TDT and Pay TDT (Freeview) TV in Spain

Television in Spain is changing.
No longer do you have to put up with six or seven grainy, unwatchable TV channels.
Digital Terrestrial Television (TDT) is here, or rather has been here for a few years now.
Yu can received around 30 digital Spanish television channels for free - all the main Spanish channels and a load more - including a dedicated sports channel.

But also, there is a Pay TDT channel - GOLTV - a dedicated football channel, showing league and cup football from around the world, including UK Premiership football, La Liga and Champions League.
To access this pay TDT channels, you will require a viewing card from the broadcsaters, and a digital terrestrial receiver capable of reading the vewing card. The monthly subscription is 15€.

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Sky TV in Spain

Sky TV in Costa Blanca Spain

Sky Satellite TV Channels are transmitted from four satellites, all located in the same "constellation". These are Astra 2a, 2b, 2d and Eurobird 1. Each of these satellites has a unique "beam" and so reception of channels on each of these satellites will vary. Many Sky subscription TV channels are able to be received on an 80cm dish across most of Europe. The channels on the stronger signal satellite include Channel Five, Fiver, Fiver+1, Five USA and Five USA+1, Sky News and BBC News.

Some Sky subscription TV channels are on a satellite whose signal tends to be weak during the afternoon. These channels include the majority of the Sky Movies channels, and many of the "+1" channels offered by the UKTV group.

There are also some Sky TV channels on the weaker satellite, Astra 2D. These include the Disney channels which are on the weakest of the two "beams", the horizontal frequencies. Reception of the frequencies on Astra 2D are the ones that require a "big dish", just as you would require for the BBC and ITV channels.
Sky TV channels are Pay / Subscription TV channels and require a Sky viewing card to view. It is, however, against the terms and conditions of your Sky viewing card contract to use the viewing card outside of the UK and ROI. Should Sky find out that you are using your sky viewing card in Spain, then they can deactivate the viewing card.

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Freesat from Sky Cards - Important

Freesat from Sky Cards - Important

It looks like these typs of Sky viewing cards will be changing also soon......

Messages have been appearing on screens this weekend with a message along the lines of "Your viewing card is about to expire - you may lose channels after September 2009"

Unlike the new cards for Sky subscribers, Freesat replacement cards will not be sent out automatically, but via an onscreen message saying the card is due to expire and to contact Sky.

If you do nothing then you will loose access to any FTV channels:
ITV1 (in these regions only: Anglia W, Central SW, Mer N, Mer SE, TT S, Yorks E) Channel 4 HD FIVE FIVE USA, FIVE USA +1, FIVER, FIVER +1 Sky 3

If you purchased a Sky FTV card after 1st May 2006 you are entitled to a free replacement card. Either call Sky or apply for a new card online before the end of September 2009. You can apply online at: http://www.sky.com/replacecard. Just enter your viewing card number and it will tell you if you are eligible for a replacement.

Please note that this may be different if you bought your card from an agent or installer in Spain who may charge for a replacement! Similarly there is no mention if the new cards you will get are preactivated or not....so you may also have to contact sky to get the cards activated.

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Five is MOVING from Astra 2a to 2d

Have you LOST Channel Five? No Signal Being Recived for Channel Five in Spain?

If you have a Sky card registered at a UK address in the Wales or West of England areas, then you may be experiencing difficulties in the reception of Channel FIVE. You may be getting the "No Satellite Signal Being Received" message.

This is because the version of Channel FIVE that serves this area has now stopped being transmitted from its "nice and easy Sky card" frequency of 12422H 27.5 2/3 and has been allocated the Freesat versions of Channel FIVE - on 10773 H 22 5/6.

This means that this version of Channel FIVE is only available as the same time as BBC2.

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http://www.satandpcguy.com/Site/channel_five_moving_astra_2a_2d.htm

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You can always programme into your "other channels" the other version of Channel FIVE - 12422H 27.5 2/3 where there are still 3 other UK version of Channel Five - North East and South.

Could this be the first stage of Channel FIVE becoming totally Free to Air (as I have mentioned a few times before)in conjunction with the UKs Digital Switch over process??

Will try to keep you posted as soon as I know...

Which Satellite receiver do you use for UK TV In Spain?

It just to see what sort of receivers people are using in the Costa Blanca and Spain...

and if there is a particular make that is dominant,
is HD really making an impact,
are PVRs (eg Sky+) popular,
are Freesat receivers as popular as it was thought it would be.

