Television in Spain was introduced in 1956, when the national

state-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

public service A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...

television broadcaster (TVE) started regular analog

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

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 A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

on television broadcasting until regional public channels were launched during the 1980s and

commercial television Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...

started nationwide in 1990.

Digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV, DTT, or DTTB) is a technology for terrestrial television, in which television stations broadcast television content in a digital signal, digital format. Digital terrestrial television is a major technologica ...

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

Analog free-to-air terrestrial black and white television began on 28 October 1956 in Spain. (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 Peninsular Spain is the part of the territory of Spain located within the Iberian Peninsula, thus excluding other parts of Spain: the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, and several islets and crags off the coast of Morocco kno ...

: TVE Canarias was launched on 12 February 1964 in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, 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 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, on 24 July 1985 by

Televisión de Galicia Televisión de Galicia (; "Television of Galicia"; abbreviated as TVG), commonly known as A Galega ("The Galician ne), is a Spanish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Televisión de Galicia S.A., the television subsidiary of ...

(TVG) in Galicia, on 28 February 1989 by

Canal Sur Canal Sur ('South Channel') is part of Radio y Televisión de Andalucía (RTVA), the public broadcasting company of Andalusia. It was created by means of the devolved powers given to this autononomous community by an Act of Parliament in its ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, on 2 May 1989 by

Telemadrid Telemadrid is a public television station in the Community of Madrid, Spain, the flagship channel of the regional public broadcaster Radio Televisión Madrid (RTVM). It began its broadcast on 2 May 1989. History First years Telemadrid was cr ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and on 9 October 1989 by

Canal Nou Nou (, "nine"), previously known as Canal Nou ("channel nine"), was a Valencian free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Radiotelevisió Valenciana (RTVV). It was the corporation's flagship channel, featuring general ...

in the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

. 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 Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially laun ...

on 3 March 1990 and

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

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 PRISA Televisión, S.A.U (PRISA TV) is a pay TV company in Spain. History and profile PRISA TV was established in 1989 and controlled (as of 2007) by PRISA. It was amongst the pioneer companies in the market to introduce interactive systems ...

's pay analog satellite

multichannel television A multichannel television service, also known as simply a television provider, is a type of service provider who distributes television programming to its customers for a subscription fee. Subscription television providers distribute 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 , S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the ...

, TVE Temática,

Televisa Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April ...

and minority shareholders), only to merge six years later, on 21 July 2003, to form

Digital+ Canal+ was a Spanish satellite broadcasting platform. It was previously known as Digital+ since its launch in 2003, and from 2011 it was known as Canal+, being named after its main premium channel. Formed on 23 July 2003 as a result of the equal ...

, 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 The Federation of Regional Organizations of Radio and Television (, FORTA) is the association of the public broadcasting networks from 12 autonomous communities of Spain. It was created on 5 April 1989. Members Non-members *Extremadura's CE ...

, 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.

Digital terrestrial television

TDT Transition

In the 2000s, the analog national and autonomic channels started

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

on digital terrestrial television. In 2005, Canal+ stopped its analog service to move to Digital Plus and was substituted by

Cuatro Cuatro, Spanish (and other Romance languages) for the 4, number 4, may refer to: * Cuatro (instrument), a family of Latin American string instruments, including: ** Cuatro (Venezuela) ** Puerto Rican cuatro * Cuatro (TV channel), a Spanish free-to ...

. Some weeks later, the last analog national private channel,

La Sexta La Sexta (; ; stylised as laSexta) is a privately owned Spanish free-to-air television channel that was founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV and began broadcasting on 1 April 2001. By 21 July 2003, the channel ran into debt and was shut down, bu ...

, 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 ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. 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 DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Fe ...

. 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 Televisió de Catalunya (, known by the acronym TVC) is the public broadcasting network of Catalonia, one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is part of the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, a public corporation c ...

