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Television in Spain
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Television in Spain was introduced in 1956, when the national state-owned public service television broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) started regular analog free-to-air terrestrial black and white broadcasts. Colour transmissions started in 1972 after two years of test transmissions, with all programming transmitted in color in 1977, and colour commercials starting in 1978. TVE held a monopoly on television broadcasting until regional public channels were launched during the 1980s and commercial television started nationwide in 1990. Digital terrestrial television was launched on 30 November 2005 with analog service discontinued on 3 April 2010. Currently, television is one of the leading mass media of the country, and by 2008 was in 99.7% of households in Spain according to INE statistics.
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Until recently terrestrial television was considered an essential public service. Broadcasting is managed both directly by the State and indirectly, through controlled concessions to private companies. The Audiovisual Law of 2010 changed this by defining radio and television as commercial services that individuals pay for, fostering liberalization within some constraints.
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History
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Analog free-to-air terrestrial black and white television began on 28 October 1956 in Spain. Televisión Española (TVE) launched the very first regular television channel (now La 1), which operated alone until 15 November 1966, when TVE launched a second channel (now La 2). TVE also launched two regional channels that operated autonomously by its territorial production centers as they had no television link with peninsular Spain: TVE Canarias was launched on 12 February 1964 in the Canary Islands, and operated autonomously until 25 April 1971 when connected to the main channel; and TVE Guinea was launched on 20 July 1968 in the autonomous region of Equatorial Guinea, and closed shortly after the country declared independence on 12 October 1968. TVE started regular colour transmissions in 1972 after two years of test transmissions, with all programming transmitted in color in 1977, and colour commercials starting in 1978.
These were the only authorized television channels in Spain, as TVE held a monopoly on television broadcasting, until the first regional public television channel was launched on 16 February 1983, when Euskal Telebista started broadcasting in the Basque Country. It was followed on 11 September 1983 by TV3 in Catalonia, on 24 July 1985 by Televisión de Galicia (TVG) in Galicia, on 28 February 1989 by Canal Sur in Andalusia, on 2 May 1989 by Telemadrid in Madrid and on 9 October 1989 by Canal Nou in the Valencian Community. The full liberalization of television with the law of 1989 permitted the establishment of private commercial channels.
Commercial television was launched on 25 January 1990, when Antena 3 started broadcasting nationwide. It was followed by Telecinco on 3 March 1990 and Canal+ on 14 September 1990. Both Antena 3 and Telecinco were free-to-air analog terrestrial channels while Canal+ was a pay analog terrestrial channel obliged to broadcast six free-to-air hours a day.[1] Sogecable's pay analog satellite multichannel television provider Canal Satélite was launched on 1 January 1994.[2] Two pay digital satellite multichannel television providers were launched in 1997, Canal Satélite Digital on 31 January (controlled by PRISA) and Vía Digital on 15 September (controlled by Telefónica, TVE Temática, Televisa and minority shareholders),[3] only to merge six years later, on 21 July 2003, to form Digital+,[4] renamed to Canal+ on 17 October 2011 after its flagship channel.
Through the 1990s and 2000s, more regional channels (most of them public, but some of them private) were launched. A number of them created FORTA, a union of public regional broadcasters. Many local channels were also launched, some of them created the Localia Network. During the 1990s, dozens of local channels started broadcasting without a license. The government declared that channels that proved to be operating for a long time could go on working, but blocked new unlicensed channels.
On 3 April 2010 the analog service was officially discontinued.[5]
Digital terrestrial television
In the 2000s, the analog national and autonomic channels started simulcast on digital terrestrial television. In 2005, Canal+ stopped its analog service to move to Digital Plus and was substituted by Cuatro. Some weeks later, the last analog national private channel, La Sexta, started testing broadcasts, to begin its regular analog schedule in 2006. In 2009, the analog service started its closure in a process that lasted one year. The development of digital terrestrial television was very similar to the failure of ITV Digital in the United Kingdom. Digital terrestrial television was introduced in the country by the pay per view platform Quiero Television. In May 2002, statewide operators were required to start broadcasting in DVB-T. Yet, Quiero TV ceased transmissions in 2002 after a commercial failure. Unlike the UK, the three and half multiplexes left by the platform were not reassigned to other operators, and so 5 channels were squashed into a single multiplex.