I understand that they all have their advantages and disadvantages

Vote via the link below (you will have to be a registered user to vote)

http://satandpcguy.com/forum/which-satellite-receiver-do-you-use-t363.html

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TDT / Freeview in Spain / GOL TV /Premier League Football

TDT (Television Digital Terrestrial) is the Spanish version of the UK's Freeview digital TV service.
With TDT you can get around 30 free digital TV channels, all depending on your location on the Costa Blanca.
All you need are a good TV aerial, a good amplifer system, and a TDT receiver - either a set top box of a TDT intergrated digital TV.

And this last week the Spanish Government have given the go-ahead for PAY TDT - pay channels on TDT

And in light of this one channel has recently been launched.
GOLTV is currently free, and is a dedicated football channel. In fact this wekend there were 3 live Premier League games shown...for free.
However reports suggest that GOLTV will become a full subscription service by the end of August - just in time to take advantage of the Spanish football season!

With the next analogue swicth off approaching (December 31st!) make sure you are not one who leaves the installation of digital TV until the last minute. Many programmes on the TDT system can be changed from Spanish into English!

The Sat and PC Guy can install these systems for you.

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UK TV on a small 60cm Dish in Spain!

UKTV Direct from satellite / UK TV Channels on a small 60cm dish

There is a "new" type of rebroadcasting currently being pushed on a number of EXPAT forums for most of Europe, which claims that you can receive UK TV channels on an 60cm dish and the signals are from the satellite.. They claim (again!) that this is perfectly legal.

Its true, they are from a satellite - but not the main UK TV channels satellites - they are using a totally different satellite to rebroadcast channels to Spain. In fact, in essence, all that they are doing is rebroadcasting free to air channels via a satellite and not via a land based mast - like the current rebroadcasters.

Some "distributors" of this system are saying that it is all in HD...which is correct...in about 1% of the sense. They are using HD technology to compress 24 channels onto one frequency. Non of the channels are in HD, although you do need a HD receiver to decode these channels.

They are also encrypted...to stop people stealing their "stolen" signals.

Again, be wary of people offering this system. It comes with all the risks of a normal rebroadcaster, transmitting channels without the channel permission. Although many laws in the EU state that you can freely rebroadcast channels that are available free on satellite, many of these companies are overlooking all the national, EU and international copyright laws, that state that you can only broadcast copyrighted material (i.e. channels) "with the owners permission".

The BBC have reiterated the point that they do not licence any company in any EU country (apart from in Holland and in Switzerland) to rebroadcast their channels or copyrighted material, and those that would wish to do so would have to seek permission from them.

The kit is at least 500 euros and will require a annual subscription - I have see this to be around 200 to 300 euros a year. Bear in mind that some of the channels offered can be easily received in Spain FOR FREE on an 80cm dish!!

Discussion of this service has been removed from many satellite and expat forums due to questions over its legality, and so far investigations have not revealed the company who is operating these signals...something I am sure their clients would like to see before spending a large amount of money on this service.

I have heard that the UK broadcasters are pursuing legal options with the satellite operator. These "new" rebroadcasters are using Intelsat - a satellite which is also used for distributing Freeview to the UK, and for links and feeds (i.e. used by news channels), and this satellite operating company has close business ties with many official broadcasters.

I have never endorse or installed rebroadcast systems, and will never do so, until a true legal rebroadcast system that has all the required permissions from UK TV hcannels is available. Unfortunatly tthis could be a very long time in coming.

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UK TV in Spain gets more complicated....

The National Police have arrested 60 people in connection with an investigation against the piracy of pay-TV channels. Among those arrested include hotel managers and presidents of neighboring communities that have defrauded a total of several million euros.

It appears that not only were these systems providing pay tv channels via "web streaming", but as a result of this investigation it was discovered that several local cable networks in Tenerife, Malaga, Cadiz, Cordoba and Granada, were 'rebroadacsting' specific channels and content to its subscribers, without the required authorizations.

and there is more....from a local news site

The one common denominator of all these rebroadcasting companies is that
they rebroadcast Free To Air (FTA) television signals however; none of them seem
to be able to provide legal paperwork stating that they have paid for the rights from each and every one of the FTA channels to do so. BBC and ITV have stated that they do not have the rights to sell on their own channel rebroadcasting rights as they themselves negotiate rates with hundreds of individual production companies for the UK rights and these do not cover Europe. Confused? No wonder it’s taking so long to come to the Spanish Court system!
The first nail in the rebroadcasting coffin may be that the Spanish Secretary of
Telecommunications is now aware of the rebroadcasting of the Torresat Group
amongst others and that the distributor Filmax is considering taking action
against those using their content without the correct licences in place.

I would not be surprised if there are more police action over the coming months, and those rebroadcsat systems that are still showing Pay TV channels like Sky Sports may well have a visit in the near future.....
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