Portugal is a country where the choice of what to watch on television is not great. Where France has 25 free channels with TNT, Portuguese viewers have only five operators to choose from: RTP1, RTP2 , SIC, TVI and ARTV.
António Costa’s government and the Left Bloc party want to make it possible for the Portuguese to zap more than five times. In addition to RTP (the country’s public service broadcaster), they want two thematic channels “as soon as possible”, according to the web-site telesatellite.com. The two new channels will probably be called RTP3 (for 24-hour news) and RTP Memoria (showing old films and series).
This does not help SIC and TVI, the two existing terrestrial channels. They complain that this additional content is “unfair competition”. RTP’s chairman however claims the move “will encourage national content”, and offer the Portuguese more choice of free TV.
