Telemadrid is the first autonomous public television station of Madrid and the fifth national station, after those of Catalonia, Euskadi, Galicia and Andalusia. It is affiliated with FORTA since its inception, and it is a public channel that belongs exclusively to the autonomous government of Madrid. It began its broadcast on May 2, 1989, in Madrid. Since then, the programming has been dominated by educational programs directed towards the population of that region. Since Madrid is the capital of the country, it puts special emphasis on national political information.

Telemadrid was created by the PSOE government (Spanish Socialist Party) when Joquin Leguina was the president of the Madrid Autonomous Region. During its first years, Telemadrid occupied the buildings of the Agencia EFE, where it suffered a terrorist attack from the terrorist group at lunchtime of May 29, 1993 GRAPO, yet suffered no victims. In fact, the event was covered live on Telemadrid. On March 11, 1997, they celebrated the opening of their current location, in the Ciudad de la Imagen, in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid. The building, which was called "special interest" on World Architecture Day in October 1997, holds all of the production centers for the radio-television entity.