Tallinna TV (TTV), a Tallinn city government-owned TV channel, is to make redundancies and may even close in 2020, ERR’s online news in Estonian reports, citing daily Eesti Päevaleht (EPL).
TTV supervisory board member, and deputy Tallinn Mayor, Aivar Riisalu told EPL that reorganization was on the cards, possibly in conjunction with one of the major media groups in Estonia, but the channel would continue to function. The development follows earlier rounds of redundancies at the channel, which despite its name broadcasts nationally.
Riisalu added that if TTV continues to broadcast, its output should focus more on matters of interest to Tallinn residents.
Taavi Pukk, from TTV’s board of directors, commented that Tallinn mayor Mihhail Kõlvart (Centre) had been kept abreast of TTV’s “cost-cutting projects.”
According to the mayor’s press officer Priit Simson, analysis is ongoing and TTV’s future will be decided in September.
Launched in 2011, TTV has faced criticism from those who say it is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Centre Party, and part of the legacy of party co-founder and former Tallinn mayor Edgar Savisaar, subject of an ongoing corruption trial from 2017.
The channel has transmitters in Pärnu, Põlva County, Ida-Viru County and Saaremaa, as well as Tallinn. By some estimates its market share is less than 1 percent in Estonia.
The two major commercial media groups in Estonia are Postimees Grupp, formerly Eesti Meedia, which operates portal elu.24, TV station Kanal 2 and various regional newspapers, as well as Postimees itself, and Ekspress Meedia, whose stable includes EPL, weeklies Eesti Ekspress and Maaleht, lifestyle magazine Kroonika, and the Delfi news portal.
