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What Spanish TV can I receive by Satellite?

There are two ways to receive Spanish channels and you can combine them. 

 

  1. Small 65cm dish pointing to South East: 
  2. Larger 90cm dish pointing to South West
  3. Motorised Large 90cm dish

Option 1

– Small  65cm dish pointing to the South East 

This is a two lnb dish which receives both the Astra 1 and Hotbird satellites.

8 Spanish Channels are available:

TVE internacional, TVE News, Andalucia, Aragon, Extremadura, Galicia, Telesur, Cubavision, Hispan, RT Espana

 

Option 1 Receiver: 

The latest from the Amiko mini series: 

Amiko MIRA X very easy to tune in and use, channels and favourites can be stored as a backup file. Highly recommended.

Option 2

– Larger 90cm or 1m dish    pointing to the South West 

This is a single lnb dish that receives the Hispasat satellite.

29 Spanish Channels are available many are now in HD:

TVE1, TVE 2, TVE News, Antena3, Atreseries, Cuatro, Telecinco, La Sexta,  TDP sport, Neox, Nova, 13 tv, BeMad,  D. Dkiss, Dmax, Energy, Factoria de Ficcion, Gol, Mega, Paramount, Real Madrid, TEN, Catalonia 3 and including Childrens channels: Disney, Boing and Clan TV

Option 2 Receiver: 

Official TDT receiver built for the purpose. This is manufactured under license and channels cannot be added, the channel list is fixed and auto-updates when necessary

Option 3

– Larger 90cm or 1m dish   on a motor mount – all of the above channels in Options 1 and 2 

This is a single lnb dish that receives the Hispasat satellite.

To order or get a Quote for Dish, Receiver and Installation Click Here

Featured

Spanish Satellite Channels in the Uk

Hola Welcome to

Spanish Channels

June 2018 :

This post is now updated, since the advent of TDT – the main channels shown below ARE available and at no monthly cost – see TDT page.

TDT manufacture is now all HD, the older SD (standard defn) is no longer made.

For anyone from Spain but living in the Uk, here is a satellite service for you. All your favourite tv programmes delivered via satellite. Our service is called Satellite Tv Europe our website is  www.satellitetveurope.co.uk We install dishes and digital receivers compatible with all the main Spanish broadcasting services.

The main channels, TVE1, TVE2, Antena3 cuatro Telecinco, La Sexta etc. free in Spain, are not free via satellite and require a subscription to Canal Plus

DigitalPlusChans

You can subscribe directly to Canal+ ( formerly  Digital Plus) ONLY if you have an address in Spain and pay via a Spanish bank account, then all the Canal Plus packages are available to you …. see Plus website.   Alternately you can purchase a Canal Plus Card. It is paid in advance ( 18months) it has the same  channels and is available from several european dealers. It is fairly expensive though at 1200Euro for the 18 month period , even for the cheapest card.

Free to Air Spanish Channels

There are still a few Spanish channels broadcast FTA ( free to air ) the main ones are listed fully on our Spanish page

We can install ,anywhere in the Uk, just send your requirements and location for a quotation.

 
Question: I already have Sky, can I also have Spanish TV?

You need a separate receiver as the Sky box is disabled from using multi satellite and unable to cope with the different data rates ( symbol rates ) of the spanish broadcasts. The dish for Canal plus needs to be at least 65cm to avoid picture freezing, but to avoid having 2 dishes it is possible to combine Sky and Canal Plus on one dish. ( NOT possible with the new TDT satellite as it is too far west )

UtubeStillv2

Combining Spanish with Uk, French and German

forcedish

For those wanting both Sky and spanish, German French and Italian broadcasts , there is the Force Multi dish. This new wide angle dish is superb for giving hundreds of free channels from all over Europe and some from the middle east

Note this is only for the Astra 1 spanish channels  – Hispasat is too far west to combine the signals on one dish. For Hispasat and Uk channels you will need 2 dishes but at least the Uk dish will only be a small one.