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 The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española (''Spanish Radio and Television'', RTVE), is the Spanish national public Broadcasting, television and radio broadcaster. It is a state-owned enterprise f ...

by means of its 2009 Funding Law facilitated the creation of the

duopoly A duopoly (from Greek , ; and , ) is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most (if not all) of the competition within that market occurs directly between them. Duopoly is the most commonly ...

formed by

Mediaset España Grupo Audiovisual Mediaset España Comunicación, S.A.U. (formerly Gestevisión Telecinco, S.A. and Mediaset España Comunicación, S.A.) is a Spanish media company, controlled by the Italian-based company MFE – MediaForEurope N.V., which i ...

and

Atresmedia Atresmedia Corporación de Medios de Comunicación, S.A., previously Grupo Antena 3, is a Spanish media group, present in the television, radio and filmmaking industries. Significant shareholders include Grupo Planeta and Bertelsmann. On 6 Marc ...

, that secures a 57% share of the audience and a 90% of advertising procurement.

Television Española

La 1 ("La Uno"): Spain's principal public-service television network, publicly owned and financed and offering programming aimed at a wide public. Previous names include La Primera Cadena and TVE-1. La 2 ("La Dos"): the country's second nationwide public channel, providing alternative programming to La 1. Previous names include UHF, La Segunda Cadena and TVE-2.

Atresmedia

As of 2020, Atresmedia is the second largest free-to-air television network in terms of audience. It is owned by the

Grupo Planeta Planeta Corporación, S.R.L., doing business as Grupo Planeta (), is a Spanish mass media conglomerate operating in Spain, Portugal, France and Latin America. It is headquartered in Madrid. Editorial Planeta, founded in 1949, was the seed of Gru ...

. It 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. The network's secondary generalist channel,

laSexta La Sexta (; ; stylised as laSexta) is a privately owned Spanish free-to-air television channel that was founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV and began broadcasting on 1 April 2001. By 21 July 2003, the channel ran into debt and was shut down, bu ...

, traces its origins to the granting of another private license in 2005. It was then jointly owned by the Mexican giant

(40%) and the Grupo Audiovisual de Medios de Producción (60%), which was in turn participated by Grupo Árbol-Globomedia (40%),

Mediapro Mediaproducción, S.L.U., better known as Mediapro, is a multimedia communications group in Spain founded in April 1994 in Barcelona. The company is well involved in movie and television production. The company holds branch offices in Madrid, S ...

(38%), Drive (10%), El Terrat (7%) and Bainet (5%). However in the context of mergings in the late-2000 to early-2010s, the channels of Antena 3 and those of

merged in 2011, and LaSexta subsequently became part of the newly created Grupo Atresmedia.

Mediaset España

As of 2020, Mediaset España is the television group with the largest audience. It has its origins in the ''Gestevisión Telecinco'', the 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

). It was initially formed by Italian media tycoon

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

Fininvest Finanziaria d'investimento Fininvest S.p.A., also known as Fininvest, is an Italian holding company controlled by the Berlusconi family and managed by Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter Marina Berlusconi. Structure The Fininvest group is com ...

(25%), Grupo Anaya (25%),

ONCE Once may refer to: Film, television and theatre * ''Once'' (film), a 2007 Irish musical film by John Carney ** ''Once'' (musical), a 2011 stage adaptation of the film * ''Once'' (TV series), a 2017–2019 Argentine telenovela * Canal Once (Mex ...

(25%) and other shareholders (25%), although the share distribution has changed over the years, and, as of 2020, Mediaset España is owned via Mediaset Italia by the Berlusconi family, and, in 2019, the group simply attempted to merge with Mediaset Italia. In 2009, already in the TDT transition era, Gestevisión agreed with PRISA's

Sogecuatro Sociedad General de Televisión Cuatro, S.A.U. (Sogecuatro) was a Spanish media company that operated the Spanish television channel Cuatro. It operated as a subsidiary of the audiovisual division ( Sogecable) of the Spanish media conglomerate P ...

to merge their businesses (most notably their flagship channels Telecinco and Cuatro), with 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. PRISA eventually sold its remaining shares in 2015. The flagship channel of the network remains Telecinco. Telecinco airs general programs such as news, movies, reality shows, sport events and quizzes. As secondary channel in the Mediaset network,

airs general programs such as news, movies, documentaries, reality shows, sport events and quizzes.

