Television in Catalonia
[7] Due to the strict repression and ban on Spanish languages other than Castilian under Franco's regime, no television programmes were initially broadcast in Catalan or Occitan.
On 23 April 1983, coinciding with St Jordi's Day, the Catalan government launched an experimental broadcast, which would become the first from Televisió de Catalunya (TVC), exclusively in the Eixample district of Barcelona.
[22] On 24 July 1992, TVC and TVE signed an agreement to launch Canal Olímpic [ca], a channel entirely dedicated to the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, replacing the frequency of El 33.
[23] On 3 November 1994, betevé, Barcelona's local television station, began broadcasting regular programmes, which can now be seen throughout the whole throughout Barcelonès county.
[25] Commercial broadcaster Antena 3 obtained airing rights for The Simpsons in December 1994, exceptionally including the Catalan audio channel for Catalonia, but only up to the fourth season, the last that TVE had dubbed, being exclusively in Castilian from that point onwards.
The regional channel Lleida Televisió [ca], which has coverage in Ponent, Alt Pirineu and Aran, began broadcasting on 10 May 2001.
[33] On 4 October of that same year, local broadcasting network Localia TV entered Catalonia with Catalan programming.
[35] On 21 November 2005, TVC launched the Canal 300 series and films channel, available exclusively via digital terrestrial television.
[50][51] On 30 April 2013, the Valencian and Catalan governments made an agreement to broadcast both TVV and TVC channels in both territories,[52] although this was never realised due to the complete shutdown of Radiotelevisió Valenciana on 29 November 2013.
[59] BOM Cine [ca; es], a commercial films channel available in select Spanish communities, began broadcasting in Catalonia on 16 March 2020 through an agreement with 8tv owner Group Godó.
On 20 April 2020, commercial channel Teve.cat [ca] began broadcasting, watchable from the regions of Barcelona and Tarragona, as well as part of Girona and Central Catalonia.
[62][63] Due to extremely low audience figures on commercial channel 8tv, broadcaster Group Godó announced the sale of Emissions Digitals de Catalunya [ca] on 5 March 2021, which, in addition to 8tv, included the frequencies of Barça TV, Fibracat TV and BOM Cine, to OC 2022 [ca], for ten million euros.
[65] On 23 November 2021, BOM Cine was replaced by Verdi Classics, a commercial channel broadcasting films, mainly in Catalan.
[75][76] On 10 October 2023, Super3 was replaced by SX3, a rebrand of TVC's youth programming channel, displaying an S3 logo for children audiences and an X3 one for young viewers and more mature programmes.
[79] After having obtained several overtime concessions from the Catalan government, the company behind 8tv filed for bankruptcy and the channel was due to cease broadcasting at midnight on 15 October 2023.
On 8 January 2024, three months after the closure of 8tv, the station began operating again through the Internet, still self-proclaimed as "the commercial television of Catalonia", but now broadcasting entirely in Castilian.
[87][88][89] Additionally, the Balearic channel IB3 Global, which was broadcast in Catalonia with a poor SD quality due to the limited space left in the multiplex, also switched to HD and a better-looking bitrate on that day.
[92][93] The council conducts studies and monitors compliance with television and radio regulations (usage of Catalan, advertising, sexist content, impacts on children, violence/discrimination, etc.)
[95] Since 24 April 1989, TV3's Telenotícies comarques programme offered a brief regional news segment via disconnections from the main feed for the four demarcations (Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona) every working day, including a special Aranese-language broadcast for Aran on Fridays.
Occitan (Aranese)[b] Occitan (Aranese)[a] Catalan (local disconnection programmes)[a] Alt Urgell Baixa Cerdanya Pallars Jussà Pallars Sobirà Berguedà Solsonès Moianès Osona Pla de l'Estany Ripollès Noguera Pla d'Urgell Segarra Segrià
Anoia (south) Baix Penedès Garraf Priorat Conca de Barberà Tarragonès Montsià Terra Alta Ribera d'Ebre
