Television in Spain

The Audiovisual Law of 2010 changed this by defining radio and television as commercial services that individuals pay for, fostering liberalization within some constraints.

TVE also launched two regional channels that operated autonomously by its territorial production centers as they had no television link with peninsular Spain: TVE Canarias was launched on 12 February 1964 in the Canary Islands, and operated autonomously until 25 April 1971 when connected to the main channel; and TVE Guinea was launched on 20 July 1968 in the autonomous region of Equatorial Guinea, and closed shortly after the country declared independence on 12 October 1968.

[1] Sogecable's pay analog satellite multichannel television provider Canal Satélite was launched on 1 January 1994.

Televisió de Catalunya and Aragón Televisión are using spare bandwidth in their own digital multiplex to broadcast test HD streams.

Together with the TDT transition and the process of absorption of channels in the late-2000s to early-2010s amid the Spanish financial crisis, the removal of commercials from RTVE by means of its 2009 Funding Law facilitated the creation of the duopoly formed by Mediaset España and Atresmedia,[6] that secures a 57% share of the audience and a 90% of advertising procurement.

[8] 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, traces its origins to the granting of another private license in 2005.

In 2011, the media conglomerate was renamed to Mediaset España Comunicación S.A.[14] PRISA eventually sold its remaining shares in 2015.

Telecinco airs general programs such as news, movies, reality shows, sport events and quizzes.

As secondary channel in the Mediaset network, Cuatro airs general programs such as news, movies, documentaries, reality shows, sport events and quizzes.

Many of the Spanish regions (comunidades autónomas) have their own public network service: Telemadrid in the Madrid region, Canal Extremadura Televisión in Extremadura, 7RM in the Region of Murcia, Canal Sur in Andalusia, CMM TV in Castilla–La Mancha, 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.

Telecable, a cable ISP operating in Asturias 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).

Available streaming service providers include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Max, SkyShowtime, Movistar Plus+, DAZN, FlixOlé, Filmin, Rakuten TV or Disney+.

[21] 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.