Lattelecom fails to strike deal with MTG

Latvian service provider Lattelecom has failed to strike a distribution deal with Modern Times Group (MTG) for the latter’s TV3 commercial channel. 

Lattelecom will no longer carry TV3 from tommorrow. The operator said that MTG had attempted to raise carriage fees for the channel by 60% and that this was not warranted by the amount of home-produced content on the service.

The company’s consumer business division director Inga Alika said that she was confident that Lattelecom would be able to compensate viewers for the absence of the channe. She said that 80% of TV3’s content was available eslewehere and that Lattelecom would seek to provide an alternative for the remaining 20% of original content on the service.

Lattelecom said that it would cooperate closely with national broadcaster LTV to develop home produced content.