Television in Portugal


Television in Portugal was introduced in 1956 by Radiotelevisão Portuguesa, which held the nationwide television monopoly until late 1992. Regular broadcasting was introduced on March 7, 1957. Colour transmissions were introduced on March 10, 1980.
Digital terrestrial television was introduced at a very late stage when compared to other countries in Europe and with limited channels. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory it occupies the last place out of the 34 European countries with the weakest offer on digital terrestrial television. Due to this, most Portuguese are subscribers of cable or IPTV platforms, in percentages higher than in the rest of Europe and these platforms are well developed with many channels. During the transition from analog to DTT, subscription-based television services experienced a 10% increase and reached 72.5% of homes in 2012. Outside of the internet, there are no regional or local television channels - with the exception of the autonomous state TV channels, RTP Açores and RTP Madeira -, although a couple of pay TV channels are partly or wholly dedicated to regional matters. Portuguese television is regulated by the Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social.

History

In 1953, a group on behalf of Emissora Nacional de Radiodifusão was set up examining the feasibility of a television service in Portugal. The group started preliminary work for a network of television signals, with a budget on the order of 500,000 escudos. A foreign company had a proposal for the setup of the television network, including the possibility by a foreign company, with high foreign capital, making a proposal for the building of the network and having the exclusive rights of the selling of television sets in the country for a determined period of time In July 1954, their report A Televisão em Portugal was published and was built upon the following pillars:
  • 1. The current status of TV and the opportunity for its introduction in Portugal
  • 2. The operating system to be adopted
  • 3. The solution that seems possible
  • 4. Outline of an initial plan and related charges
  • 5. Economic study
  • 6. List of work already carried out by ENR.
On March 7, 1957 public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal began broadcasting on RTP1, the first television channel in the country. A second RTP channel, RTP2, started broadcasting on December 25, 1968.
By the mid-1980s, satellite television with foreign channels started to become an alternative to the existing monopoly, while the government was opening the bidding process to the private sector. By August 1987, no less than 60,000 satellite dishes were installed. By 1988, with the ongoing discussions for the creation of private television stations, the number of satellite television users arose to 1 million. A number of pirate television stations existed at this time, with rudimentary equipment and limited programming. These stations were shut down by CTT officials.
Private commercial channels were launched in the early 1990s, with SIC on October 6, 1992, and TVI on February 20, 1993.
In 2021, the 24-hour television news channel TVI 24 was revamped and started to broadcast as CNN Portugal. In December 2021, Lisbon-headquartered investment management firm Alpac Capital signed an agreement to buy a controlling stake in the pan-European television news network Euronews from Egyptian telecoms magnate Naguib Sawiris.

Terrestrial

Analog broadcasts in Portugal were discontinued on April 26, 2012. There are eight free-to-air channels on Portuguese terrestrial TV: 6 are owned by the public service broadcaster RTP, two are from private broadcasters and one is owned by the Assembly of the Republic and broadcasts parliamentary sessions.
See Digital terrestrial television in Portugal

List of free-to-air terrestrial channels

Nationwide channels

  • ARtv (Portugal): a public TV channel that broadcasts the sessions of Assembly of the Republic. The least watched terrestrial channel in Portugal.
  • RTP1: the flagship channel of RTP, the Portuguese public broadcasting corporation, and presents a general programming composed mainly by news, talk shows, discussion-based programs, national and international fiction and drama and entertainment. It is the third most watched TV channel in Portugal from 2001 to 2006, 2008, and again from 2011 to present. In the 37 years since its inception in 1957, it was the most watched channel in Portugal until 1995 when SIC overtook it, putting it at second place until 2001.
  • RTP2: the second channel of Portuguese television. It focuses more on intellectual and cultural programming, as well as children and documentary programs. It is the only terrestrial channel in Portugal that broadcasts international TV-series during the prime-time.
  • RTP Notícias: a state broadcast news channel from RTP.
  • RTP Memória: archive programming from RTP and classic programming from various worldwide broadcasters.
  • SIC: The first private television station in Portugal. It broadcasts mainly Brazilian telenovelas and long talk shows, talent shows, as well as themed programming. Like competitor TVI, SIC does not broadcast many international TV-series during prime-time. It was the second most watched channel for 13 years until 2019, when it overtook TVI for the number 1 position. Prior to that, SIC was number 1 from 1995 to 2004, breaking RTP1's long-standing lead.
  • TVI: The second private station in Portugal. It focuses mainly on Portuguese telenovelas, as well as talk-shows. These talk-shows account for more than 45% of TVI's programming and concentrate mainly on human interest stories, while the other 55% comprises telenovelas. It is also well known for its popular reality shows. The primary target audience of TVI are housewives and the elderly. For over 13 years since 2005, it reigned as the most watched channel in Portugal before relinquishing the position again to SIC in 2019.

