WARSAW: The Swedish-based broadcasting company Modern Times Group (MTG, www.mtg.se) signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Latvian commercial TV operator AS Latvijas Neatkarīgā Televīzija (LNT, www.lnt.lv) in Latvia for an undisclosed cash consideration.

LNT is the second largest free-TV operator in Latvia, broadcasting the national channel LNT, Russian language channel TV5 and entertainment channel LMK. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval by the Latvian Competition Council.  
MTG already broadcasts free-TV channels TV3, 3+ and TV6 channels in Latvia.
LNT, which was launched in 1996, had revenues of less than EUR 7 million, and an EBITDA loss for the first nine months of 2011.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: "With one of our two play-out facilities now located in Riga, we are committed to continuing to invest in Latvia and the Baltic region as the advertising markets stabilise and return to growth."
In an unrelated move, MTG recently disclosed plans to shut down its operations in Slovenia as of 31 March 2011.