The participation of Panama in the OTI Festival began at the first OTI Festival in 1972. The Panamanian participating broadcaster was (TVN), which was member of the (OTI). It participated in all twenty-eight editions of the festival, and is best result was second achieved in 1972.
Although (TVN), which selected its entries internally, never withdrew from the event, and never managed to achieve victory, although in its debut year, "" performed by Basilio came second.
In spite of its promising start, the following participations were not as satisfactory. In 1978, Panama ended in the top 5 for the last time. From then on, its trajectory was lustreless as happened with most of the Central American countries with the exception of Nicaragua.