Regional channels

HD broadcasts

HD broadcasts in Portugal began around the late 2000s mostly for sports events through temporary channels. During the 2010s, high definition gained more traction as the standard quality for TV broadcasts with by the end of the decade most television channels having an HD feed. However, high definition is still only available through pay TV services since, as of 2023, it has yet to be implemented for Portuguese Terrestrial Digital Television.
  • For the UEFA Euro 2008, TVI became the first Portuguese channel to broadcast in HD, launching TVI HD to broadcast the event.
  • Also for the UEFA Euro 2008, SportTV launched an HD channel called SportTV HD, and in the beginning of 2009 SportTV HD became a permanent channel, until August 13, 2011, when it was replaced by a simulcast of SportTV 1 and all other Sport TV channels begun broadcasting in HD as well.
  • For the Beijing Olympics 2008, RTP launched RTP HD, but this one had non-continuous programming, broadcasting only the Olympics during night time and some RTP2 sports programing during the day.
  • * During the day the channel would be closed from 7 am until 3 pm, then it would broadcast RTP 2's Desporto 2 and afterwards it would close until 9 pm to show prime-time TV shows during the week and movies during weekend. During the night, RTP HD would show the Olympics with the time from 12 am to 2 am consisting of reruns and the time from 2 am to 7 am consisting of live events.
  • * In 2011, RTP relaunched RTP HD, now with a different name, RTP1 HD, now maintaining regular broadcasts, until November 28, 2017, when it became a permanent simulcast of RTP 1. Meanwhile, RTP 2 would only get its own HD feed on July 2, 2019.
  • SIC started test broadcasts in HD in 2009, with UEFA Europa League broadcasts. The channel would however remain inactive afterwards, until 2016 when it began to broadcast certain events in high definition. It wouldn't be until October 6, 2016, the 24th anniversary of the first official broadcasts of SIC, when the channel would finally be implemented as a permanent HD simulcast of SIC, alongside all other SIC owned channel also getting HD feeds.
  • Thematic channels on pay TV services begun broadcasting in HD, during the late 2000s, with MOV being the first one to do so in 2008, followed by other channels such as AXN, FOX, FOX Life, TVCine and Syfy in 2009.
  • *This process would continue for other pay TV channels over the course of the 2010s, although some like Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon would only receive HD feeds by 2021, 2022 and 2024 respectively and some channels like BBC News are still broadcasting at standard definition only, despite already having HD signals in other countries in Europe for several years.
  • A HD channel is present on Portuguese Digital Terrestrial Television but has yet to be actually used.

IPTV

Optimus Clix has launched in 2006 a service called SmarTV, provided on Amino and Motorola STBs, with VoD provided by Kasenna MediaBase video servers. The service would be merged into ZON in 2014 to create NOS.
PT Comunicações /Portugal Telecom, now Altice Portugal, has also launched its own IPTV service called MEO, after spinning off its subsidiary PT Multimédia in 2007.
Vodafone also launched an IPTV service called Vodafone Casa TV, now just simply known as Vodafone TV.

Cable

All cable providers in Portugal, NOS and Nowo, introduced digital television. However, some providers still offer analog cable.

Satellite

Digital satellite services have existed since 1998. Currently, the providers are NOS and MEO operating in Hispasat.

Mobile TV

All operators had mobile TV under UMTS platforms. It was abandoned in favor of web-TV applications for mobile devices.

