Early tests Closed circuit tests were conducted when Angola was under Portugal's colonial rule: the first was made in 1962, from Rádio Clube do Huambo. On January 8, 1964, Rádio Clube de Benguela made the second experiment. In 1969, the Portuguese government is forced to recognize the urgence and need of the establishment of television services in its overseas possessions, in favor of the regime, at the short term. On June 22, 1970, Luanda tested television for the first time, with the attempt of televising the radio show
Café da Noite. In 1972, there was also a proposal for TVA (which started in 1974) which failed, as the government had favored a television station set up by
RTP.
Monopoly phase Radiotelevisão Portuguesa de Angola (RPA), the progenitor to the current TPA, was established by the colonial authorities on June 27, 1973; subsequently, in 1974, the term "Portuguesa" was replaced by "Popular"; it then started broadcasting on October 18, 1975, shortly before Angola became independent (on November 11). Few receivers in Luanda were able to see it at launch. In June 1976, it was nationalized by the ruling MPLA party and renamed Televisão Popular de Angola (TPA). Beginning in 1979, TPA started its expansion project, which included MPLA strongholds and key UNITA stronghold Huamno, mostly to disseminate officialist information. Few people, however, still had television, as, in 1988, US estimates believe that the number of television sets was fixed at 40,500. New private channels emerged, but not on terrestrial television, being instead limited to subscription platforms:
Zap Novelas, the first specialized channel, produced in Portugal at first, launched in 2010, followed by
Zap Viva, a general interest channel, in 2012. These first two were owned by ZAP. In 2014, Banda TV launched on DStv, followed by
Palanca TV on the same platform in 2015. The
Africa Magic network gained a Lusophone channel, Jango Magic, in 2014, and, in 2022, an Angola-specific channel, Kwenda Magic. == Subscription television ==