The Icelandic state public broadcaster, RÚV, began transmissions in 1966 using PAL standards over the VHF band.
Stöð 2, the first private subscription TV service, began encrypted broadcasts in 1986 via terrestrial VHF which required the use of a decoder.
Throughout the late 1990s, local cable TV services began operating in some towns such as Keflavik, Hafnafjörður, Hella and Húsavik, offering international channels and programming.
By the early 2000s, fiber and ADSL broadband became widely available, which led to the deployment of managed IPTV systems in 2004 by Síminn followed by Vodafone Iceland.
Digital terrestrial HDTV broadcasts commenced in 2014 following an agreement signed between public broadcaster RÚV and Vodafone Iceland on 27 March 2013 to install and run two new shared digital multiplexes using DVB-T2 (for HD transmissions) and DVB-T (for SD transmissions) over UHF bands, with 99.9% population coverage.
[5] RÚV announced it would cease satellite TV distribution on DVB-S in summer 2024, as fishing fleets turned to IP-based solutions.
[6] Transmissions on the older DVB-T system in standard definition ceased on 3 June 2024, however DVB-T2 broadcasts in HD remain.