Nine days that changed a Portuguese media brand: how SIC lost Polígrafo

Polígrafo is a well-known fact-checking TV programme in Portugal and the first in the country dedicated to verifying news, publications, and other materials published nationally and internationally. The show was broadcast by SIC (owned by Impresa Group) in partnership with the company Inevitável e Fundamental, the owner of the Polígrafo brand and related projects, from October 2018 until early 2026. The programme was initially presented by Bernardo Ferrão and until recently by João Carlos Moleira. The project gained national attention and contributed to the growth of fact-checking journalism in Portugal.

In 2024, Polígrafo exceeded €1 million in revenue for the first time, reaching approximately €1.09 million, with a net profit of €396,000. This represents a profit margin of about 36%, which is higher than typically seen in the media sector, both in Portugal and internationally. In 2023, it registered a profit of more than €200,000 (with a margin of more than 40%), which is one of the reasons why it was extremely appealing for other networks to acquire the journal.

That is indeed what happened. In early 2026, Media Capital (the owner of TVI and CNN Portugal), SIC’s main media competitor in Portugal, acquired 80% of the company Inevitável e Fundamental, the owner of Polígrafo and Viral Check, another fact-checking publication focused specifically on health and science misinformation, in a €2.2 million deal.

The situation caught SIC by surprise even though a possible break with Impresa had been suggested by signs from the majority shareholder of Inevitável e Fundamental, Fernando Esteves (the owner of 60% of the company, with the remaining shares held by a company owned by Angolan businessman N’Gunu Tiny, also the owner of Media9Par). In particular, on November 17 2025, a certificate detailing the ownership of Polígrafo was requested, which was a requirement imposed by Media Capital to finalise the deal.

The end of the SIC partnership was reportedly learnt by the media group minutes before the public announcement and when it expected to renew the contract, it was suddenly informed that this would not continue.

SIC’s inability to continue using the trademark ‘Polígrafo SIC’ stems from agreements established within the partnership with Inevitável e Fundamental launched in 2019. These agreements were rooted in a trademark registration process that, crucially, pre-dated the television collaboration itself. Even though Polígrafo was launched by the end of 2018, the company behind the brand – particularly, Inevitável e Fundamental – only filed the trademark application for ‘Polígrafo’ on May 8 2019.

In parallel, when negotiations between the media group and Inevitável e Fundamental were still taking place, SIC filed a trademark application for ‘Polígrafo SIC’, which combined visual elements from SIC and the identity of ‘Polígrafo’, nine days after the other trademark application.

The trademark was initially provisionally refused by Portugal’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), due to the prior application submitted by Inevitável e Fundamental, as the institute found that the two trademarks were sufficiently similar and likely to cause confusion among consumers.

The refusal was overcome in April 2020, when SIC presented the Portuguese institute with a contract from Inevitável e Fundamental that expressly authorised SIC to use the name ‘Polígrafo’ on television.

The contract determined a periodical annual review, with effect from March 4 of each year, unless terminated by either party with a minimum notice period of 60 days, which was the mechanism used by Inevitável e Fundamental, to the great surprise of SIC. Considering that the express authorisation granted by the trademark owner of ‘Polígrafo’ was revoked, in practical and legal terms, Impresa is unauthorised to use the trademark ‘Polígrafo SIC’. It should be noted that INPI only granted the trademark to Impresa due to express authorisation from Inevitável e Fundamental, which has now been revoked.

At the time of writing, however, the ‘Polígrafo SIC’ trademark remains formally registered and valid in INPI’s records, with protection extending until November 20 2028. There is no publicly available indication that the institute has been formally notified of the revocation of authorisation or that any administrative steps have been taken to reflect this change. This creates a situation in which the trademark remains valid on paper, while its practical and legal enforceability has been fundamentally undermined.

Following the loss of ‘Polígrafo SIC’, Impresa has moved quickly to maintain its presence in the fact-checking space by launching a new programme under the name SIC Verifica. The show continues to focus on verifying the accuracy of statements, viral content, and public claims, preserving the editorial approach that had previously defined Polígrafo SIC. This suggests that, while the trademark and partnership have ended, the underlying concept and audience demand for fact-checking content remain firmly in place.

Interestingly, a trademark application for ‘SIC Verifica’ was filed on January 14 2026, which appears to contradict claims that Impresa was only informed of the termination of its partnership with Inevitável e Fundamental shortly before the public announcement. The timing of this filing suggests that, by January 2026, Impresa may have already been aware that its agreement to use the ‘Polígrafo SIC’ trademark was coming to an end.

At the time of writing, the trademark application is still pending, awaiting potential oppositions by third parties that consider themselves adversely affected by the registration of the trademark.

In Portugal, after the opposition period is over, INPI conducts a substantive examination to confirm if there are any prior registrations that may conflict with the new application. Only after this review will a final decision be issued, determining whether the trademark can be granted and fully protected under Portuguese law.

The dispute surrounding ‘Polígrafo’ illustrates how legal, commercial, and editorial dynamics are increasingly intertwined in today’s media landscape. What may appear, at first glance, as a technical issue of trademark registration ultimately reveals a broader shift in the balance of power between competing media groups in Portugal.

On one hand, Media Capital’s acquisition of Inevitável e Fundamental secures control over an established and profitable fact-checking brand, reinforcing its position in a segment that has gained strategic importance in recent years. On the other, SIC’s rapid transition to SIC Verifica demonstrates the resilience of editorial formats and the limits of brand dependency in television journalism.

As both groups move forward with parallel fact-checking projects, the Portuguese media landscape enters a new phase, defined not only by competition for audiences but also by the strategic value of credibility, verification, and brand ownership in an increasingly contested information environment.