If you have need for other language broadcasts then a motorised satellite dish is the answer, the ultimate in sheer numbers of channels receivable, a motor system can log in some 5000 channels when installed, of which over half are viewable free ( FTA free to air ) and the others require various subscription cards to view.

To checkout the prices and to order go to the Spanish Channels page and click the quote me button on any package of interest.

Students of language , Colleges and schools can make use of these services too , we install multi room setups in a number of different formats to suit all needs.

Receivers – our main receivers are from the popular Technomate range, both SD and HD models which have proved themselves very capable in fixed dish and motorised dish installations, the remote can be operated in two modes FAVourites or SATellite mode. In favourite mode, a user may save a list of favourite channels under his own name eg. Andys Fav. other users may have their own lists. In Satellite mode, the user simply selects the satellite with left/right keys , and channel with the Up /down keys. The receiver will take most major  subscriptions cards without an additional CAM unit.

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Our installer Andrew, always spends some time after installation to make sure the customer is familiar enough with the equipment to navigate to the desired channel and can operate it with any existing equipment like a Sky box, Tv, video or disc recorders and Hi Fi.

quote me

For a Quote to install Spanish channels watch this help with coordinates, then click the Quote Me button

New Catalan Channels on TDT

Sharp eyed readers will have noticed a few new Catalan channels listed on my main website : Satellitetveurope.co.uk on the Spanish page

The new Catalan channel  list is: 

  1. TV3 HD first channel now in HD
  2. El 33 Catalan second channel
  3. 3-24 News
  4. iB3 global
  5. eSport
  6. Sx3 Children’s channel

Updating to include the new Catalan channels may be automatic, or you might see a dialogue prompting you to update  (retune) 

TVE internacional and TVE News 24 are to move Satellite Again

TVE announced in December of 2019, the new contract with  Eutelsat to use Hotbird – on 13 degrees east. The schedule is to be simultaneous transmission on the current satellite Astra 1 until 1st March 2020 when the Astra transponder will be reassigned. 

Viewers will be happy to know that the new frequencies will carry the 2 programmes in HD quality, for the first time.

If you have a motorised dish or a multi-satellite dish, The new Spanish transmission on Hotbird can be found on 12303 Mhz Vert s/r 27500

If not then get in touch and I’ll work out the price of either adding an extra lnb to your dish OR moving the dish round to Hotbird. 

Note: Andalucia, Aragon, Extremadura and Galicia are to stay on Astra, so the best policy would be the extra lnb.2

 

two lnb dish for Astra and Hotbird

So…its back to the same situation we had 10 years ago, when the only free Spanish channels were split between 2 satellites.

Andalucia is no longer on Hispasat end 2017

After a long period of stability ,In a bid to save money Movistar, the owners of Canal Sur ( Andalucia ) and Aragon, regional channels have decided to abandon the Hispasat satellite and continue only on Astra 1

Viewers with dishes on Hispasat can contact me to add an Astra dish or  re-position their current dish on Astra

TDT is now Available in the UK

FANTASTIC NEWS FOR ALL SPANISH VIEWERS IN THE UK

tdt

The TDT system, which has been around quite a while in Spain, but up to now there was no way to purchase it outside Spanish territory , is now ON SALE !

Originally TDT was offered only where aerial reception in Spain was not possible,  it gives all their main channels and is NOT subscription based.

Full Details can be found on my TDT page

Aragon is Back

After an absence of a couple of years Aragon TV reappeared this month on Spanish Free to Air TV

After an absence of a couple of years Aragon TV reappeared this month on Spanish Free to Air TV.

The regional tv broadcaster is active full time on a frequency shared with Galicia, so If you already have the Galicia channel just rescan and Aragon will appear in your channel list

Freq 11067 Vertical Sym/rate 22000aragon_tv

If you don’t have Galicia, just rescan, if it doesn’t appear, use “blind scan” on receivers with this facility or use “advanced scan” and enter the frequency ( or TP)  , Polarity and Symbol Rate.

