The present research analyses film programming on television broadcast during the initiation and early development of nationwide television competition (1990-1994). For this purpose, it takes into account programming on public television as well as private broadcasters and pay-TV operators. It thus focuses on the feature films broadcast in that period: genre, nationality, insertion into the TV grid; programmed cycles and the most representative film programmes in order to observe its evolution, contents, characteristics and its relation to the competition. To address such variables a database has been developed, which contains 7,990 records, to classify and assess the programming offer. The results allow us to observe that cinema was the cornerstone of programming at the outset of television competition. The evidence shows that television programming chased ratings without bringing the public closer to quality broadcasting.