TOURISM IN Portugal is to be promoted in a new channel being developed by Faro television company, Tele 7.
The Portugal Channel is the idea of former RTP television station journalist, Paulo Lavadinho, who plans to have the channel up and running by summer 2007.
The channel will be English speaking, targeting the Dutch, English and German market. The channel will be transmitted as a free satellite channel in continental Europe, Ireland and the UK. The rest of the world will be able to watch the channel live online.
“We are going to showcase the whole of Portugal, the north, the south and the islands,” says Lavadinho. A large proportion of programmes will focus on the numerous benefits of Portugal’s economy in order to attract investment.
As the channel will be financed exclusively through advertising, Lavadinho is hoping to attract some big investors, such as low cost airlines, as they bring such a huge percentage of people to the country.
At the moment, the project is in its very early stages and still has a long way to go to get through the different stages of the Portuguese bureaucratic process. Lavadinho plans to recruit between 20 to 30 people to make up the team in Faro with additional people involved in the various productions.
The channel hopes to air shows dedicated to the different types of geographical areas, department stores, wines and gastronomy. Documentaries and Portuguese movies have also been proposed and a daily golf programme has been promised to please the legions of golfers that travel to courses in the Algarve all year round. If the initial response is positive, some programmes will be broadcast in Spanish, German and French.
