Portuguese satellite TV

Television in Portugal was introduced in 1956 (test broadcasts) by Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (now named Rádio e Televisão de Portugal), 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 (DTT) was introduced at a very late stage when compared to other countries in Europe and with limited channels, and according to the European Audiovisual Observatory it occupies the last place in 34 European countries with the weakest offer on digital terrestrial television. In such a way that most Portuguese are subscribers of cable (HFC) or IPTV (DSL or FTTH) platforms, in percentages higher than in the rest of Europe and these platforms are well developed with a large number of channels. During the transition from analog to DTT, subscription-based television services experiences a 10% increase and reached 72.5% of homes in 2012. Regional and local television is also limited. Portuguese television is regulated by the Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social (ERC). In 2015, TVI was the ratings leader with 22.5% share while SIC, RTP1 and RTP2 had 18.8%, 14.8% and 2.0%, respectively.

On March 7, 1957 public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) began broadcasting RTP1, the first television channel in the country. A second RTP channel, RTP2, started broadcasting on December 25, 1968. Private commercial channels were launched in the early 1990s, with on February 20, 1993.

Analog broadcasts in Portugal was discontinued on April 26, 2012. There are only four generalist channels, two regional and one parliament channel broadcasting in DVB-T in Portugal.

As of worldwide sport events, the common broadcasters usually start a temporary HD channel for subscription digital television users.

Optimus Clix has launched in 2006 a service called SmarTV (rebranded as Optimus Clix TV), provided on Amino and Motorola STBs, with VoD provided by Kasenna MediaBase video servers. PT Comunicações (Portugal Telecom) has also launched one called MEO, providing that the spin-off of subsidiary PT Multimédia was concluded. Vodafone also launched an IPTV service called Vodafone Casa TV.