The Portuguese media market

The Portuguese media market may be characterised as a small market, thus facing particular perils and risks to the pursuit of the public interest, which presents additional challenges to media regulation. Small media markets typically suffer from shortage of resources, working with small audiences and small advertising markets, which makes them lesser capable of responding to adverse contexts (Puppis, 2009). In fact, the financial, economic and social crisis affecting media markets has been particularly difficult for Portuguese media groups, that have been facing diminishing revenues and losses (Silva, 2019).

Portugal is served by public service media – which have, however, lost their leading position when commercial televisions started operating in the early 1990s – and has a radio group owned by the Catholic Church, whose programs (two music-based and another with a broader informative appeal) are at the top of audiences.  But the media system in Portugal is still dominated by audio-visual media, mainly television, and characterised by low levels of newspaper readership. This means that, when considering the most influential media in shaping public opinion at the national level, free-to-air commercial TVs – SIC and TVI – occupy a prominent place. Public television plays an important role in the public sphere, but has lower levels of audience. Each of the free-to-air commercial operators also have a cable channel only devoted to news and information, with a “24/7 service”, and the same happens with the public service (PBS). These three channels – SIC Notícias, franchised CNN and RTP 3 – have comparatively low audience rates, but have some influence particularly regarding the political debate.

The television market in Portugal is so relevant that the two most important media groups are linked each to one of the commercial channels. SIC is owned by Impresa, which also has the most ancient and influential weekly newspaper in Portugal (Expresso), and TVI is owned by Media Capital. In cable TV, the commercial channel CMTV, a sensationalist news medium, also has a significant relevance, leading audience shares particularly in the most popular segments. This channel is the propriety of a third media group, Cofina, which also owns the popular daily newspaper (Correio da Manhã) and specialised daily newspapers (the financial Jornal de Negócios and the sports Record). Besides these three media groups, there is a fourth private player of relevance: Global Notícias, which owns a popular title (Jornal de Notícias, along with another news title Diário de Notícias), and an information-based radio station (TSF), with some importance among the opinion-makers and in the political arena.

We have included in our analysis two more newspapers, one legacy and another native digital, which are influential, mostly in political circles. The first one is the quality newspaper Público, owned by an industrial group that does not have any other media outlets but owns an important operator of cable television and internet distribution. Observador, and its associate radio service, is a native digital title, owned by a small company with no other relevant interests in the media sector.

Media ownership in Portugal

Apart from the State and the Church, whose relevance has been declining over the last decades, the most influential media belong to private companies. The oldest media group (Impresa) is the only one which is a purely media group, owned by what we could call a media tycoon (Pinto Balsemão), who was prime-minister of Portugal in the 1980s.

There are also two longstanding players from the industrial sector (since the late 1980s and the 1990s), but the two have different approaches to the media sector: Sonae (a major conglomerate in Portugal operating in the food and retail distribution business) only owns a newspaper (the daily Público), and Cofina (belonging to a group with interests in timber and paper industry) is a holding operating in the newspapers and cable TV sectors.

It is worth to mention the newcomers in the media business: in 2020, two of the major Portuguese media groups, Media Capital and Global Notícias, changed hands. In both cases, companies and businessmen unfamiliar with journalism and media markets took control over very relevant outlets. In association with a number of national business groups and showbiz personalities, a known businessman from the tourism industry bought Media Capital (which owns one of the free-to-air TV channels). A major position in Global Notícias was acquired by a business group (with interests in several industries and in vending machines), conjointly with a shareholder completely unknown to the general public (José Pedro Soeiro, still a very discrete figure) and with two businessmen from Macao (China).

These changes in 2020 have had a significant consequence in ownership: the majority of media companies or of the shareholders of media companies are now Portuguese (1). The last relevant foreign capital fled the country when the Spanish Prisa sold Media Capital. We now have a different situation than in the first decades of the new millennium, when concerns were raised in Portugal over the flow of foreign capital that had been invested in media companies, mainly from non-democratic countries. Media groups were targeted by Angolan and Chinese investors and the possible outcomes of these operations were considered critical (Figueiras & Ribeiro, 2013; Silva, 2014).

While some of these funds have recently been withdrawn (at least, apparently) from the Portuguese media groups (namely those originated in Angola), this has happened because of personal interests of the shareholders, and not because of any specific action taken by the State. And there is still a significant share of Macao (China) capital in Global Notícias group. This highlights the vulnerability of Portuguese media groups to foreign capital that can have hidden interests. Recently (after the period set up for this analysis), there have been some public accusations that the Grupo BEL (involved in the ownership chain of the Global Notícias Media Group) had connections to Russian funds, through the father-in-law of one of the beneficial owners. Although the information was denied by the beneficial owner targeted by the information (Marco Galinhas), an introduction in the chain of ownership was made shortly after that (still not considered in our database), removing the company Leirivending, one of the shareholders of Bel Distribuição, but whose beneficial owner had not been revealed in the Transparency Portal, run by the media regulatory agency.

The Portuguese media ownership is also characterised by a complex tangle of companies and financial holdings, making it sometimes difficult to follow the information that, even though disclosed, may be behind intricate networks and several layers of information. On the other hand, and because media companies are owned, in some cases, by holdings looking for better tax environments, some owners are based in countries such as the Netherlands, although the original capital is Portuguese. For the Impresa case, a significant part of the shareholders is not known as the shares are dispersed in the stock market.

In contrary to what the inclusion of Portugal in the Mediterranean or Polarised Pluralist Model of Hallin and Mancini (2004) could lead us to expect, direct political involvement or political support from media outlets is not common in Portugal. The Mediterranean model assumed that there would be high political parallelism in the media system. Nevertheless, as the revisitation of this model demonstrates (Bruggemann, 2014), as far as the Portuguese press and other media are concerned, some independence from political parties is the regular practice.

(1) In 2022, Media Capital group sold its radio operation to the German Bauer media group; in terms of journalism media, though, this operation is not very relevant as these radio brands are music-based.