Aragon is a region of Spain in between Madrid and Barcelona, its North edge has the Pyrannees and the French border , Aragons capital Zaragoza has over half the population of the whole region.

Latest Round up of Free Spanish Channels

 

tve_internacional_eu  TVE internacional , broadcasts programmes from TVE 1 and 2 Spains main broadcaster
tve_canal_24horas  24 horas News
aragon_tv  Regional Programming from Aragon News Entertainment … Bulls!
cuba  Entertainment and News from Cuba
Andalucia tv Canal Sur – Andalucia the very popular channel has returned after a 2 month break
tv_galicia  TV Galicia regional programmes in Galician language
telesur_ve  South American Content mainly from Telesur in Venezuala
rt_espanol  RT internacional , broadcasts programmes from Russia in Spanish – can be very entertaining and a different perspective on News items

 

If you have a motorised dish, you will be able get Extramadura , Parlemento and several others from the Hispasat satellite over to the west ( 30 degrees West )

 

 

 

Canal Sur Andalucia TV is closed down

The popular Andalucia ( or Canal Sur ) channel finished at  midnight 31st December 2014. Both the Hispasat and the Astra 1 satellites have ceased broadcasting the  Andalucia channel

andaluciatv

As yet there is no news as to its future, it may become part of Canal+ subscription service , keep reading on the Spanish channels website , I’ll be posting any information I receive. You can use the link below to watch online.

At the  moment the channel name, but no video or audio is present on the old frequency 11068.

The move has caused much protest in the region, the channel was free by satellite and consisted of programming from the Canal Sur and Canal Sur 2 regional channels belonging to Radio Television de Andalucia.

The Channel will continue by cable and by IPTV on the ONO, Telecable and Moviestar networks.

 

You can still watch Online Andalucia TV channel  here

More Frequency Changes for TVE Internacional

At the moment (2nd June), both frequencies are in operation. If you can  see the scrolling message on TVE int “nueva frecuencia  ” then you need to tune to the new frequency. If you are receiving it now and you cannot see the scrolling message , then its ok you  need do nothing.

tve_internacional_eu

New Frecuencia 11626 / 22000 / V

Old Frecuencia 11656  / 22000 / V  ( will cease on 20th June )

Canal Plus Spain sold to Telefonica

Telefonica which previously owned 22 % of Canal Plus Spain, has now added the 56% from Prisa, this 725 Million Euro
take deal makes Telefonica the largest player in the Spanish pay-tv market. The remainder 22% belongs to the
Italian Mediasat company , of course founded in the 1970s and still having a large holding by Silvio Berlusconi .

TelefonicaTelefonica

So the near 1.6 million CanalPlus Spanish customers will be added to Telefonicas audience, but this concentration
of the market may yet be subject to scrutiny by the competition.

Prisa at least has made a clean break, with the burden of the debt ridden Spanish broadcasters out of the way, they
recently sold off the Cuatro channel to Mediaset and were very keen to accept the Telefonica bid this week.

Telefonica own the Moviestar ” Tv Everywhere” , and are expanding rapidly with newly acquired rights to Formula One
racing and MotoGP racing amongst others.

More Free Spanish Channels to Close

The very unwelcome news of more tv closures, was announced yesterday 5th May.

 

La Sexta

Some of the popular channels from Atresmedia are being forced to close within Spanish territory. Nearly 40 percent of the available free channels will no longer be broadcast. These include La Sexta, Siete, Nitro, Nueve, and AXN .

How this will affect the channels on Satellite is as yet unknown.

TVE

Further bad news, it was announced today in El Mundo, that TVE , having debts approaching 800 Million Euros , was nearing bankruptcy. TVE has been in mounting crisis since 2009, adding roughly 100 million debt each succeeding year. When the amount exceeds the 50% of stockholding mark, the association between government and TVE will dissolve . Whether this means Spains main public broadcaster will close is doubtful, but it will certainly mean that change will be enforced. Although it was previously decided that the directors would go and be replaced with a new board, last year, because of the political interests of the  members of the board, this was never achieved, leaving TVE with  no plan in place for change.

