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Spain & Portugal
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Spain & Portugal This month Wotsat looks at free TV from the Iberian peninsula
Spanish TV is overwhelmed with commercials
Toolkit What you need to view Spanish or Portuguese free TV n Free-to-air DVB digital satellite receiver (with common interface if possible) n 60cm dish with universal LNB aimed at Hispasat (30°W). Refer to Channel Check (p58) for other satellites’ recommended dish sizes
Like the British who invade their coasts, Spain and Portugal have very few TV channels on the main European satellite locations at 19.2°E and 13°E, instead broadcasting from the opposite side of the sky at 30°W. This position is occupied by the Hispasat satellites, and conveniently reaches Spanish and Portuguese speakers on both sides of the Atlantic. Hispasats 1C and 1D are both high-powered craft; their European signals are picked up in the UK with an 80cm dish. The Hispasats were built by the Spanish telecommunications office, but are now effectively part of Eutelsat. There’s no TV licence in Spain – just a huge amount of terrible ads on every channel, and limited state subsidies to TVE and many regional broadcasters. Portugal abolished its TV licence in 1992, but has a Radio Licence of about €20 a year that also funds the ad-free channel RTP2. Many of Spain’s satellite channels are regional broadcasters, and satellite dishes are more common than terrestrial TV aerials in many remote areas. Madeira, the Balearic
Regional channels feature very heavily
Islands and The Canaries all have satellite channels, and the regional service offers entertainment and news channels as well as tourism channels promoting their locales. Spain also has a very good international version of its main domestic channel, RTE, if you want to see more of any Spanish news stories (its all in Spanish, though). There’s a lot of teleshopping and infomercials – even on local channels – and dodgy fortune-telling phone-in channels. As expat Mark Wilkins said at the Eye On Spain blog: ‘It’s said that a country gets the TV it deserves. In Spain’s case, I suspect that the former sentence could be good grounds for the Spanish TV audience to institute libel proceedings. Spanish TV is a very curious blend of the extraordinarily banal, the overly serious and the totally retentive.‘ Their TV would suggest that Spaniards don’t care much about picture and sound quality; Hispasat is notorious for squeezing in a dozen channels per transponder with far too much compression. Spain offers no free HD channels, nor pay-HD on Digital+, the not-very-successful subscription service. Portugal has even less to offer, but RTP Internacional is a good window if you want to find out what’s going on. Unfortunately, most of the satellite channels are encrypted as part of the TV Cabo service n
Next on Euro Spotlight n Free TV from Italy
Scorchio!
Cinco de los mejores Five of Spanish TV’s most popular shows
Aida
Telecinco Award-winning spin-off from pioneering sitcom Lives Seven, following the life of maid (or ’Chacha’) Aida Garcia, her friends and family. It’s the most popular show on Spanish TV today
Aquí no hay quien viva
Antena 3 Popular black comedy translating as ’This Place is Awful’, about the residents of a fictional apartment block. Bizarrely ended and then returned with a completely different cast as ’La que se avecina’ (’Which is approaching’) in 2007
Central Hospital
Telecinco Spain’s longest-running TV show (now in its 16th season), set in the fictional Central Hospital of Madrid, and spawning several spin-offs for its numerous cast
Hermanos y detectives Telecinco 70s-styled Argentinian cop show remade in Spain, following a grumpy homicide detective and his 11-year-old child prodigy half-brother
