Rádio e Televisão de Portugal

Radio

The Emissora Nacional de Radiodifusão (ENR) was established on 4 August 1935 as the public national radio broadcaster, inheriting the previous broadcasting operations of the national postal service, Correios, Telégrafos e Telefones (CTT). Five years later, ENR became independent of the CTT.

ENR was one of the 23 founding broadcasting organizations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. Following the Carnation Revolution, ENR was reorganized and in 1976 changed its name to Radiodifusão Portuguesa (RDP). During this process, several previously private radio stations – such as Rádio Clube Português (RCP) – were nationalized and integrated into RDP.

In 1979, the RCP network was rebranded as Rádio Comercial, and was later privatized in 1993. At the same time, RDP launched the youth-oriented radio station Antena 3 and abolished advertising from all of its stations, so that the aforementioned broadcasting contribution tax became its sole source of funding.

Television

Radiotelevisão Portuguesa's television service was established on 15 December 1955. Experimental broadcasts began in September 1956 from the Feira Popular (an entertainment park) studios in Lisbon. Twenty monitors were installed in the park, but crowds gathered in shops around the city. The broadcast was received within a range of about 20 km. Around 1,000 TV sets are sold within a month.

Regular broadcasting, however, did not start until 7 March 1957, by which time coverage had reached approximately 65% of the Portuguese population. By the end of 1958 the total number of sets in Portugal was around 32,000. RTP was accepted as a full active member of the EBU in 1959. By the mid-1960s, RTP had become available throughout the country. Robert Farnon's "Derby Day" was extensively used as RTP's fanfare to open the programming since the very first day, and over the decades it has become RTP's official anthem.

25 December 1968 saw the opening of a second television channel, RTP2. Two new regional channels were created in 1972 and 1975, for the Portuguese archipelagos of Madeira (opening on 6 August 1972) and the Azores (10 August 1975).

Before the Carnation Revolution, RTP was essentially a mouthpiece of the regime, and famously opened the newscast of 20 July 1969 - the day of the first moon landing − with a segment showing president Américo Thomaz opening a concrete factory. However, like many other broadcasters, it did broadcast live the landing of the man on the moon during the night.

The first colour broadcast was made in 1975, with the live coverage of the first parliamentary elections after the carnation revolution. But, due to the political turmoil and the economic situation of the country, the colour regular broadcast was delayed several times for nearly 5 years. During that time RTP started to purchase some colour equipment and make the occasional colour recording. But the pressure kept going as the black and white equipment was getting old and very hard to repair, so in 1978 and 1979 a massive investment supported by a foreign loan, gave RTP the opportunity to replace all the B/W to increase the current amount of equipment and to be updated with the most advanced broadcast technologies available at the time. Despite this, only in February 1980, the government finally authorised the regular colour broadcast and 2 weeks after, on the 7th of March RTP started the regular colour broadcast, with more than 70% of the programmes being already in colour. Also, RTP moved its headquarters to a brand new building. The building was originally built to be converted to a hotel, but the owner decided to leave it untouched and reached an agreement with RTP for the purchase and converted the interior for office use. RTP moved to more adequate headquarters and sold the building in 2003 and the new owner converted into what is today the VIP Grand Lisboa.

Until 1991, RTP owned its transmitter network, which was transferred to a state-owned enterprise which, through a series of mergers, became part of Portugal Telecom. RTP held the television monopoly until 1992, the year when the private SIC started broadcasting. Over the years, RTP's audience share has constantly reduced in favour of the private channels. 2007 was an exception to this tendency, and RTP1 became the second channel most watched in Portugal, only behind TVI.

In 2004, RTP and RDP merged and became part of a larger state-owned holding, named Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, and inaugurated the new headquarters near Parque das Nações, in Lisbon. In the same year, the second channel was rebranded as '2:', promoting itself as the civil society service. Later in March 2007, 2: became 'RTP2' again.

Due to the current financial crisis Portugal is facing, RTP was to be heavily restructured as part of the Portuguese government's austerity plan and would have included the sale of one of the free to air channel licenses. Pressure from the public and other organisations stopped the planned sales though the restructuring plans are expected to be in presented soon and include a redundancy plan, and financing for new equipment.

RTP has 16 regional offices spread all over the country, as well as international bureaus in Washington D.C., Brussels, Moscow, Brazil and several other locations.

RTP aired the 2008 Olympic Games in HD through the ZON TV Cabo satellite and cable platform. On 30 September 2009, RTP 1 HD returned in an experimental broadcast.

Post-merger

The use of original full names of radio and television departments (Radiodifusão Portuguesa and Radiotelevisão Portuguesa, respectively) was phased out, but the abbreviation RDP is still used by international services RDP Internacional and RDP África, as well as radio services in the Autonomous Regions of Azores and Madeira, while another abbreviation RTP now represents the merged company.

Former channels

^a Terrestrial channel available nationwide.
^b Available on the Portuguese cable, satellite and IPTV platforms.
^c Available worldwide on satellite and cable platforms.
^d Available in several African countries on satellite and cable platforms as well as traditional terrestrial television.

Radio stations

^a Available nationwide on FM and online.
^b Also available on AM.
^c Available on satellite all over the world.
^d Available only on the internet.
^e Also available throughout Portugal via cable and satellite.

The following stations are Antena 1 regional stations:

News services

Most RTP1 news programmes are simulcasted with RTP Internacional, RTP África, RTP Açores, RTP Madeira and, sometimes, RTP 3 television channel. These news programs include:

RTP2’s only news service is Jornal 2 (‘Journal 2’ or ‘News 2’ in English) (9 pm), a shorter and a more objective newscast than the RTP1 ones.

RTP3 features hourly news updates and headlines.

Chairmen of the board

Managing Editor of RTP

Programming directors of RTP1

Programming directors of RTP2