It is thought that the government will probably support TVE , with a further line of credit of nearly 120 Million Euros , whilst changes are made.

Canal Plus Seleccione Offer

Currently the Spanish pay tv provider Canal+ ( Digital Plus ) has a good offer for customers with a Spanish Bank account and spanish address.

Seleccione OfferQualifying customers please contact me to have a free estimate of the installation costs for Canal+

 

TVE expand on Astra Satellite

TVEs expansion programme is at odds with the cuts demanded by government

We certainly hope that TVE will continue to broadcast, as the number of free spanish channels lost over the last four years continues to grow. Canarias, ETB ( Basque) Valencia and Extramadura,   have all gone to the pay tv provider Digital Plus. TeleMadrid continues to be on strike.

More proposals have come to light with the announcement that TVE channels TVE internacional and TVE Canal 24 are to be available on Astra 1M satellite again after losing them a couple of years ago. You can tune in right now on:

11656V sym rate 22000

These plans for expansion are at odds with the recent Spanish government call to cut costs and slim down the TVE company. In 2012 TVE moved into the South American  market, in 2013 plans were made to include TVE channels in many of the European major packages like Canal Plus. Yet in April 2012 TVE were ordered by finance minister Cristobal Montoro to make more cut backs or wage cuts. This was a further blow after the 2011 November loss of 204 Million Euro from the broadcasters budget, also ordered by Montoro.

Digital Plus must be one of the highest price subscription services available today. Surely it would make more sense to lower prices to increase their subscriber base. Also to drop their restrictions selling Digital Plus overseas. Just like high taxation countries, if they changed to lower taxes, less people try to avoid tax and overall tax revenue actually rises.  Where there are barriers , black markets flourish  with card sharing use rising, Digital Plus makes no income, only the black marketeers will profit.

ETB Basque Channel stops transmission

Another casulty of the financial crisis no doubt, ETB the Basque channels broadcast by the Euskal Telebista  organisation, has decided to restrict its output to cable and IPTV only. ETB was broadcast in French, Basque and Spanish languages.

etb_sat

ETB from Astra 1 satellite ceased on May 1st.

 

ETB 1 is still listed on the Fransat card, however the cost of the Fransat box and card, which is all French channels may be high for anyone just wanting the one Basque channel .

Currently Euskal Telebista continues to broadcast by cable and internet ( IPTV) ETB1, 2 and 3.

 

 

Astra 2E Launch Confirmed

The Russian company launching the communications satellites from Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan, has completed its investigations into the latest rocket failure  and will now proceed with the schedule. Prime Minister Medvelev recently spoke about the series of mishaps resulting in 10 satellites being lost in 7 launches from the Kazahk base.

Astra 2E (BBC and ITV Channels )

The next mission will be the ILS Proton rocket launch of the Astra 2E satellite for SES, scheduled for 15th September this year. When this goes into service later in the year, the expected big changes for the English Ex Pat communities around Spain will come into effect. The tightening of the satellite footprint to just the Uk territory will mean the Spanish will lose all BBC and ITV channels, unless even larger dishes are employed to boost the signal.

 

Information from the ILS Launch website

Whatever happened to TeleMadrid

Free to Air Spanish Channels

Once a very popular free Spanish channel, one of the very few still free to air, on the Astra satellite, TeleMadrid has had extreme problems and has been missing for many months.telemadridExtreme Over Staffing Levels

According to El Pais, the over bloated number of staff at the station has caused major reshuffles to descend and cut the numbers by up to 80%. Financial audits done back in 2004 pointed at this problem and in 2006 the government had to bail out the company to the tune of 20Million Euro, but nothing was done until last years proposals to cut the enormous budget to half its 2013 level and sack 925 staff members at the company, which is what prompted the strike which has caused the blackout of the station as staff went on strike.

