Media business in the Baltic states: a comparative analysis of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

Abstract

The paper presents an overview of media business in the European Union, with particular reference to Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC), singling out the Baltic States as a main focus of the current comparative study on media business, further on narrowing the research stream down to television broadcasting business in the latter countries. An exclusive attention is drawn to commercialisation and marketisation of media systems (esp. television broadcasting business) in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The data was obtained and analysed for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the following areas of media business: 1) Net media advertising revenue (newspapers, TV, etc.). 2) Average total audience shares for most watched television channels. 3) Breakdown of the television advertising market. 4) Funding of national broadcasting companies. The paper concludes with some implications and recommendations for individual Baltic country in running the media business (esp. television broadcasting) on national markets.