[6] Balsemão announced that it would take a period of six to nine months to build the channel, with an initial investment of one million contos.

[8] The company was first registered in 1987, with Granada Television initially holding a 20% interest, with the rest being owned by Impala, Expresso and Projornal.

25 to 30 percent of the initial schedule would be given to news, while the entertainment programming was given to independent production companies, under the status of "associated producers".

[17] In 1992, SIC was owned by a consortium led by Francisco Pinto Balsemão, backed by Controljornal, TSF, Rádio Comercial, Lusomundo, Expresso, Impala Editores and Globo.

The government granted licenses to SIC and TVI on February 6, 1992, giving a period of one year before starting broadcasts.

José Eduardo Moniz, who was initially scheduled to be the head of the network's news division, announced that he would continue working on RTP; his post on SIC was filled by Emídio Rangel.

During a five day period, the channel broadcast an international soccer match, a rock concert, two made-for-TV movies and a debate about Maastricht at Associação Comercial de Lisboa.

[30] The channel opened at 16:30 with a news bulletin, followed by the first MTV program, the American series Guys Next Door, the game show Responder à Letra (adapted from Catchphrase), the telenovela Plumas e Paetês, Praça Pública at 19:30, Jornal da Noite at 20:00 followed by the Globo miniseries Tereza Batista; in Noite de Estreia the channel presented its first film, War of the Roses; the schedule ended with The Benny Hill Show and the late news.

[36] First impressions for the channel's first month turned out to be "satisfying" for Balsemão due to its "high level" programming and ratings that were higher than counterparts in other European countries.

[39] By December it had billings in excess of 1.2 million contos in the first two months on air alone; the signal had already reached 71% of Portuguese households, up from 54% on launch day.

[44] In May the channel premiered the hidden camera show Minas e Armadilhas, Labirinto, adapted from the Dutch format Labyrinth and the return of Roque Santeiro to Portuguese television.

[46] In June, it had swapped the airtimes of Globo's Renascer and Jornal da Noite due to the Brazilian series' unsatisfactory results.

[47] SIC celebrated its first anniversary with new programs, Chuva de Estrelas (adaptation of Soundmixshow) with Catarina Furtado, E o Resto é Conversa, the first daytime talk show on a private channel, with Teresa Guilherme, Conversas Curtas with Carneiro Jacinto, comedy series Ora Bolas Marina with actress Marina Mota, new episodes of The Raven and the premieres of Melrose Place, Highlander: The Series and Love & War.

By then, more programs reached the weekly top tens, including the primetime Globo telenovela, Ora Bolas Marina and Perdoa-me.

[55] June 1994 saw a breakthrough deal with TV Globo to gain exclusive rights to its telenovelas for a period of five years.

[57] The strand consisted of five programs, Tostões and Milhões (which had existed before, economics); A Noite da Má Língua, Internacional SIC (international in-depth reports); Flashback (TV version of the TSF format of the same name, a political view of the past week), and O Senhor que se Segue.

[59] By this time, there were serious chances for the channel to overtake Canal 1, but was weak in rights to football and production of game shows.

On New Year's Day, several programs brought SIC to a leading position, with the record-breaker being Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as well as Bravo Bravissimo and A Viagem.

[64] An agreement in February brought the exclusive rights to the documentary series People's Century, co-produced by the BBC and WGBH.

[65] New programs by spring such as Globo's Irmãos Coragem and the local formats Assuntos de Família and Máquina da Verdade bought in high viewing figures.

[73] In March, SIC shot scenes in the Super Buéréré studio for the upcoming anniversary of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

SIC became widely known across Europe for achieving high viewing figures just two to three years after launching, as well as being the subject of an Arte documentary known as Cette Télévision est la Vôtre (This Television is Yours), directed by Mariana Otero.

In September that year, Manuel Fonseca left the post of director of programming after the failures of Esquadrão G and Senhora Dona Lady.

Francisco Pinto Balsemão left SIC's supervision post in January 2017; from March 6, there were two directors of programming, Gabriela Sobral and Luís Proença.

[89] SIC renewed the rights to air the UEFA Europa League for the fourth consecutive cycle (2018-2014) for the annual price of €1,6 million.

[90] On June 21, 2020, SIC announced the premiere of Domingão, the first pimba program since the cancellation of Portugal em Festa four years earlier.

[91] Created to support pimba artists in the wake of the pandemic, the program replaced the regular Sunday afternoon movie slot.

[92] SIC has not returned to regular Sunday afternoon movies since and has been criticized in 2021 by Vicente Alves do Ó for being an "unending hell", refusing to support artists of other genres.

The ring that forms a trail between the letters S and C represents a crowd united in the visual aesthetic, with strong emotional dimensions, as created by the Rome Colosseum.

At start-up and closedown the startion aired a two-minute video, featuring some of Donner's works for Globo between 1980 and 1992, accompanied by the channel's anthem.