Only the occasional Notice programme or still photo has been broadcast since December last year 2012. Even a visit to former regional premier Ignacio Gonzales by employees at Telemadrid, to hand over a letter of petition  to “save the lives of 925 families” has not managed to change the course of the management plan.

 Debt

TeleMadrid were well known to be pro the regional government and have racked up a massive 260 million euros debt, in part due to the huge numbers of  journalists hired who were sympathetic to the party in power.  The previous head of the Channel Esperanza Aguirre would try to interfere with presentation of the News , in that if a journalist would disagree with her view she would just hire another, more sympathetic replacement.  This carried on until there was gross duplication in all departments.

Will it Come Back

So for the future programming will be reduced to just  newscasts, series, movies and two long-running programs Madrileños por el mundo and Madrid directo , these being produced out of house by private companies. Lets hope the remaining staff can start the channel going again

Rocket Crash delays Uk channel restrictions

Yesterdays spectacular rocket failure in Russia will delay the launch of the new satellite carrying Astra 2E. This is the satellite which will replace Astra 1N, which currently delivers the main BBC/ITV  Uk channels as far south as Spain and all over europe. This has not been an event to look forward to, as the thousands of Uk expats living in Spain were to lose their Uk tv with the deployment of this new satellite.

rocket

All over Europe, broadcasts are being restricted, either by sales of cards or equipment or by technical means, using spot beams to make the satellite footprint only cover the country of origin. Is this really what we want, In a supposedly more open Europe?

PLEASE NOTE: THIS DOES NOT AFFECT ANYONE IN THE UK, ONLY British citizens in Spain watching the main Uk channels by satellite. The projected deployment of August this year, will now be   delayed.

After the satellites are changed over , expats will still be able to watch Uk tv via internet, with a suitable IP box

Spanish tv advertising revenue may fall

Last year 2012, Spanish television channels broadcast 10% fewer advertisements than in 2011

Last year 2012, Spanish television channels broadcast 10% fewer advertisements than in 2011 – the first time for 10years that commercial ads have fallen from one year to another , according to Zenith Media. They reported that the number of advertising spots had up until 2012 been growing year after year, according to Neeo.es.In addition, the  advertising minutes per day dropped by 11%, all this is happening within a context where more tv channels than ever before are showing.

So far, the reduction in the number of adverts hasn’t negatively affected the number of advertising minutes watched by the viewers, however, which was 22 minutes per day, the same as in 2011; neither did it affect the gross rating point (GRP) earned by the advertisers with each ad.

Zenith Media pointed out that the reduction in the number of adverts coupled with no fall in GRP indicates the growing effectiveness of the advertisements by 10% during 2012. The reduction in the number of ads comes at a delicate time for the Spanish TV sector in which advertising investment in national TV channels has dropped more than 35% since 2007, according to the latest report by Infoadex. This is despite the fact the TV viewing hours are still growing,  this January being a  month with the second most TV consumption in the history of Spain. The price of advertising slots has fallen to try to keep the advertisers coming back.

As a consequence of this drop in advertising investment some TV channels have opted to drop their prices which may in turn reduce future advertising. Worrying times for the Spanish broadcasters.

Choosing a TV for Spanish TV

With the wonders of Digital transmission, where exactly to same picture arrives at your display, as was sent , unlike in the old days when it picked up ‘snow’ and picture ‘noise’ making the picture lose its original clarity, you really do need a modern tv to display it properly.

There are several technologies around today and more on the way. LCD is undoubtably  the leader at the moment, with Plasma displays a close second. Projectors are still around , the ‘flipping mirror’ DLP displays are getting better and the promise of laser projectors soon are giving them new life. The incredible palette of rich colours seen on the latest models need to be seen to be believed and of course with a projector its as big as you like!

