The paper presents the findings from a survey of Portuguese creative business incubators, as a strategy to promote and support the development of the creative industries at city-regional level. Incubators can create values in the incubation process through its entry and exit procedure and by providing start-ups with facilities, knowledge and networks. The shifting definitions of the creative industry and sectors adopted are discussed in the context of theory review. Case studies of ABC-Obidos e INSerralves are presented, and show two different approaches of business incubators to support the creative business development. These are non-profit incubators with a regional level model, both related to universities. ABC-Obidos is promoted by the town of Obidos and INSerralves is promoted by the Cultural Foundation of Serralves, in the city of Oporto.