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In Andalucia stores specialising in such items as plasma televisions, videos, DVD players, home cinema systems are referred to as specialists in “electrónica”.
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.
These streams and the direct transmissions are also hijacked by many other companies, not usually located in the UK for obvious reasons, and are made available on the Internet, sometimes for free but sometimes sold to third party IPTV companies who charge the user considerable sums for something they can buy for a fraction of the price they charge. Up to €25 a month is typical.
So how do you access these legal and illegal TV streams?
El Cid answers this question in a detailed FAQ on the Andalucia.com Forum
