Television

Live TV coverage of sporting events in Andalucia. © Michelle Chaplow
Live TV coverage of sporting events in Andalucia.

Television

The Spanish are avid TV watchers (after the Americans and Brits, that is). Most TV's receive between five and six terrestrial channels. These are:

TV1 - The state run flagship Television Española.

TV2 - The state run second Television Española.

Antena 3 - Independent National Station.

Tele 5 - Independent National Station

Canal Sur - Popular Regional Channel run by the Regional Government of Andalucia.

Andalucia 2 - Minority Regional Channel run by the Regional Government of Andalucia.

Canal Plus - Subscription channel featuring Sport and Films. You can subscribe by purchasing a decoder at a supermarket.

The majority of programming is aired 24-hours. Apart from news (of which there's a respectable amount) programming consists largely of game and talk shows, sport, soap operas and English language films dubbed into Spanish.

Canal Plus Digital - Digital Satellite TV is popular too, mainly in private homes, though some bars, cafes and hotels have it too.

 

Satellite TV

In early 2014 the Free to Air Satelite channels (BBC, ITV, C4 etc and C5) all moved to the UK beam on the new Astra 2E satellite and this is no longer receivable on existing dishes in Southern Spain.

The Sky channels have also moved to the new satellites and are on the European beam which is still receivable on existing dishes. Reception reports have been well documented on the Internet forums and many locations across Europe have experienced problems, however Southern Spain seems to have been the worst affected.

One obvious option is to instal a suitably larger dish to receive all the channels that have been lost. That is perfectly possible, but local reception reports are suggesting that a dish in excess of 3 metres would be required. Apart from the difficulties of mounting such a dish we are looking at at least €5000 for the privilege.

The remaining options are almost exclusively IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) which is a system that allows "streaming" of TV signals to your home via the Internet. These streams originate from the actual broadcasters in the form of their "catchup" options such as BBC iPlayer and the equivalents from ITV, C4 and C5 and also from other live transmissions. These streams are perfectly legal, but their reception is limited to viewers in the UK.

This can be easily set up with the help of one of the Satellite TV installation companies.

 

 

Local Television

 

Each town has its own local television station financed by the town hall. The programming is basic and propaganda-ish but is a good way of keeping up to date with local news and events.

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