Regional broadcasters

Many of the Spanish

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

(''comunidades autónomas'') have their own public network service:

in the Madrid region, Canal Extremadura Televisión in

Extremadura Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...

, 7RM in the

Region of Murcia The Region of Murcia (, ; ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain located in the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. The region is in area and had a popul ...

in Andalusia, CMM TV in

Castilla–La Mancha Castilla–La Mancha (, ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces of Province of Albacete, Albacete, Province of Ciudad Real, Ciudad Real, Province of Cuenca, Cuenca, Province of Guadalajar ...

, TVG Televisión de Galicia,

in Catalonia,

À Punt À Punt () is a Valencian free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the Valencian Media Corporation. It is the corporation's flagship and currently only television channel, and broadcasts mainstream programming mainly ...

in the Valencian Community,

EITB Euskal Irrati Telebista (; ; acronym EITB, branded eitb) is the Basque Autonomous Community's public broadcast service, which broadcasts throughout the Basque Country. Its main brand is Euskal Telebista (ETB, Basque Television). EITB is the l ...

Euskal Telebista in Basque Country, TPA in Asturias, TV Canaria in Canary Islands, etc. Most of these channels (called "las autonómicas") are integrated in the

("Federación de Organismos de Radio Televisión Autonómicos"). Among the flagship channels of the different autonomous communities, the Catalan TV3 stands out because it enjoys, by far, the largest share of audience in its respective region, leading, in fact, over the rest of terrestrial channels with a 14.6% share of audience in Catalonia in 2019.

Other terrestrial television channels

By autonomous community

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

* Basque Country *

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...

* Galicia *

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community and provinces of Spain, province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other List of municipalities in La Rioja, cities and towns in the ...

Melilla Melilla (, ; ) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was part of the Province of Málaga un ...

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

Most-viewed channels

Monthly viewing shares in December 2021 (Top 10 individual channels):

Discontinued channels

* TVE 50 Años * Canal Clásico *

Canal Nostalgia Canal Nostalgia was a Spanish television channel owned and operated by Televisión Española (TVE), the television division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It was available via pay television satellite platfo ...

* Cultural·es *

Telecinco Estrellas Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially laun ...

Telecinco Sport Telecinco Sport was a Spanish sport channel available on TDT, and owned by Gestevisión Telecinco. On 18 February 2008, the channel was closed, and the frequency was given to Telecinco 2. Programming Programmes of Telecinco Sport were prov ...

* Net TV *

Fly Music Fly Music was a Spanish television channel broadcast in Spain by NET TV as a Spanish version of MTV. The channel broadcast a range of music videos and profiles of alternative artists (such as Goldfrapp, Björk, Massive Attack, Hercules & Lov ...

* Telehit * Hogar 10 * Sony TV en Veo * 40 Latino * La Tienda en Casa *

CNN+ CNN+ is a defunct subscription streaming service and online news channel owned by the CNN division of WarnerMedia News & Sports. It was launched on March 29, 2022 and was later shut down on April 28, 2022. Designed as an offshoot of the CN ...

* GH24 * Veo7 * La 10 * Nou ( HD) * Nou 2 * Nou 24 * TVE HD * Marca TV *

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

* Intereconomía *

AXN AXN is a pay television channel brand by Sony Pictures Television, which was first launched in September 1997 in Asia. Local versions have since been launched in several parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with some ne ...

Nitro Nitro may refer to: Chemistry *Nitrogen, a chemical element and a gas except at very low temperatures, with which many compounds are formed: **Nitro compound, an organic compound containing one or more nitro functional groups, -NO2 **Nitro ligand ...

Xplora Xplora was a Spanish TV channel owned by Atresmedia. The channel started broadcasting on 1 May 2012, replacing laSexta2 due its low ratings. On 5 May 2014, the channel ceased broadcasting. Most of its programming were documentaries and reality ...

* laSexta2 * laSexta3 *

LaSiete LaSiete ''()'', formerly known as ''Telecinco 2'', was a Spanish digital terrestrial television channel, operated by Mediaset España. It began its broadcasts on 18 February 2008, replacing Telecinco Sport. On 18 May 2009, Telecinco 2 changed its ...