Most-viewed channels

Yearly viewing shares

Yearly average viewing shares of the five main television channels in Portugal since 1992:

Monthly viewing shares

Monthly viewing shares in December 2025:

Most watched shows

RankShowEpisodeRatingShareDateChannel
1UEFA Euro 2004Portugal vs The Netherlands 40.987.2%30 June 2004RTP1
2UEFA Euro 2012Portugal vs Spain 39.576.0%27 June 2012SIC
3UEFA Euro 2004Portugal vs England 39.085.1%24 June 2004RTP1
4UEFA Euro 2016Portugal vs Wales 38.475.4%6 July 2016RTP1
5UEFA Euro 2016Portugal vs France 38.278.1%10 July 2016RTP1
6UEFA Euro 2012Portugal vs The Netherlands 38.173.4%17 June 2012TVI
72014 FIFA World CupUnited States vs Portugal 37.875.4%22 June 2014RTP1
8UEFA Euro 2004Portugal vs Greece 37.789.7%4 July 2004RTP1
9UEFA Euro 2016Poland vs Portugal 37.469.9%30 June 2016RTP1
102006 FIFA World CupPortugal vs France 37.282.3%5 July 2006SIC
11A Próxima VítimaLast Episode 37.180.2%19 January 1996SIC
12UEFA Euro 2012Czech Republic vs Portugal 36.171.7%21 June 2012RTP1
13UEFA Euro 2004Russia vs Portugal 35.581.4%16 June 2004SIC
14UEFA Euro 2016Portugal vs Iceland 35.168.6%14 June 2016RTP1
15UEFA Euro 2004Spain vs Portugal 34.983.2%20 June 2004TVI
162006 FIFA World CupPortugal vs The Netherlands 34.980.7%25 June 2006SIC
17UEFA Euro 2008Portugal vs Germany 34.575.6%19 June 2008TVI
182015 Portuguese legislative electionDebate: António Costa vs. Pedro Passos Coelho34.166%10 September 2015RTP1, SIC, TVI
192014 FIFA World Cup qualificationSweden vs Portugal 34.162.2%19 November 2013RTP1
20UEFA Europa LeagueSL Benfica vs Chelsea FC 33.862.3%16 May 2013SIC
21UEFA Euro 2000France vs Portugal 33.276.7%28 June 2000RTP1
222006 FIFA World CupAngola vs Portugal 32.880.9%11 June 2006SIC
23UEFA Euro 2012Germany vs Portugal 32.468.3%9 June 2012RTP1
24UEFA Champions LeagueMonaco vs Porto 31.770.5%26 May 2004RTP1
25UEFA Euro 2016Croatia vs Portugal 31.370%26 June 2016RTP1
26UEFA Europa LeagueSevilla FC vs SL Benfica 31.161.4%14 May 2014SIC
27UEFA Champions LeagueReal Madrid vs Atlético Madrid 30.864.3%24 May 2014TVI
28Terra NostraLast Episode 30.864%11 January 2000SIC
292006 FIFA World CupPortugal vs Iran30.483.1%17 June 2006SIC
30UEFA Europa LeagueJuventus FC vs SL Benfica 30.458.9%1 May 2014SIC
31Big Brother PortugalLive eviction show30.272.5%26 December 2000TVI
32UEFA CupSporting CP vs CSKA Moscow 30.168.4%18 May 2005RTP1
33Taça de PortugalSL Benfica vs Sporting CP 29.962.6%26 January 2005RTP1
34Torre de BabelLast Episode 29.877.1%02 April 1999SIC
35UEFA Euro 2008Switzerland vs Portugal29.871.8%15 June 2008TVI
36UEFA CupCeltic FC vs FC Porto29.767.5%21 May 2003SIC
372006 FIFA World CupGermany vs Portugal 29.678.4%8 July 2006SIC
382006 FIFA World CupEngland vs Portugal 29.288.1%1 July 2006SIC
39UEFA Champions LeagueBarcelona vs Benfica29.365.6%5 April 2006RTP1
402010 FIFA World CupSpain vs Portugal 29.175.9%29 June 2010RTP1
47Médico de Família Portuguese TV series 27.961.4%16 March 1999 SIC