Whilst many people holiday and live in Spain due to the climate, the one thing most cannot do without, is a television.
Many companies in Spain have been offering rebroadcasting English language programming to expatriates for a number of years.
Last August things changed a little;
News 19 - 8 - 2008
Not surprisingly, our open invitation to Telmicro Levante to speak to us regarding the dire situation that it has found itself in, went unanswered. Here at Round Town News we are still being inundated with e-mails and telephone calls from disgruntled customers and have spent the week getting various statements in order so that we can tell you, our readers, the best course of action; a legal way to get British TV here in Spain. As we told you last week, we have contacted many companies in both the UK and here in Spain so that we can determine exactly what is the best and legal way to receive TV and what isn’t.
As we confirmed at the time, the crux of the whole issue is that Telmicro Levante S.L. were re-broadcasting British TV. Basically, they were using the mesh dishes to receive a signal that was itself being received via a larger dish. The signals were transmitted all over the Southern Costa Blanca and as this is illegal, the authorities shut them down.It is believed that they will be also targeting other companies doing this in the near future. Through our investigations, we have confirmed that the only legal way to get British TV is to buy a satellite dish that is large enough to receive the signal directly from the satellite that is in orbit. This has been confirmed by the Telecommuncations Ministry in Madrid.
Friday 12 - 9 - 2008 Costa Blanca News
DESPITE explicit statements from BBC, Sky and ITV, rebroadcasting of some of their channels continues in the northern Costa Blanca.Following Guardia Civil action taken against Torrevieja-based Telmicro several weeks ago, nearly all rebroadcasting companies switched to free-to-air channels.Costa Blanca News last week received public statements from BBC and Sky explaining that currently no company in Spain has been authorised to rebroadcast their channels, and that doing so without permission could lead to legal action.This week, CBNews received a similar statement from a spokesman for ITV plc who said: “We do not have any sort of agreement in place.“If an operator in Spain wanted to broadcast our channels there they would have to enter into a contractual agreement with us.”But despite these clear statements, some rebroadcasting companies have waited for the dust to settle and are rebroadcasting BBC, Sky and ITV stations once again.
CBNews contacted several of the rebroadcasting companies to clarify the situation, but nobody was available to comment and despite leaving several messages, no one has returned the calls. Customers approached by CBN say they had received the same response.
If you wish to stay in touch with television in the UK there is absolutely no problem whatsoever as SKY, BBC & ITV and over 200 free to air channels & radio stations can be received all over Spain. Rebroadcasting services - These companies uses a local mast rebroadcasting out a signal to a 40-90 cm dish and a home receiver. Dishes of this size will not be able to receive ITV, SKY, BBC direct from a satellite. If you are offered Sky or similar through a small dish, be aware - It will be from this type of service.Rebroadcasters offer a limited selection of the FTA channels available, at time of writing some of these companies are offering subscription channels from other service providers, with no legal permissions.
A second rebroadcaster - Solaris, has been declared illegal on 17th March 2009 and had all equipment confiscated, with 7 arrests being made. This has left 15,000 people without any television as well losing their installation fees of up to €890. You will be asked to pay an ongoing monthly subscription charge for as long as you wish to use the service, as stated above, there is no guarantee of continued service.Statements made by the BBC, ITV and Sky have all mentioned that there are no rights to rebroadcast their content in Spain, as this is infringment of copyright and intellectual property theft. These companies are under review by the Ministry of communications in Spain.
Satellite Dishes
To receive the widest channel selection, in the highest quality format, the satellite dish is widely recognised as the best option available. Astra channel listing guide available to download at the bottom of this posting.You can feed as many end users off a single satellite dish as is required, by use of amplification - from direct neighbours, to an entire community.
SKY and English terrestrial programing is broadcast by the Astra 2 satellite group, located 28.2 degrees east. In the UK the beam for the Astra satellites has a strong signal strength, allowing those in the UK to receive a satellite signal using a 60cm or 80cm dish.In Spain esepecially in the area of Costa Blanca South, the satellite signal is considerably weaker than the UK and therefore requires a larger dish.
In most instances, to obtain uninterrupted reception of the most popular channels, will require a good quality 1.8 - 1.9 metre dish and low noise LNB. Certain areas will allow for a smaller dish of 1.45 metres. Climatical conditions such as storms can affect viewing quality on certain channels that are on a weaker transponder on dishes of this size. For example in Costa Blanca South, channels such as 4, more 4, ITV2,3 & 4 can struggle with reception with a 1.45 and a slightly larger dish is recommended. To receive good stability on the North Astra beam (weakest transponder) in South Costa Blanca, a 1.8 - 1.9 metre prime focus dish is accepted to offer the best cost vs performance option, though a slightly smaller 1.5 x 1.65 Italian made dish is now available which offers performance close to that of the 1.9's.
