RTP1 is the first television network of Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, the Portuguese public broadcasting corporation. The first television network (treated by many as a station) ever launched in Portugal, RTP1 was launched in 1957 as RTP (and today it is still sometimes marketed as such), and also having a brief period while it was known and marketed as Canal 1 (Channel 1). It is one of the most watched television networks in the country. The network became a 24-hours service in 2002.
RTP1 has a generalist programming, composed mainly of news and talk shows, sports, factual, national and international fiction, such as films and TV series. Unlike sister channel RTP2, RTP1 broadcasts commercial advertising, which, along with government grants, finances the network.
RTP1's logotype has been changed various times over the years. In 1990, RTP1 was renamed TV1, later Canal 1, and a permanent, opaque and coloured DOG "C·1" was introduced in the upper-right corner of the channel until September 1991, when a smaller "C·1" was placed on the upper-left corner. The logotype consisted of blue, 3D characters with a golden armillary sphere inside the "C". Most Canal 1 idents were CGI, accompanied by a voice-over chorus singing the name of the channel, and featured several motifs in a short space of time, such as British and American skylines, playing cards, roulettes, riots and astronauts. On April 29, 1996, Canal 1 was again renamed RTP1, and the new logotype consisted of a white "1" in a light blue background, with the letters "RTP" underneath in white, overlaid in a dark blue background. RTP1 idents consisted mainly on a tridimensional representation of the logo in a blue moving curtain background, with the channel tune played in piano and organ as the background music.