Television in Spain was introduced in 1956, when the national state-owned public service television broadcaster (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.
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.
History Early broadcasts Although television in Spain did not commence regular broadcasts until the 1950s, certain transmissions had taken place a couple of decades earlier. In 1932, engineer Vicente Guiñau received several foreign television signals in Barcelona using a television set acquired in England. In 1934, the first telecommunications graduate in Spain, Joaquín Sánchez Cordovés, conducted several public broadcasts from the Sala Werner in Barcelona with equipment he had constructed himself. After the Spanish Civil War, during the 1948 Fira de Barcelona, Dutch company Philips simultaneously retransmitted the signal received from a nearby studio where various performers and singers were appearing. That same year, using the same technology, a bullfight was broadcast from the Vista Alegre bullring in Madrid.
1950s
Between 1 November 1950 and the spring of 1952, the first experimental broadcasts were carried out in a laboratory of Radio Nacional de España (RNE) at Paseo de La Habana in Madrid; these transmissions were received by only fifteen television sets in the city. Starting in October 1952, test broadcasts were established under the auspices of RNE, and were therefore referred to as ‘Televisión de Radio Nacional de España'.
Initially, programs were occasional and produced on commission once a week. On 13 February 1953, broadcasts began to air twice a week for a couple of hours. During this period, the first television broadcast of a Spanish football match took place, featuring a game between Real Madrid and Racing de Santander on 24 October 1954. Broadcasts progressively grew in both duration and variety until the summer of 1955, at which point they were suspended to allow for the installation of more advanced equipment, in anticipation of the launch of Televisión Española.
Televisión Española officially began broadcasting on 28 October 1956 at 6:15 p.m. CET, from the modest studios at Paseo de La Habana in Madrid. TVE launched its programming to approximately 600 television sets, all located in Madrid. During its first months, daily broadcasts did not exceed three hours, reaching four hours in 1957. Programming was transmitted mostly live. The news service was renamed Telediario on 15 September 1957. The remainder of the programming was devoted to variety shows, including comedy, drama, televised theater, and even some foreign films, mainly from the United States.
On 15 February 1959, Televisión Española began broadcasting in Barcelona, coinciding with the transmission of a football match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. A few months later, on 14 July 1959, the Miramar Studios were inaugurated in the city.
1960s
On 15 December 1960, the wedding of Baudouin of Belgium and Fabiola de Mora y Aragón marked the first time that TVE broadcast live content produced by a foreign country, demonstrating its integration into the European Broadcasting Union. The Prado del Rey Studios were officially inaugurated on 18 July 1964 to replace the Paseo de la Habana headquarters in Madrid, with the new studios being nearly three times larger than the original ones.
During this decade, TVE expanded its broadcasts to the rest of peninsular Spain. 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.
On 1 January 1965, test broadcasts began for TVE’s second channel, La 2, which officially launched on 15 November 1966. Named UHF at the time, it was a channel with a smaller audience, focused on areas such as culture, sports, and music.
The first color broadcast took place during the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest, held in Madrid following Spain’s victory the previous year. Nevertheless, the majority of Spain’s television sets at the time, still fairly limited in number, lacked the capability to receive color broadcasts.
1970s TVE started regular colour transmissions in 1972 after over two years of test transmissions, with all programming transmitted in color in 1977, and colour commercials starting in 1978.
1980s 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.
1990s 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. Sogecable's pay analog satellite multichannel television provider Canal Satélite was launched on 1 January 1994. 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), only to merge six years later, on 21 July 2003, to form Digital+, renamed 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.
2000s 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.
2010s Modern free-to-air digital terrestrial television sector Analog service was officially discontinued on 3 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, that secures a 57% share of the audience and a 90% of advertising procurement.
2013 Supreme Court ruling On 28 April 2014, the Supreme Court of Spain ordered the immediate shutdown of 9 of 24 private television stations, considering the Ministry of Industry, then held by the first government of Mariano Rajoy from the People's Party, had not yet enforced a ruling issued on 18 December 2013. The ruling stated that these television channels had been granted their licenses without a public tender in 2010, under the second government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, despite the requirements of the that came into force a few months prior. As such, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a company that appealed that decision and declared the license permits null and void. The ruling affected 3 Atresmedia channels (Nitro, Xplora and laSexta 3), 2 from Mediaset España (LaSiete and Nueve), 2 from NET TV (MTV Spain, which remained on cable television, and Intereconomía TV) and 2 from Unidad Editorial (AXN and Marca TV).
A strong campaign was then launched by private companies to prevent the closure of the channels. One of the most controversial cases was that of Mediaset España, which aired a powerful protest spot on all its channels where two of them, personified as part of a family, were run over by a speeding car, ending with the phrase 'They all killed them together.' The ad, which sparked major controversy, removed the hit-and-run scene on May 1.
The channels ceased broadcasting on 6 May 2014, with the Supreme Court arguing that the closure of the channels did not violate freedom of expression.
The Council of Ministers, still under the government of Mariano Rajoy, approved a new public tender to obtain the licenses on 17 April 2015. The tender was resolved on 16 October 2015, granting one HD license to Atresmedia, Mediaset, and Real Madrid each, and one SD license to the Spanish Episcopal Conference, KISS Media (then Radio Blanca), and TEN Media (then Central Broadcaster Media) each.
2020s Transition into 4K and DVB-2