* Nueve *

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

Cable

Digital cable is slowly replacing the aging analog service of the major cable provider

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

Telecable : ''This is about the Spanish company. For Telecable, the Canadian company that operated out of Saskatchewan from the 1970s to the 1990s, see its successor company, Shaw Communications.'' Telecable is a cable company that operates in Asturias (n ...

, a cable ISP operating in

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).

Satellite

Digital satellite services has existed since 1997 from

Astra Astra (Latin for "stars") may refer to: People * Astra (name) Places * Astra, Chubut, a village in Argentina * Astra (Isauria), a town of ancient Isauria, now in Turkey * Astra, one suggested name for a hypothetical fifth planet that became t ...

and Hispasat satellites. The

Movistar Plus+ Movistar Plus+ (formerly Movistar+) is the trade name of the subscription platform for digital television owned by , which operates in Spain. The service is distributed via optical fiber and ADSL as well as with satellites such as Astra. The pl ...

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+. 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 Astra 1KR is one of the Astra geostationary satellites owned and operated by SES, was purchased in June 2003. It was launched on 20 April 2006, 20:27:00 UTC as a replacement for Astra 1K, which failed to reach orbit on launch in November 2002. ...

Internet services

Available

streaming service provider A streaming media service (also simply called a streaming service) is an online platform that allows users to watch or listen to content, such as movies, TV shows, music, or podcasts, over the internet. Instead of downloading the content to the ...

s include

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

Max Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

SkyShowtime SkyShowtime is a European joint-venture between Comcast and Paramount Global which combines programming from the corporations Peacock and Paramount+ services as well as Sky Studios. SkyShowtime launched in European markets where Sky does not op ...

DAZN DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top sports Sports broadcasting, streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is o ...

, FlixOlé, Filmin,

Rakuten TV Rakuten TV is a video-on-demand (VOD) and free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platform, providing movies and TV series for subscription, rental, and purchase as well as FAST channels with a mix of local and global content. Since 2019, ...

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

. Atresmedia and Mediaset España launched their own pay services:

Atresplayer Premium Atresplayer (formerly Atresplayer Premium) is a Spanish paid video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service of Atresmedia. It is marketed outside Spain as Atresplayer Internacional. History and description The paid suscription was launched in ...

and Mitele Plus, respectively, which are upgraded versions of their freely available services

Atresplayer Atresplayer (formerly Atresplayer Premium) is a Spanish paid video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service of Atresmedia. It is marketed outside Spain as Atresplayer Internacional. History and description The paid suscription was launched i ...

and offering exclusive content on-demand. Free streaming services also include

RTVE Play RTVE Play (often stylized as rtve play) is the over-the-top media service provided by the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. It was launched in Spain on 22 June 2021, replacing the old catalogue 'RTVE a la carta', created in turn in 2008. History ...

and

Pluto TV Pluto TV is an American free ad-supported streaming television service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global. Founded by Tom Ryan (business executive), Tom Ryan, Ilya Pozin and Nick Grouf in 2013 and based in ...

Programming

;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. TVE also imported fiction series from the United States. 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 ''Costumbrismo'' (in Catalan: ''costumisme''; sometimes anglicized as costumbrism, with the adjectival form costumbrist) is the literary or pictorial interpretation of local everyday life, mannerisms, and customs, primarily in the Hispanic sce ...

'' and everyday life. By the early 1990s, in the context of the entry of the private channels, domestically-produced comedy fiction series seized on the

prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

slot, until then a dominion of

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

s, foreign series and domestic dramas. A tendency to lengthen the duration of the episodes of comedy series manifested in this transitional period. After its kickstart in 2018, Turkish soap operas had become popular in Spain by 2021. Also in the 2020s, low-budget "uplifting" German films had become a staple of the '' sobremesa'' timeslot on weekends (on TVE and Antena 3). Driven by appeals to nostalgia, 2021 saw a number of projects remaking or reviving former Spanish fiction series.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * *

External links

List of TV channels available in Spain per platform
{{DEFAULTSORT:Television In Spain

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...