RTP Internacional

RTP Internacional is Portuguese international television network owned by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal. The channel broadcasts programmings from Rádio e Televisão de Portugal for Portugueses living outside Portugal.

History[]

It first started broadcasting via satellite in Europe on 10 June 1992 (Portugal Day). It soon expanded into Africa, where it reached audiences in Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as Canada, United States, Brazil and into Asia. It is also available on the Internet, via a subscription to the service Jump TV or with Octoshape .

On 7 January 1998, RTP Internacional ceased terrestrial broadcasting to Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa, and was replaced by a new separate service, called RTP África, which was available as a terrestrial TV service in some countries, as well as being available via satellite, but RTP Internacional continues to broadcast in Angola and Mozambique. RTP Internacional is carried by satellite television services across Africa in various countries such as South Africa, Namibia or Zimbabwe.

RTP Internacional programming is also retransmitted by Teledifusão de Macau in Macao, and by Televisão Timor Leste in East Timor, together with local broadcasts. In March 2005 it began 'time-shifting' its programming, with three separate schedules for the Americas, Europe, and Asia, so that viewers in different time zones could watch programmes at more convenient times.

In 2017, the TV and radio service, RTP Internacional and RDP, respectively of RTP, as well as the Portuguese news agency Lusa, were suspended from operating in Guinea-Bissau. The measure was announced by Bissau-Guinean minister for the media, Vítor Pereira. He justified the decision with end of the contracts with RTP and Lusa. The Portuguese government considered the decision to be "unacceptable" and an "attack on freedom of expression, while Reporters Without Borders condemned that same decision. Lusa was eventually allowed to operate in the country, but RTP Internacional and RDP were not.