Industry experts from television deregulation use the term when referring to all the structural changes that have occurred in recent decades in traditional patterns of television systems.

In Europe, this transformation led to the breakdown of public monopolies television, so that prompted private commercial television and destabilized the public. In addition to encourage competition between broadcasters, whether private or public, and opened the way towards a more flexible regulation of the sector.

This was that deregulation in Europe, led to the introduction of a new form of television, pay, and thus the private sector dominated the market with the emergence of new devices broadcast signals, cable and satellite.

In Spain, this phenomenon occurred in a different way the rest of Europe. The public monopoly of the state began to decline at the time they were emerging channels and autonomic regulation forced RTVE financed solely by advertising. In 1989-90 born the first private channels and enact laws Television satellite, cable and digital.