On 30 November 2005, digital terrestrial television was relaunched as a free service with 20 channels and 14 radio stations, along with 23 regional- and local-language channels in their respective areas. Currently about 95% of the population can receive DTT. Each multiplex has a minimum of 4 SD channels each or one HD channel. Televisió de Catalunya and Aragón Televisión are using spare bandwidth in their own digital multiplex to broadcast test HD streams.
Modern free-to-air digital terrestrial television sector
Analog service was discontinued in April 2010. Since then, all national and regional terrestrial channels are digital. Together with the TDT transition and the process of absorption of channels in the late-2000s to early-2010s amid the Spanish financial crisis, the removal of commercials from RTVE by means of its 2009 Funding Law facilitated the creation of the duopoly formed by Mediaset España and Atresmedia,[6] that secures a 57% share of the audience and a 90% of advertising procurement.[7]
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Nationwide broadcasters
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Television Española
Televisión Española is the national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest television service in the country. Founded in 1956, it currently has five channels. It is one of the few state-run broadcasters in the European Union where citizens do not pay a licence fee to fund it, as it is financed through public subsidies and direct taxes on private television and mobile phone operators. As of 2024, it ranks as the third leading audiovisual group in terms of audience, although its flagship channel, La 1, is the second most-watched TV channel. La 1 is also the only nationwide channel broadcast in 4K resolution. Besides its main headquarters in Madrid, RTVE operates two production centers in Catalonia and the Canary Islands. It also offers regional news broadcasts for each of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities. José Pablo López serves as Chair of RTVE since 2 December 2024.
Atresmedia
Atresmedia, which has been the largest free-to-air television network in terms of audience since 2022, emerged in 2011 from the merger of two major broadcasters: Grupo Antena 3 and GIA La Sexta .[8] It is owned by the Grupo Planeta.[9] and it is composed of 6 channels. Antena 3 and La Sexta are generalist channels, while the rest are focused on different target groups.
Grupo Antena 3 traces its origins to those of its flagship channel, Antena 3, one of the nationwide private television networks that received a broadcasting licence in 1989. Antena 3 airs general programs such as news, movies, reality shows, sport events and quizzes. Antena 3 has been the most-watched television channel in Spain since November 2021 (except summer 2024, when the title was claimed by La 1).
The network's secondary generalist channel, laSexta, traces its origins to the granting of another private license in 2005. It was then jointly owned by the Mexican giant Televisa (40%) and the Grupo Audiovisual de Medios de Producción (60%), which was in turn participated by Grupo Árbol-Globomedia (40%), Mediapro (38%), Drive (10%), El Terrat (7%) and Bainet (5%).[10]
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Mediaset España
Mediaset España has its origins in the Gestevisión Telecinco, a society created in 1989 that was granted one of the first licenses for private free-to-air analogic terrestrial TV private channels in Spain: Tele 5 (later branded as Telecinco). It was founded by Italian media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest (25%), Grupo Anaya (25%), ONCE (25%) and other shareholders (25%). In 2009, already in the TDT transition era, Gestevisión agreed with PRISA's Sogecuatro to merge their businesses (most notably their flagship channels Telecinco and Cuatro), with Gestevisión absorbing Sogecuatro in exchange of a minor participation of PRISA as shareholder of Gestevisión. In 2011, the media conglomerate was renamed to Mediaset España Comunicación S.A.[11] PRISA eventually sold its remaining shares in 2015.[12] Owned by the Berlusconi family,[13] Mediaset España is part of MediaForEurope since 3 May 2023, which also includes the Italian group Mediaset S.p.A.