Camera Café
Drama and comedy tend towards the soapy 2 What Satellite & Digital TV
Classic films and series aren't forgotten
Telecinco Inspired by a French series of the same name and adapted in numerous countries, Camera Café revolves around life in a dysfunctional office, as seen from a camera fixed in the coffee machine
Euro spotlight Footprint
Pick up tips from local chefs: this is Aragon TV
TV de Galicia is full of regional flavour
l See Channel Check page 58 for frequencies H [S2] Broadcasts in DVB-S2
Spain CHANNEL position w
Andalucia TV Aragon Sat [S2] Bainet Sat Balearic Channel Canal 24 Horas Canal 53 Canal Catala TV Canal Club Canal Parlamento Canal Senado CNC Ctk Cubo TV Dark Destino Galicia ETB Sat European Home Shopping Extramadura TV Hello TV IB3 Sat La Tele Local Local Media TV Popular TV Satellite R1 TeleMadrid Sat Teletrebol RTPA TSF On Sat Tu Tele Local TV Canaria Digital+ TV de Galicia Europa TV TeleLinea TVC Internacional TVE Internacional TVVI VIT Channel TV
19.2°E, 30°W 19.2°E, 30°W 12.5°W 30°W 13°E 30°W 30°W 19.2°E, 30°W 30°W 30°W 30°W 43°W 30°W 43°W 30°W 19.2°E, 30°W 19.2°E, 30°W 19.2°E 9°E 30°W 30°W 30°W 19.2°E, 30°W 13°E 19.2°E, 30°W 30°W 30°W 30°W 30°W 19.2°E, 30°W 19.2°E, 30°W 30°W 19.2°E, 30°W 19.2°E, 13°E, 30°W 19.2°E, 30°W 30°W
Genre Local entertainment Local entertainment Local entertainment Local entertainment News Adult chat Local entertainment Shopping Spanish parliament Spanish senate Shopping Independent films Shopping Horror Tourism Local entertainment Shopping Local entertainment General entertainment Local entertainment Local entertainment Local entertainment News & opinion Local entertainment Local entertainment Sports Local entertainment Shopping Local entertainment Local entertainment Local entertainment Shopping Local entertainment General entertainment General entertainment Shopping
Portugal Channel Position
Genre
Canal de Programacao ManaSat 1 [S2] National Geographic Channel RTP Internacional
Programme guide Fortune telling Documentaries General entertainment
30°W 68.5°E, 30°W 12.5°W 19.2°E, 13°E, 30°W
19.2°E Also known as Astra 1, this is one of the world’s two busiest satellite positions, with more than 1,100 channels coming from six satellites. Astra was Europe's first private, commercial satellite operator, and Astra 1A - launched in 1988 - was the first satellite that could be received with a compact 60cm dish. Without it, Europe's TV landscape would be very different today. n Operator: SES-Astra, www.ses-astra.com
Satellites n Astra 1F
Launched: Proton D1-e, Baikonur, April 8, 1996 Launch mass: 3,010kg Manufacturer: HS-601, Hughes Transponders: 20 Ku-band EIRP: 51dBW Beams: Europe n Astra 1G
Launched: Proton D1-e, Baikonur, December 2, 1997 Launch mass: 3,379kg Manufacturer: BSS-601HP, Hughes Transponders: 19 Ku-band EIRP: 51dBW Beams: Europe n Astra 1H
Launched: Proton D1-e, Baikonur, June 18, 1999 Launch mass: 3,700kg Manufacturer: BSS-601HP, Hughes Transponders: 28 Ku-band, 2 Ka-band EIRP: 51dBW Beams: Europe, 8 steerable Ka spots n Astra 1KR
Launched: Atlas V, Cape Canaveral, April 20, 2006 Launch mass: 4,331kg Manufacturer: A2100AXS, Lockheed Martin Transponders:32 Ku-band EIRP: 51dBW Beams: Europe n Astra 1L
Launched: Ariane V, Kourou, May 4, 2007 Launch mass: 4,500kg Manufacturer: A2100AXS, Lockheed Martin Transponders: 29 Ku-band, 2 Ka-band EIRP: 46-54.5dBW Beams: Europe, 8 steerable Ka spots n Astra 1M
Launched: Proton Breeze M, Baikonur, November 6, 2008 Launch mass: 5,300kg Manufacturer: Eurostar 3000, EADS Astrium Transponders: 36 Ku-band EIRP: 51dBW Beams: Europe
This is TV from the isle of Madeira
Spanish TV news is slick and informative What Satellite & Digital TV 3