On the horizon is OLED, threatening to remove LCD, plasma and anything else on sheer cost alone. OLED is basically a plastic sheet with light emitting diodes printed on the surface, yes I said printed. This amazing technology should be really cheap once in big production, Sony have already some 11 inch models and 27 inch models on sale, other manufacturers are catching on too.

Don’t be fooled though, there are many tvs offering LED display, but are NOT !  Leds emit light and can be used as the backlight, previously striplamps were used in LCD display units, to provide the light which you see on the screen. This is NOT a true LED screen . The  LED or OLED of the future ARE the display  which you see and not just the backlight, behind a conventional LCD front.LCD screen

Conventional LCD display using backlight made up of LED lights

 

From my installation work and from finding out which are the best picture quality around, I recommend the Samsung and LG manufacturers for the best value and most reliable products. For example below is the  Samsung 40H6200 Smart Full HD 1080p 40 Inch TV (2015 Model)

Samsungtv

  • Quad Core Processor – faster access to Smart features which allows true  multitasking watch tv whilst using Sykpe and many other apps
  • S Recommendation with voice recognition- get viewing recommendations tailored just for you. Over time it will learn what your viewing preferences are
  • Samsung’s Smart Hub – the industry’s reference platform just got better. It arranges content into five easy to navigate panels: On TV; movies and TV shows; multimedia; apps; and games .
  • Games Panel – discover a variety of fun games instantly on the largest screen in your home, which you can control from the Samsung smart remote or your phone or a games controller
  • Full HD 3D Ready – get closer to the action, discover the best 3D experience from every angle. High Definition picture quality. Lightweight 3D glasses enable you to experience great picture quality, with depth and vibrant colours and enjoy the full 3D experience (3D glasses sold separately).
  • The silver Quad stand enhances its smart appearance Encased in a black edge frame with a metallic accent on the base of the frame , this well designed TV will complement any room in your home.
  • There is the facility  to connect a hard drive to record your favourites for playback later.
  • Catch UP   Samsungs video on demand encompases BBC iplayer, ITV player, 4OD , Demand5 and BBC Sports….. who needs cable?
  • Sound – Get a Samsung sound bar to enhance the sound to match the superb picture, wireless of course the soundbar communcates and synchronises with the tv via bluetooth

andalucia and telemadrid new frequency

popular andalucia telemadrid telesur Spanish channels are moving frequency August 2012

the free Spanish channels Andalucia and,Telemadrid are now broadcasting on their new frequency 11067 vertical s/r 22000 fec 5/6
to retune on Manhattan and Technomate receivers go to the advanced tuning menu enter the frequency above. or use the blind search facility.

New Catalan channel on Eutelsat 12 west

A new addition to the free Spanish channel list. Canal Catala , broadcasts in Catalan from the Atlantic side of south – Eutelsat 12 west.

New Catalan Channel

Viewers with a motorised dish and HD receivers, will be able to see the usual group of channels on Hotbird and Astra1 plus the new Catalan channel
Details for tuning : Freq 11179 Vert s/r 22400 FEC 2/3 Mpeg4

Tune in the latest free Spanish Channel Hispan

Hispan tv
New Free Spanish channel on Hotbird satellite

News , articles and entertainment in Spanish from around the world. Broadcast from the Hotbird satellite. Hispan Tv started normal broadcasting July 2012 although testing has been taking place since October 2011. The origin of the channel is Iran, President Ahmadinejad has stated his intentions to favour relations with Spanish speaking countries.

Looking at the channels online viewing schedules, there is content from Uk, Spain and Iran.

 

Tuning Details:-  HOTBIRD Frequency 12380 Vertical DVB-s Symbol rate 27500 FEC  3/4

Portuguese Channel Systems now Available

We now have both the Meo and Tv Cabo Portuguese packages ready for installation.  Email me for prices of complete installation ( don’t forget to include your location – preferably your map coordinates from Google maps see  COORDINATES )

Meo Portuguese tv by satellite
Get Meo portuguese tv by satellite
TV CABO PORTUGAL