The flagship channel of the network remains Telecinco, which is the third most-watched television channel in Spain. Telecinco experienced its best audience figures throughout much of the 2000s and 2010s, during which it remained the most-watched channel in the country. Its programming was focused on gossip and reality shows. The channel had a bad reputation due to accusations of ‘trash TV’, but still managed to achieve high audience ratings. After Paolo Vasile stepped down as CEO in 2023, the group decided to revamp the programming of its channels, moving away from any shows or content that might be considered controversial and aiming to offer family-friendly content. Since then, Telecinco’s audiences have plummeted, falling from the most-watched channel in Spain to third place. As the second generalist channel in the Mediaset network, Cuatro airs general programs such as news, movies, documentaries, reality shows, sport events and quizzes. Mediaset has 7 television channels, more than any other group in the country. Mediaset remains as the second most-watched television group.
Unidad Editorial
Unidad Editorial is a Spanish media company, emerged from the merger of Unedisa (controlled by Italian media conglomerate RCS MediaGroup) and Grupo Recoletos. Unidad Editorial is the owner of some of the major Spanish newspapers, such as El Mundo, Expansión and MARCA, as well as some radio channels such as esRadio. It has two nationwide television licenses, operated by its subsidiary Veo Televisión, which leases them to other companies.
NET TV
Sociedad Gestora de Televisión NET TV, S.A., received its first national television license in 2000, which was used to broadcast local contents from Vocento, its major shareholder. In 2005, NET TV receives two more licenses license, which would later become Fly Music and Intereconomía. By 2008, The Walt Disney Company becomes one of the major shareholders in the company, replacing Fly Music with Disney Channel, the first free-to-air Disney Channel in the world. In the early 2010s, the group uses one of its licenses for both La Tienda en Casa teleshopping channel and Paramount Channel, before finally choosing the latter in 2012. In May 2014, it lost one of its licenses (MTV) after a ruling from the Supreme Court of Spain. In 2021, Squirrel Media buys most of the group's shares from both Vocento and The Walt Disney Company. After Disney Channel's closure in 2025, Squirrel Media operates its first television channel: Squirrel.
Spanish Episcopal Conference
The Spanish Episcopal Conference is an administrative institution of the Catholic Church in Spain. It has operated one of the major radio stations in Spain since 1979: COPE. The institution first leased a television license to Unidad Editorial in 2010, launching its first television channel: !3tv. In 2015, it was among the six companies chosen to receive its own broadcasting license. As such, 13tv was relaunched as TRECE, basing its programming on information, cinema, and religious afairs about Catholic Church and the Pope.
KISS Media
Originally founded as Radio Blanca in 1989, KISS Media Group operates radio stations such as Kiss FM and Hit FM. The company's first television channel was Kiss TV in 2005, available via pay television and later becoming free-to-air in some autonomous communities. It was one of the six companies to receive a nationwide broadcasting license in 2015. Ever since, KISS Media is in a joint-venture with Discovery Communications (now part of Warner Bros. Discovery), launching a co-branded channel together called DKISS.
TEN Media
TEN Media was founded as Central Broadcaster Media in 2007 by a former major shareholder of Secuoya Content Group, the owner of many major radio stations such as Cadena SER, LOS40 and DIAL. It was one of the six companies to receive a nationwide broadcasting license in 2015. The channel imports content from other countries, such as reality shows, game shows, and television series. Starting in the mid-2020s, the group also focuses on celebrity news formats and sports programming.
Real Madrid CF
Real Madrid TV was originally founded by Sogecable, part of PRISA in 1999. Since 2001, the channel has been directed entirely by Real Madrid CF. In 2016, it was granted a nationwide broadcasting channel. Despite its name, the channel not only broadcasts football matches, but also basketball matches from Real Madrid's male and female teams. It also broadcasts movies. It is, however, the least-watched nationwide television channel in Spain.
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Regional broadcasters
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Many of the Spanish regions (comunidades autónomas) have their own network service. Most of these channels (popularly known as "las (cadenas) autonómicas") are public-owned and integrated in FORTA ("Federación de Organismos de Radio Televisión Autonómicos"), an association of 12 public regional network services allowing them to share their content and produce new formats together. Despite private regional broadcasters being allowed, most autonomous communities do not have one. On the other hand, four autonomous communities have a single private-owned regional broadcaster: Castile and León, Cantabria, Navarra and La Rioja, these channels cannot be integrated into FORTA, since it requires them to be public-owned. Canal Extremadura Televisión is the only public regional broadcaster not integrated in FORTA.
