Newspapers are generally accessible all over the country. The online editions have some of their content accessible for free. There are 403 newspapers in the country, compared to 732 in 2010, but most of them are very small (Pordata, 2019). In terms of consumption of publications (newspapers and magazines), circulation figures decreased from 62.1 printed copies per inhabitant in 2010 to 22.6 printed copies per inhabitant in 2018. There were 231 daily and weekly newspapers in 2010, now there are no more than 142. As for daily general newspapers, only five have national distribution. Three dailies are devoted to sports, and one daily concentrates on economy and finance. There are also 13 regional or local dailies, but they produce only around 2,000–3,000 copies and have relatively low public impact. One relevant weekly newspaper and two weekly news magazines are also worth recording. All these publications have an increasingly important online presence.
According to a recent study by Marktest about cross-media use in 2019 (Marktest, 2020c), eight out of ten Portuguese inhabitants (older than 15) have used one or more news media, either in print or digital form. Maximum coverage in paper editions is 60 per cent, while it is 56 per cent in digital editions, but most readers use both platforms. Still, according to the same study, there is a clear trend with more readership increasing for digital editions than paper editions.
As in 2010, the main open access, free-to-air television channels (two public – RTP1, RTP2 – and two private – SIC, TVI) can be watched all over the country, either by Terrestrial Digital Television or through cable packages. Three more thematic public channels, RTP3 (news), ARTV (Parliament) and RTP Memória, are also available to everybody. The commercial channels are free while the public ones are subject to a monthly tax of EUR 2.85 per household (EUR 1.00 for families with very low income) which is compulsorily collected with the energy invoice.
In terms of cable television, in 2009, 78 per cent of households were served by cable, and 66 per cent of them (ca. 2.5 million people) subscribed to cable television and therefore to several dozens of channels, most of them broadcasting from abroad. In 2019, those figures went up, and presently 88 per cent of Portuguese households are served by cable or similar. The total number of residents that actually pay for a subscription of cable television is 4.1 million (ANACOM, 2020a). There are four major pay-TV operators, with the following market shares: NOS/ZON (40.1%), MEO (39.6%), Vodafone (16.3%) and NOWO/MásMóvil (3.9%). The three main television operators in Portugal also have a 24/7 channel specifically devoted to news and information: RTP3, SIC Notícias, TVI 24. There is another 24/7 channel, Correio da Manhã TV (CMTV), distributed through cable, and almost entirely dedicated to news and information.
National radio stations are typically accessible all over the country, either because they cover the entire territory or because they are broadcast in channels of regional or local stations. Their current investment in online distribution is strong as well. In 2018, there were 329 radio stations, of which six had a national reach, five regional, and the others were all local (ERC, 2018).
Considering the Internet, More than 66.9 per cent of the population (aged between 16 and 74) use a computer regularly, and 76.2 per cent use the Internet (see Tables 2 and 3). These figures vary significantly according to age: in the younger group (16–24 years), the percentage of regular users of a computer increases to 94 per cent. The broadband penetration rate rose from 50.3 per cent of households in 2010 to 78.0 per cent in 2019 (ANACOM, 2020a).
[supsystic-tables id=69]
[supsystic-tables id=70]
