Television in Spain

Television in Spain was launched in October 1956, when the state broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) started regular broadcasts. The first private channels started in 1990. Colour transmissions started in 1974 after two years of test transmissions, with all programming transmitted in color from 1977, and colour commercials, which started in 1978. 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 firms. The Audiovisual Law of 2010 changed this by defining radio and television as commercial services that individuals pay for, fostering liberalization within some constraints.

Analogue terrestrial television in Spain began on 28 October 1956. Televisión Española (now La 1) was the very first regular television channel, and operated alone until 1966, when a second channel (now La 2) was launched. La 1 and La 2 were the only authorized television channels in Spain until 1982, when Euskal Telebista was launched in the Basque Country and, in the following year, TV3 in Catalonia, thus ending TVE's monopoly. More channels were launched in the 1980s, each broadcasting to their respective autonomous communities: Canal 9, Canal Sur, Telemadrid, and Televisión de Galicia (TVG), prior to the full liberalization of television with the law of 1989 which permitted the establishment of private commercial channels.

Antena 3, Telecinco and Canal+ were launched in 1990, in January, March and September respectively, finishing the public television monopoly in Spain. Through the 1990s and 2000s (decade), more autonomic channels (most of them public, but some of them private) were launched, and all of them created FORTA, a union of public autonomic channels. 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.

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