Regional broadcasters have their own programming adapted to the regions they broadcast. For instance, Televisión Canaria uses Western European Time, the local time zone. Some other broadcasters, such as Catalonia's TV3, Balearic IB3, Galicia's TVG, Basque Country's ETB 1 and Valencian Community's À Punt mostly broadcast in their regional language, instead of Spanish.
Since the 2010s, most regional broadcasters have plummeted in terms of audience. Regional broadcasters still have high audience rates in Catalonia (which is the only region were the regional generalist broadcaster has a higher audience share than national broadcasters), Galicia, Aragon and Andalusia.[14]
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Defunct channels
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Nationwide defunct channels
The following table lists the television channels that have ceased broadcasting in Spain. Green color indicates that the channel continued its broadcasts on pay television.
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Defunct regional channels
Relaunched channels
As of 2025, only two television channel have been re-released after its shutdown.
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Cable
Digital cable is slowly replacing the aging analog service of the major cable provider Vodafone. Telecable, a cable ISP operating in Asturias has begun trials for 1000 mega bytes per second service and is the first to broadcast HD channels. R, a cable operator in Galicia, has completely switched pay TV to digital (DVB-C) by 2008 but free channels are simulcast as analog services, so users without a set-top box can watch them (including most free-to-air channels available on digital terrestrial TV in each location).
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Satellite
Digital satellite services has existed since 1997 from Astra and Hispasat satellites. The Movistar Plus+ pay platform has carried some HDTV tests on Astra 19.2°E on 16 June 2005. This platform (before Canal+) has a lot of exclusives channels as "#0" by February 2016 without having to pay the licence of the brand Canal+.[15]
A high definition version of Canal+ 1 (Canal+ 1 HD) formerly called "#0"; started on 29 January 2008, and ended on 31 July 2023, which is now replaced by Movistar Plus+, which is started broadcasting on 1 August 2023, together with HD versions of Canal+ Deportes (now Movistar Deportes) and Canal+ DCine (now Movistar Drama) broadcast from Astra 1KR.
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Internet services
Available streaming service providers include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Max, SkyShowtime, Movistar Plus+, DAZN, FlixOlé, Filmin, Rakuten TV or Disney+.[16][17] Atresmedia and Mediaset España launched their own pay services: Atresplayer Premium and Mitele Plus, respectively,[16] which are upgraded versions of their freely available services Atresplayer and Mitele offering exclusive content on-demand. Free streaming services also include RTVE's RTVE Play and Pluto TV.[18]
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Programming
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![[icon]](#/media/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2021) |
- Fiction
During the more than three decades of TVE's monopoly over TV broadcasting, TVE delivered a diverse fiction offer, both in terms of dramas and comedies as well as different production standards, although there was no special interest in an extended run of their series, and many of them simply often fit a prototypical one season & 13 episode profile.[19] TVE also imported fiction series from the United States.[19]
During the 1960s and 1970s, the scope of domestic fiction focused on theatrical and literary adaptations as well as region-themed fiction; in the particular case of comedy, productions underpinned the sense of costumbrismo and everyday life.[20]
By the early 1990s, in the context of the entry of the private channels, domestically-produced comedy fiction series seized on the prime time slot, until then a dominion of game shows, foreign series and domestic dramas.[21] A tendency to lengthen the duration of the episodes of comedy series manifested in this transitional period.[21]
After its kickstart in 2018, Turkish soap operas had become popular in Spain by 2021.[22] Also in the 2020s, low-budget "uplifting" German films had become a staple of the sobremesa timeslot on weekends (on TVE and Antena 3).[23] Driven by appeals to nostalgia, 2021 saw a number of projects remaking or reviving former Spanish fiction series.[24]
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See also
References
External links
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