The Contribuição para o Audiovisual (CAV) in Portugal in 2026 — A Practical Guide to the €2.85 RTP Levy on Your Electricity Bill, the 6% VAT, the Reduced and Zero Rates, and Who Is Exempt

Sooner or later, every new arrival in Portugal squints at their electricity bill and finds a line item that has nothing to do with electricity: the Contribuição Audiovisual, sometimes printed as Contribuição para o Audiovisual or simply CAV. It adds around three euros a month, it appears whether or not you own a television, and there is no box to untick. This guide explains exactly what it is, how much it costs in 2026, who pays a reduced rate, who pays nothing at all, and why you cannot escape it as long as you have a power contract.

What the CAV is — and what it pays for

The Contribuição Audiovisual (Audiovisual Contribution) is a levy that finances Portugal's public broadcaster, RTP (Rádio e Televisão de Portugal). It was created by Lei n.º 30/2003, of 22 August — the law that set up the funding model for public radio and television — and has been amended several times since. Think of it as Portugal's equivalent of a public-broadcasting fee, with one important difference from the British "TV licence": it is not tied to owning a television. It is tied to having an electricity contract.

That design is deliberate. Rather than police who owns a TV set, the state attaches the charge to something almost every household and business already has — a connection to the grid — and collects it through the electricity bill. Your electricity supplier (EDP, Galp, Endesa, Iberdrola or any other) bills the CAV on top of your energy charges and passes the money to the state, which channels it to RTP. The supplier is merely the collector; it does not keep the money and cannot waive it.

The scale is significant. For 2026, the CAV is set to transfer about €211 million to RTP — roughly 80% of the broadcaster's financing — up from around €196 million the year before, according to reporting by ECO on the state budget. In other words, this small line on your bill is the backbone of public broadcasting in Portugal.

How much it costs in 2026

There are three tiers: a standard rate, a reduced rate, and full exemption. Most residents pay the standard rate.

The standard rate

The standard CAV is €2.85 per month, plus VAT. The VAT applied is the reduced rate of 6% (not the standard 23%), which brings the monthly charge to €3.02. Billed across twelve months, that is €36.24 a year.

The amount is set annually through the Orçamento do Estado (the State Budget). In practice it has been frozen at €2.85 for several years running: the 2026 budget again chose not to raise it. So while the figure is reviewed each year, it does not automatically rise with inflation — it stays flat unless the budget changes it, and the government has signalled it does not intend to increase it.

The reduced rate

A reduced CAV of €1.00 per month (€1.06 with 6% VAT) applies to households whose occupants receive certain social benefits. You qualify for the reduced rate if you or a member of your household receives any of the following:

• the Complemento Solidário para Idosos (CSI, the solidarity supplement for the elderly);
• the Rendimento Social de Inserção (RSI, social insertion income);
• the subsídio social de desemprego (the social unemployment benefit);
• the first tier of the abono de família (family allowance);
• the pensão social de invalidez (the social disability pension).

These are broadly the same criteria that qualify a household for the electricity tarifa social (social tariff), and the Direção-Geral de Energia e Geologia (DGEG, the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology) applies the reduced CAV automatically by cross-matching benefit data — so eligible households generally do not need to apply separately. Note the key point of confusion here: being on the social tariff gets you the reduced €1 rate, not exemption.

Full exemption

Some consumers pay nothing. The main exemption is for households with very low consumption — less than 400 kWh per year. This typically catches second homes, holiday properties and rarely-used apartments that draw almost no power. There is also an exemption for non-domestic consumers whose activity is exclusively agricultural, which requires confirmation from the IFAP (the agriculture and fisheries financing institute).

One wrinkle worth knowing: a brand-new contract may be billed the CAV at first and then refunded once twelve months of consumption records confirm that the property stayed under the 400 kWh threshold. If you own a rarely-used property and are being charged, it is worth checking your annual consumption against that line.

How it is charged: per contract, not per person

The single most important mechanical fact about the CAV is that it is levied per electricity contract — technically, per CPE (Código de Ponto de Entrega, the delivery-point code that identifies each meter) — and not per household or per person. This has real consequences:

• One home, one CAV. A single household with one electricity contract pays the CAV once a month, regardless of how many people live there.
• A second home pays again. If you own or rent a holiday flat with its own electricity contract, that contract carries its own CAV — unless its consumption is low enough (under 400 kWh/year) to be exempt.
• It follows the meter, not you. Because it is attached to the supply point, switching supplier does not remove it; every licensed supplier is legally obliged to bill it.

The facts that trip up newcomers

A few points cause more confusion than any others, especially for people arriving from countries with a different public-broadcasting model:

• You pay it even if you own no television. There is no TV-ownership check. If you have an electricity contract above the exemption threshold, you pay — full stop. Consumer association DECO PROteste puts it bluntly: even if you separately pay for a TV service, you still owe the audiovisual contribution.
• It is not the same as your TV/internet package. The monthly bill from MEO, NOS, Vodafone or Digi for television and broadband is entirely separate. The CAV is a state levy for RTP, collected through electricity, not a charge from your telecoms provider. If you are sorting out home services, see our guides to setting up electricity and gas and to the wider energy market.
• It cannot be cancelled on its own. The only ways to stop paying it are to fall under an exemption or to have no electricity contract at all — which, for a home you live in, is not an option.
• Look for the label. On the bill it appears under a heading such as "Contribuição Audiovisual," "Contribuição para o Audiovisual" or "CAV," usually highlighted just after the electricity section. If you cannot find it, check whether your consumption qualifies you for exemption.

Where to check and what to do

If you think you are being charged the wrong rate:

• For the reduced rate, confirm that a household member's social benefit is on record with Segurança Social and cross-check that you are also receiving the electricity social tariff; the reduced CAV normally travels with it automatically. If it is not being applied, raise it with your supplier and, if needed, with DGEG.
• For exemption, check your annual consumption on your bill or in your supplier's online area. If a low-use property is consistently under 400 kWh a year but still being charged, ask your supplier to review it — a refund of amounts wrongly charged is provided for once consumption is confirmed.
• For disputes, the consumer body DECO PROteste and your supplier's customer service are the first ports of call; the charge itself is fixed by law, but its application to your specific contract can be corrected.

What this means for you

• Renters and homeowners on a normal tariff: budget €3.02 a month (€36.24 a year) on top of your electricity. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to opt out of.
• Low-income households: if you receive one of the qualifying social benefits, you should be paying €1.06 a month, applied automatically alongside the social tariff — worth verifying if you think you qualify.
• Owners of a second or holiday home: expect a second CAV on that property's bill, unless its yearly consumption stays under 400 kWh, in which case it should be exempt. Check the consumption line before assuming you owe it.
• Anyone comparing suppliers: the CAV is identical across every supplier, so it is never a reason to choose one over another — the differences are in the energy price and terms, covered in our electricity setup guide.

The CAV is one of those small, permanent facts of Portuguese life that no one explains when you arrive: a fixed few euros a month, quietly funding public television through your power bill. It is not going away — the government has ruled out both raising and abolishing it in 2026 — and at €36 a year it is more a curiosity than a burden. But knowing what it is, and knowing that a low-use second home or a qualifying benefit can change what you owe, is the difference between paying it blindly and paying it right. For the broader context on why Portuguese power bills look the way they do, see our explainer on what sits behind Portugal's electricity prices and the coming overhaul of meters and time-of-use tariffs from 2027.