LNK

What is LNK?

LNK is a national commercial television channel in Lithuania. The media regulator's list of national radio and television programmes, as retrieved on 25 September 2026, gives five programmes under the broadcaster UAB „LAISVAS IR NEPRIKLAUSOMAS KANALAS“: BTV, LNK, Info TV, 2TV and TV1.^[1] The Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija records that the company established TV1 in 2003, Info TV and 2TV in 2007, and incorporated BTV in 2012.^[2] Reporters Without Borders refers to “the LNK Group, which owns five TV channels”.^[3] The regulator's list gives the other national television programmes as LRT TELEVIZIJA and LRT PLIUS, under the public broadcaster, TV3, TV6 and TV8, under UAB All Media Lithuania, Delfi TV and Lietuvos rytas.tv.^[1] Its site is lnk.lt; the site's article pages did not return readable text when retrieved.

MG grupė, UAB, states on its own site, under a 2026 copyright line, that among its main business groups it controls media, naming „Laisvas ir nepriklausomas kanalas“; it gives no percentage.^[4] The encyclopedia records that by 2006 MG Baltic Media held 80 per cent of the shares and the investment fund Amber Trust S.C.A. 20 per cent.^[2] That is a statement about 2006.

What does LNK cover?

The group's sport broadcasting that could be documented is basketball on BTV. Kantar's tables of the most-watched programmes list five LKL championship games on BTV for January to March 2026, all involving Žalgiris — against Rytas, Neptūnas, Šiauliai and Nevėžis — with ratings from 4 to 6.6 per cent.^[5] For April to June 2026 they list five further LKL games of Žalgiris on BTV: against Rytas at 6.5 per cent, against Juventus at 5.6 and 5.4 per cent, and against Lietkabelis at 4.7 and 4.6 per cent.^[6]

Telia Lietuva, in an undated press release, states that “BTV jau aštuonerius metus transliuoja „Betsafe-LKL“ lygos varžybas” and that BTV would show about 140 games of the season, while Telia Play would show every LKL game, about 200 of the 2025–26 season, without commercial breaks.^[7] The release gives no date and uses the league's earlier name, „Betsafe-LKL“; the league's regulations for 2026–27 name it the „Betsson – LKL“.^[8] Which broadcaster holds LKL rights for 2026–27 was not established.

LNK's own programme in the January to March 2026 tables was led by an entertainment programme, “DIDYSIS CHORŲ MŪŠIS”, at 13 per cent, and no sport programme of LNK itself appears in the rows retrieved; the group's sport in those tables is on BTV.^[5]

How large is LNK's audience?

Kantar measures television audiences from a panel of about 1,200 respondents in 500 households and publishes each channel's most-watched programmes as a consolidated rating, including seven-day time-shifted viewing. Its tables for January to March 2026 give LNK's top programme 13 per cent and BTV's top programme, an LKL game Rytas–Žalgiris, 6.6 per cent.^[5] For April to June 2026 BTV's top LKL game, again Rytas–Žalgiris, is given 6.5 per cent.^[6] In the January to March tables the top programmes of TV3 and LRT Televizija are given 13.2 and 11.3 per cent.^[5] Those are single programmes, not channel shares; no channel share was retrieved from the measurement body.

Online, Gemius's January 2026 overview gives lnk.lt an average time spent of 1 hour 50 minutes, 25.10 per cent less than in the previous month; it does not give lnk.lt a daily-user figure among its top-ranked sites.^[9] That is one month's reading.

Since when has LNK existed?

The Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija gives the company's founding as “Įkurta 1995 03 01 Vilniuje” — 1 March 1995 in Vilnius — and its first broadcast as 5 May 1995. It names the founders as Lithuania's Agricultural Bank, the companies Vilniaus vingis and Griaustinio aidas, and the Lithuanian Workers' Union.^[2] No founding date was retrieved from the broadcaster's own site.

Why does LNK matter in Lithuania's sport?

In the first half of 2026 the group's channel BTV carried LKL championship games that appear in Kantar's tables as BTV's most-watched programmes, with ratings of 4 to 6.6 per cent.^[5][6] Telia's undated release describes BTV as having broadcast the league for eight years.^[7]

Reporters Without Borders, in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index entry, ranks Lithuania 15th of 180 with a score of 81.34 and states: “The media landscape is dominated by the public broadcaster LRT, the TV3 Group – which includes nine TV channels, three radio stations and many smaller media outlets – and the LNK Group, which owns five TV channels.”^[3] That is RSF's characterisation of the market, and it names no owner of the LNK Group.