Television in Spain was introduced in 1956, when the national state-owned

public service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

television broadcaster

Televisión Española Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in ...

(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 subscripti ...

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 el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

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. It was the United States′ first model of radio (a ...

started nationwide in 1990.

Digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...

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 INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Instituto Nacional de Estadística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional de Estatística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional Elec ...

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. Televisión Española (now La 1) was the very first regular television channel, and operated alone until 15 November 1966, when TVE launched a second channel (now La 2). 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. They 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 Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, 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 region by an Act of Parliament in its statute of autono ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...

, on 2 May 1989 by

Telemadrid Telemadrid is a public regional 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 Telema ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

and on 9 October 1989 by

Canal Nou Nou Televisió (), or simply Nou (Valencian for "nine" or "new"), previously known as Canal Nou ("Channel Nine" or "New Channel"), was a public television station in the Valencian Community, Spain. It was run by Radiotelevisió Valenciana (RTVV), ...

in the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wi ...

. 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 the first company to introduce interactive systems and specially digital tel ...

'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 Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...

, TVE Temática,

Televisa Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...

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

Digital+ Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

, 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 ( es, Federación de Organismos de Radio y Televisión Autonómicos, FORTA) is the association of the public broadcasting networks from 12 autonomous communities of Spain. It was cr ...

, 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 programmes/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, simulta ...

on digital terrestrial television. In 2005, Canal+ stopped its analog service to move to

Digital Plus 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 ...

and was substituted by

Cuatro Cuatro is Spanish (and other Romance languages) for the number four. Cuatro may also refer to: * Cuatro (instrument), name for two distinct Latin American instruments, one from Puerto Rico (see Cuatro) and the other from Venezuela (see Cuatro) ...

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

La Sexta La Sexta (; "The Sixth"; stylized as laSexta) is a Spanish free-to-air television channel. It is privately owned and was originally founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV that began broadcasting on 1 April 2001, that same year. By 21 July 2003, the ...

, 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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, 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. 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 Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, the removal of commercials from

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...

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

Mediaset España Mediaset España (), full name Mediaset España Comunicación, S.A., is a Spanish media company, controlled by the Italian company MFE - MediaForEurope. Its divisions include the generalist free-to-air TV channels Telecinco and Cuatro, thematic ch ...

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 Mar ...

, 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 the world's leading Spanish-language book publisher. Editorial Planeta, founded in ...

. 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 (; "The Sixth"; stylized as laSexta) is a Spanish free-to-air television channel. It is privately owned and was originally founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV that began broadcasting on 1 April 2001, that same year. By 21 July 2003, the ...

, 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, Se ...

(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 ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...

's Fininvest (25%), Grupo Anaya (25%), ONCE (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 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 zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

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

in the Madrid region, Canal Extremadura Televisión in

Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, it ...

, 7RM in the

Region of Murcia The Region of Murcia (, ; es, Región de 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 ...

in Andalusia, CMM TV in

Castilla–La Mancha Castilla–La Mancha (, , ), or Castile La Mancha, is an autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo, it was created in 1982. The government headquarters are in Toledo, and ...

, TVG Televisión de Galicia, TV3 in Catalonia, À Punt in the Valencian Community, EITB 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 *

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

* Balearic Islands * Basque Country * Canary Islands *

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

* Castile and León *

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...

* Galicia *

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, an ...

* Melilla * Navarre *

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 RTVE, Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It was available via pay television satellite p ...

* Cultural·es *

Telecinco Estrellas Telecinco Estrellas was a Spanish television channel operated by Gestevisión Telecinco. It is available 24 hours a day on digital terrestrial ( TDT in Spain), satellite and cable. The channel specialises in drama and comedy programmes from arou ...

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 language, Spanish television channel broadcast in Spain, as a Spanish language, Spanish version of MTV. The channel broadcast a range of music videos and profiles of alternative artists (such as Goldfrapp, Björk, Massive ...

Telehit TeleHit is a Mexican cable/satellite television network. Its main programming is music and music videos. It is a part of Televisa Networks, an affiliate of TelevisaUnivision, and is also available in various countries in Latin America and Unit ...

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

CNN+ The Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news channel and website headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently ow ...

* GH24 * Veo7 * La 10 * Nou ( HD) * Nou 2 * Nou 24 *

TVE HD TVE HD was a Spanish high-definition test 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 plat ...

Marca TV MARCA TV was a Spanish sports television channel owned by Unidad Editorial. The channel was a joint venture between Mediapro, responsible for producing the channel's content, and Veo Televisión, licensee of the multiplex. MARCA TV had the bro ...

* MTV * Intereconomía *

AXN AXN is a pay television channel owned 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. Funded th ...

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 **Nitroalkene, ...

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 laSexta2 was a Spanish television channel, owned and operated by Gestora de Inversiones Audiovisuales La Sexta, owned of laSexta. It was founded and started to broadcast on 1 October 2010 and ceased broadcasting on 1 May 2012 and was replaced by ...

* laSexta3 *

LaSiete LaSiete ''( en, The Seven)'', 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 ...

* Nueve

Cable

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

Telecable Telecable is a cable company that operates in Asturias (northern Spain) offering triple play services (telephone, Internet and television) as well as mobile phone services as an MVNO since 2007. The company started out as Telecable de Oviedo, Tel ...

, 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 and Hispasat satellites. The

Movistar+ Movistar () is a major telecommunications provider owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and Hispanic American countries. It is the largest provider of landline, broadband, mobile services, and pay television ( Movistar+) in Spain. Movistar ...

pay platform has carried some HDTV tests on

Astra 19.2°E Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. Astra 19.2°E used to be commonly k ...

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) now is called "#0"; started on 29 January 2008, 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 20 ...

IPTV

During 2007

ran trials of

VDSL Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber li ...

services up to 52 Mbit/s - However, the results were not as good as expected. For this reason, Telefónica will use

FTTH Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber op ...

for future IPTV services. Now Telefónica use Movistar+ in IPTV and Satellite.

Internet services

Available

streaming service provider An over-the-top media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributors of s ...

s include

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

, Amazon Prime Video, HBO España, Movistar+ Lite,

DAZN DAZN ( "da zone") is a global sports entertainment platform. Different to traditional linear and satellite broadcasting, DAZN is an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service meaning that it is delivered directly to viewers via the internet. The ...

, FlixOlé, Filmin,

Rakuten TV Rakuten TV is a video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service, offering movies and TV series for subscription, rental and purchase. It is owned by the Japanese company Rakuten. Rakuten TV's catalogue includes content from studios around the world, in ...

Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

. Atresmedia and Mediaset España launched their own pay services:

Atresplayer Premium Atresplayer Premium (often stylized as ATRESplayer Premium) is a Spanish paid subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service of Atresmedia. History and description It was launched in Spain on 8 September 2019. The first origina ...

and Mitele Plus, respectively, which are upgraded versions of their freely available services 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 a free, ad-supported video streaming service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global. Co-founded by Tom Ryan, Ilya Pozin and Nick Grouf in 2013 and based in Los Angeles, California, in the United S ...

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'' (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 scene, and particularly in the 19t ...

'' 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 slot, until then a dominion of

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...

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 Television in Spain, 1956 establishments in Spain