Sport TV

What is Sport TV?

Sport TV is a set of subscription sports television channels in Portugal, with a website at sporttv.pt whose footer reads “© 2026 SPORT TV. Todos os direitos reservados.”^[2] Its own history describes it as “o primeiro canal de televisão português inteiramente dedicado à transmissão de conteúdos desportivos por excelência”, the first Portuguese channel devoted entirely to sports content; that is the company's own description.^[1]

The same page lists the channels it has launched over time, from SPORT TV 2 in 2006 to SPORT TV 7 in 2024, of which it states: “Em 2024, surge a SPORT TV 7, que promete transmitir competições desportivas, com um espaço mais reduzido ao futebol.”^[1] Its World Cup page of 2026 names SPORT.TV1 and SPORT.TV5.^[2]

What does Sport TV cover?

Domestic football. ECO reported on 8 August 2025, at the start of the 2025–26 season, that “a esmagadora maioria dos jogos da liga portuguesa (Liga Portugal Betclic) serão transmitidos na Sport TV”. It added: “A Sport TV transmite ainda as restantes competições portuguesas, como a segunda liga portuguesa (Liga Portugal Meu Super), a Taça da Liga (Allianz Cup) e a Taça de Portugal (com transmissões em simultâneo na RTP).” It noted that “Os jogos em casa do Benfica, no entanto, continuam a ser transmitidos na Benfica TV.”^[3]

European club football. The same report states that the rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League are divided until 2027 between Sport TV and DAZN, that Sport TV keeps control of the Portuguese teams' matches, and that DAZN holds most other European matches.^[3]

The 2026 FIFA World Cup. Sport TV's tournament page states: “A SPORT TV é o único canal em Portugal que irá transmitir os 104 jogos do Mundial FIFA 2026, 70 destes em exclusivo.” It states that SPORT.TV5 would carry “92 jogos em direto, num total próximo de 1.000 horas de emissão”, with the other 12 matches on SPORT.TV1, from 11 June to the final on 19 July.^[2] The Diário de Notícias reported that besides the three free-to-air channels the tournament would be shown on Sport TV, which it spells SporTV, “que emite todas as partidas”.^[4] The tournament has finished; the page's future tense is the company's, written before it began.

How large is Sport TV's audience?

Television audiences in Portugal are measured for CAEM with GfK data, but no Sport TV channel share from that measurement was retrieved, and Sport TV's own site publishes none.

The company's own history gives two subscriber milestones, both historical. It states that two years after launch “é lançado o website sporttv.pt e atinge o marco dos 200 mil subscritores”, and that in 2006 it had “meio milhão de assinantes”, half a million subscribers, when it launched SPORT TV 2.^[1] No current subscriber figure was retrieved.

ECO reported on 17 March 2025, from the annual report of the shareholder NOS, that Sport TV's revenues grew 11 per cent in 2024 to more than 213 million euros, and that the company returned to profit that year, with a positive result of 5.363 million euros after a loss of 1.2 million euros in 2023.^[5] Revenue is a measure of scale, not of audience.

Since when has Sport TV existed?

Sport TV dates itself to 1998: “Em 1998, nascia a SPORT TV”. That is the company's own account.^[1]

Its shareholders have changed since. ECO, publishing a Lusa report on 24 February 2017, stated that Meo, Nos, Olivedesportos and Vodafone would each hold 25 per cent of the capital; that is a 2017 position.^[6]

The latest dated ownership statement retrieved is ECO's of 17 March 2025, which refers to “o relatório anual da Nos, que detém uma participação de 25% na Sport TV”, NOS's annual report, NOS holding a 25 per cent stake.^[5] The other holders in 2025 or 2026 were not established from a source retrieved.

Why does Sport TV matter in Portugal's sport?

On ECO's account of the 2025–26 season, Sport TV carries the great majority of matches in the top division and the other professional and cup competitions, and by its own account it carried all 104 matches of the 2026 World Cup, 70 of them exclusively.^[3][2]

Its rights sit under the Lei da Televisão, Lei n.º 27/2007, de 30 de julho. In the consolidated version on the Procuradoria-Geral Distrital de Lisboa's database, which lists amendments up to Lei n.º 74/2020, de 19 de novembro, Article 32(2), headed “Aquisição de direitos exclusivos”, states: “Em caso de aquisição, por operadores de televisão que emitam em regime de acesso condicionado ou sem cobertura nacional, de direitos exclusivos para a transmissão, integral ou parcial, directa ou em diferido, de outros acontecimentos que sejam objecto de interesse generalizado do público, os titulares dos direitos televisivos ficam obrigados a facultar, em termos não discriminatórios e de acordo com as condições normais do mercado, o seu acesso a outro ou outros operadores interessados na transmissão que emitam por via hertziana terrestre com cobertura nacional e acesso não condicionado.”^[7] That is, a conditional-access operator holding exclusive rights to listed events of general public interest must give free-to-air national operators access on non-discriminatory, market terms. Article 32(3) provides for binding arbitration by the ERC where the parties do not agree, and Article 32(4) states that the events concerned and the conditions of their transmission “constam de lista a publicar na 2.ª série do Diário da República, até 31 de Outubro de cada ano, pelo membro do Governo responsável pelo sector, ouvida a Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social”.^[7]

The ERC states that Lei n.º 78/2015 requires media owners to disclose holders of qualifying stakes, and that its public transparency portal holds that information; the portal is a JavaScript application whose entries could not be read.^[9] The Media Pluralism Monitor's Portugal 2026 page states that a few major private media players hold large shares in several media sub-sectors, which it describes as an oligopolistic structure with major market power. That is the monitor's characterisation.^[8]