In 2024, 38% of Latvian residents used electronic media (EPL) services – audiovisual or video on demand services (VOD), according to the study “On the media content usage habits of Latvian residents” conducted by the National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP) in cooperation with the market and social research center SIA Latvijas Fakti. Among young people, VOD is more popular – it was used by 61% and has become a more popular information resource in everyday life than television programs, but overall, it is the fourth most used after social media, Internet news portals and audio streaming services. This shows that in the long term, the importance of VOD in the information space as a whole will increase.

VOD content is available on many different platforms, but the study shows that of those who use video on demand services, most of the content is watched on TV every day. In turn, young people prefer a smartphone. The service is mostly used in Latvian. The use of English is also growing rapidly, especially among young people. As before, in 2024, the study shows that the majority of the public consumed subscription services on demand (internationally known as subscription video on demand or SVOD), which usually means the possibility of making a monthly payment to the service provider in order to access the catalog of programs (films) without commercials.

NEPLP Deputy Chairwoman Ieva Kalderauska, who is responsible for monitoring the OTT sector, points out that this time the study separately identified the most popular service providers among paid and free services (traditionally, content is available with or without commercial advertisements), because not only the content they offer differs, but also the methods of access and, consequently, the audience.

In 2024, 20% of the public chose the Estonian-registered Go3 platform, followed by Netflix registered in the Netherlands with 17%. 9% of the public in Latvia watched content offered by HBO last year, and 8% used the Tet TV+ service on demand. Meanwhile, Netflix dominates among young people (42%), followed by Go3 with 40% and HBO with 20%.

Of the free OTT providers in Latvia, the public media service REplay was used the most to obtain information in 2024 – 7%, followed by Delfi TV with 5% and TV3Play with 4%. Some service providers define a part of the content that can initially be watched for free as content that is available for a fee after a certain period of time. The study shows that of those who use specific media services, the content provided by Tet TV+ is most often watched on a daily basis – 51% of users consume the audiovisual service provided by this medium on demand every day or almost every day, as well as LMT Smart TV, which is used daily by 49% of recipients of this service. Delfi TV is used daily by 38% of users of this service, while 34% of Go3 customers use the service daily, and Netflix – by 29% of customers.

“The data shows that in video-on-demand services, the absolute majority of society is interested in entertainment, especially among young people. However, at the same time, users of these services also have a relatively high interest in general news, sports and other informative, educational and entertaining content,” added I. Kalderauska. At the beginning of 2025, 29 EPLs had notified the NEPLP about the provision of audiovisual services on demand. Judging by the primary basic type of access to the service, five subscription OTTs and 24 service providers are registered in Latvia that offer programs to be watched for free or in exchange for watching advertising in the service (free and/or advertising-based video-on-demand FVOD/AVOD).