1996 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2016 Modern Times Group 1996 establishments in Latvia Russian-language television stations Russian-language mass media in Latvia