When combined with a digital satellite receiver, this will allow you to view all your favourite programs. There are over 200 free to air channels and even more radio stations. Further channel expansion options are available, by utilising a variety of viewing cards. In the next 12 months a further 60 free to air channels will come into service.
BBC1, ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 Channel 4+1, More 4, E4 are available without viewing card. BBC2 is one channel that is problematic, which is due to the weak transponder signal from the Astra satellite. Currently some of BBC2's sporting events are being shown on BBC Sport & BBC streams. BBC3 & BBC4 are also currently on the same transponder.With a Sky freesat card you can also receive (at time of writing) - FIVE, Fiver US, Fiver US+1, Fiver, Fiver +1, Sky Three, Setanta Sports News. These channels cannot otherwise be received with stability on the freesat north beam Astra transponder (Costa Blanca South).
Choose your satellite dish carefully
There are two main type of dishes - single panel & multi segmented panel. Multi panel dishes are considerably more difficult to set up and any movement on any of the panel joins at any point will cause reception loss. A movement of 0.5mm on any of the panel joins can render the dish unuseable and no amount of setting up will fix this. Additionally multi panel dishes have a lower reception gain, meaning you may need to use a bigger dish than if a good quality single panel unit is used. There are two types of prime focus dishes - one is spun (generally of Turkish or Bulgarian origin) the other is pressed. The pressed dishes tend to be of a thicker construction and generally perform to an equal standard. Spun dishes are generally of of a thinner construction and in most instances have a lower signal gain. As most manufacturers do not put their name on the dishes, another way of checking is the quality of the mount and base. Budget dishes will have thinner metalwork which is not as strong as the larger diameter tubing on better quality dishes.
What Dish size?
80cm - 1 metre dish. Suitable for reception of most (not all) Eurobird & Astra south beam 2a/2b channels. If you have a Sky receiver and Sky sports subscription, you will be able to receive Sky sports 1,2 & 3 on this dish size + Sky movies premiere +1. Other movie channels are on Astra's north beam and cannot be received with a dish less than 1.5 metres.
1.35 metre offset dish. Suitable for all channel reception of Astra 2 south beam & Eurobird. 1.5 x 1.65 metre offset dish. Suitable for north & south beam reception from Astra + Eurobird. Allows the reception of BBC1, ITV1,2,3, & 4 & Channel 4's.
1.8 - 1.9 metre dish. For high stability reception of Astra north & south beams + Eurobird. Best overall performance for the hard to receive channels over the Costa Blanca & Costa Calida.2.4 metre Famaval Portuguese dish. Suitable for the weaker areas of Costa Blanca North & large community installations.
The above channel listings are based on good quality single panel prime focus and offset dishes. Segemented or panel dishes do not perform as well and draw in a weaker signal. For dishes pointing to Astra at 28.2 degrees East, a new kit is available using a second LNB - allowing the reception of Arabsat free to air channels. On Arabsat you can receive 5 movie channels - in English with arabic subtitles, 8 sport channels (in Arabic -but show football) & around another 20 fta Enlish language general channels. You will need a 1.35 metre dish to receive this signal from Arabsat, with good reception stability. Below Arabsat channel listings
http://www.arabsat.com/ArabSat/English/Channels/Arabsat+TV+ans+Radio+Channels+slash+Frequency.htmMBC
film listing on Arabsat http://www.mbc.net/portal/site/mbc-en/menuitem.6a2c0f178707e7c8b8722f14480210a0/?vgnextoid=6bcbb3b9e34f2110VgnVCM1000008420010aRCRD
Satellite dishes on communities and planning
According to EU directive IP/01/913 - 2 July 2001, this clearly states the following;Administrative obstacles: It is not acceptable to make the installation of a satellite dish subject to systematic prior authorisation or completion of a complex and expensive administrative procedure.
Tax obstacles: The Commission reiterates its opposition to taxes which are specifically targeted at satellite dishes.In summary as an EU expatriate you are within your rights to receive television in your own language via a satellite dish, without requiring planning permission, or tax from the local town hall.
Many communities have not always thought collectively and many have started to realise that they are paying long term subscription fees which add up to thousands every year. To cite an example of a 100 apartments; this would cost €24,000 per year (€20 per month per apartment) in subscription fees.
To have a community cabled for satellite would cost considerably less than this, with no further ongoing subscriptions.
