[5] There were plans to launch regular broadcasts of "visual radio" by the Latvian Radiophone in the early 1940s, but these were suspended by the occupation of Latvia and World War II.

[6] The first contemporary test broadcasts started on 6 November 1954 from a studio in Soviet Riga in black-and-white, which were seen by the 20 owners of personal television sets.

In 1955, the Riga Television studio in Nometņu iela, Āgenskalns was created to produce its own programming and the first TV tower in Latvia was built.

[citation needed] During the Third Latvian National Awakening, the broadcaster became more open to Glasnost-style freedom of expression and criticism of Soviet rule in Latvia, most notably in the form of the Labvakar political talk show (1988–1993).

[8][9] During the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt troops of the OMON unit seized the LTV building on August 21, suspending broadcasts for two days.

The 7 was due to the initial slogan of the renamed service, "Because every day is like a holiday", which was coupled with its new programming concept, content and higher advertising rates.

[12] Selected programming such as live broadcast of a staging of The Nutcracker by the Latvian National Opera on LTV1 in 2012[13] and the matches of the IIHF World Championships on LTV7 (2018–present), were shown in HD.

[citation needed]After years of debate, in June 2018 the Saeima unanimously voted to amend legislation allowing the public broadcaster to exit the advertising market and be fully funded by the state budget.