RTP Desporto is the sports division of the Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is controlled by News division of RTP. Its flagship programming is the National Football Team matches. The official website of RTP Desporto i
rtp.pt/desporto
and one of the most visited of the News division of the RTP website. Radio coverage of RTP is mostly on RDP Antena 1. RTP also offers

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

coverage.

Streaming channels

In 2019, RTP launched a number of pop-up channels dedicated to sports on its streaming service, RTP Play. The RTP Desporto channels opened with the coverage of the

UEFA Women's Futsal Euro 2019 The 2019 UEFA Women's Futsal Championship, also referred to as UEFA Women's Futsal Euro 2019, was the first edition of the UEFA Women's Futsal Championship, the biennial international futsal championship organised by UEFA for the women's national t ...

final four round in Gondomar.

TV Rights

Football

Motor racing

For several years, RTP was the home of motor racing broadcasts in Portugal but now the only motorsports competition on RTP is the

Rally de Portugal The Rally de Portugal (formerly: Rallye de Portugal) is a rally competition held in Portugal. First held in 1967, the seventh running of the race, the 7º TAP Rallye de Portugal was the third event in the inaugural FIA World Rally Cham ...

Olympics

RTP holds exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics on free-to-air terrestrial television. RTP broadcasts a major coverage during the Summer Olympics, while during the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

only highlights are shown.

Athletics

For several years, RTP has followed the tracks of Portuguese athletes in athletics. The major international athletics competitions are all broadcast on RTP, with supplementary coverage by

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territories, ...

. The events are: IAAF World Championships in Athletics,

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

and World Championship on Indoor surfaces. RTP also broadcasts some local events such as the Meia-Maratona de Lisboa and Meia-Maratona do Porto. RTP has also access to highlights of the Portuguese Championship.

Cycling

Basketball

RTP is currently broadcast the LPB,

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

, Super Taça, selected national team qualifiers, Portugal clubs at the women's Euro Cup, and many more through national 2 and both regional ( Madeira and

Açores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

) channels.

Futsal

RTP broadcasts one game per week of the Portuguese Futsal League and its playoffs in its entirety. European Championships are also broadcast, such as the UEFA Futsal Cup.

Previous coverage

Football

RTP broadcast during almost 50 years the

Portuguese Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

, broadcasting several games a week. However, in 2004, when SportTV took total control of Liga's rights, they sold a two-year, 32-game package to TVI, a decision that was not appreciated be football fans, as many consider that the TVI sports division does not have the quality to cover a big league. RTP recovered Liga's rights in 2008, for an undisclosed fee (the only that was known, is that RTP gave a fee plus some sports rights that they were not going to be used, since they didn't have programming slots available for them at that time). RTP's bid and victory was cheered by football fans, as they consider the RTP's coverage in the 2000s, superior to the TVI one. However this bid was criticized by politicians who thought and saw this as a waste of money by a public service corporation. RTP again lost the rights for Liga's coverage, when TVI outbid their controversial 20 million euros bid. During a brief period of two years, RTP also had no access to the national football team events (events that they used to broadcast since 1957), since TVI won the right for the 2008–2010 period, which included the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign. In 2010, RTP recovered the rights to broadcast the national team events. It also broadcast the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

(when it was called UEFA Cup); however,

SIC The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...

outbid them in 2009. Most of the RTP's staples was also the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

and UEFA European Championship finals. However, due to excessive budget cuts, RTP decided not to submit an offer to UEFA's ITT, a decision that TVI all alone for the FTA rights ITT of the competition. TVI would eventually get the rights, although pages would spread across social networks asking for RTP to get the rights back at the next ITT, due to the poor quality of TVI's coverage compared to the RTP 1.

Motorsport

In Motorsport, RTP lost almost all of important competition rights, such as Formula 1, MotoGP, WRC (lost to SportTV) and the Dakar Rally (lost to TVI).

Rugby union

On rare occasions RTP broadcast Portuguese Rugby Union Championship matches. However they had totally disappeared from RTP schedules since 2004. There was also a controversy in 2007, when CDS-PP, a center-right party, wanted RTP to broadcast the 2007 Rugby World Cup, since had qualified for it. However RTP administrators said the network would not broadcast the event, since they do not have the rights, and since the rights holders (SportTV) did not want to sell them.

Tennis

RTP does not give much airtime to tennis. They broadcast a few highlights on Portuguese minor competitions and they used fully broadcast the Estoril Open.

Radio sports rights

RTP has exclusive radio rights for the

and

Portugal national football team The Portugal national football team ( pt, Seleção Portuguesa de Futebol) has represented Portugal in international men's football competition since 1921. The national team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), the gover ...

matches. RTP also broadcast exclusively the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

and

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

on radio.

References

{{Rádio e Televisão de Portugal Sports divisions of TV channels Rádio e Televisão de Portugal

Streaming channels

TV Rights

Football

Motor racing

Olympics

Athletics

Cycling

Basketball

Futsal

Previous coverage

Football

Motorsport

Rugby union

Tennis

Radio sports rights

See also

References