Satellite receivers
To utilise your satellite dish, you will need a receiver.These vary in quality and a good receiver will be able to obtain considerably more channels by having higher internal amplification thus obtaining better signal quality. Having the ability to use a selection of digital viewing cards (free to view, subscription, Sky etc) as well as a system that has the ability to upgrade the firmware, will give you a receiver which will avoid being obsolete for a considerable time.
Consider what features you require, as with all types of electrical equipment - the higher the specification, the higher the initial cost.Most low to medium cost receivers offer a single tuner.
Next step up is to have a receiver with a card slot - allowing you to use subscription cards. Additional features are to have either an attached recording device (hard drive) or an internal one, following this twin or even triple tuners. Prices of basic - mid range receivers range from €100 - €300 with prices for mid to high end receivers costing €500 - €600 and over for twin tuner high definition models with inbuilt hard drive recorders.
Many people have a holiday home in Spain, can bring across their receivers from the UK, with certain Pace models being popular being sold as refurbished ex - Sky boxes. Whilst these are perfectly adequate, some of these models have been discontinued and are superceded by newer models with higher sensitivity tuners. Refurbished models generally have a warantee of 6 months, against that of 2 years on a new receiver.In certain areas of Costa Blanca South, receivers that include a 7 day EPG (electronic programming guide) are not receiving the full 7 day EPG as per the manufacturers specification. This is due to the EPG signal being low and suffering local interference in certain areas of Spain. Whilst this does not affect your general viewing or picture quality, please be aware that you may not be able to use this facility, you will however be able to receive the daily EPG.
Sky subscription and box
Quite common now seems to be to get a relative in the UK to subscribe to a second multiroom box, Sky is currently charging £10 per month for this service. The second box can be registered then installed in Spain. Legally this is in breach of Skys contract. Whilst you are not going to get arrested for this, any contracted Sky box found to be operational in Spain (which is only likely to happen if they are contacted from a Spanish landline or mobile number) has a high probability of being switched off.If you have an existing Sky box which has been registered in the the UK, this will work, though you will not have expansion capability and may not be able to use certain other broadcasters viewing cards.
Sky receivers are set to UK transponder frequency 11778. This transponder setting is weak in Costa Blanca, you will need to go into the installation menu and alter to 12129. If there is a powercut the box will reset to the default transponder of 11778 and will need altering back to 12129.
Dealing with companies
Since the advent of the Telmicro fiasco last August, many satellite installation companies have appeared. This is due to the increasing demand for dishes as well as the credit crisis which has caused many Estate agents - amongst others to hop on board the bandwagon. When dealing with ANY company in Spain, avoid dealing with companies that have a mobile phone number only - starting 6 and with hotmail or similar untraceable email accounts. Additionally ask for a CIF number (company registration) to prove they are a legal and trading company.
News updates - Latest from Valancian News 21 - 3 - 2009
Brits detained
Seven British people -four men and three women - have been detained in Los Montesinos and Orihuela-Costa for offering illegal TV services to over seven thousand clients - the majority of whom were fellow countrymen in the provinces of Alicante and Murcia, charging fifteen Euros monthly and an 890 Euros installation fee. Sources in the Guardia Civil have revealed that according to first estimates, the fraud committed by the group could be as high as thirty million Euros in unpaid rights and taxes.
After the arrests, police confiscated 90,000 Euros in cash, computer equipment, signal decoders and transmission equipment with a value of over half a million Euros. The investigations started last August, when members of the Corps noticed that near the home of the one of the detainees there was an extremely powerful set of parabolic antennas, allowing the capture of several British-based satellite TV channels, that were then decoded and distributed amongst clients on the coast between Torrevieja in Alicante Province and San Pedro del Pinatar in Murcia Province.
The police allege that the organization operated fraudulently, the company was not registered in Spain, no payments were made to Social Security as the law requires, whilst rights to the signal that was captured, decoded and re-broadcast to clients in fact was owned by other companies including Spain and UK.
Conclusion
Things in Spain are never as simple as they appear. Many have fallen into the hands of disreputable property developers and of recent times, something as simple as receiving television, you would feel to be straightforward - being Spain, its not.
All evidence points to the fact that companies have been 'borrowing' signals from broadcasting companies and then selling the service. Another court case for bother Torresat & Simulat is this June, however knowing the speed the legal system works - even if found guity or partially, they'll drag it out as long as possible.
Legal solutions
Satellite dish - single or community
Media streamer though the internet - one such example being the slingbox
Canal+ Spanish subscription similar to Sky, has a few English language channels, good sport - in the main Spanish language programming - similar costs to UK Sky
Spanish Terrestrial Television - cheap, basic ariel 25 - 35 channels, free to air. Downside only a few programs you can change to English
http://www.televisiontechnology.eu/
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