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

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

Digital Plus Verses Sky prices

My supplier for the Spanish Digital Plus service, can supply the viewing cards to receive this service , with all the popular Spanish mainland channels TVE1 TVE2, Antena3, Cuatro, Telecinco, La Sexta……..

The card is purchased with CAM, enabling it to be used in my satellite receivers and initially the card is valid for 18 months. At 1089 Euro it represents quite good value. Compared with the Sky Uk package @ £52/month plus receiver @ £50 which is £629/year, Digital Plus Card works out at 726 Euro ( £629/year )

Chile satellite tv

Although the satellite Hispasat carries channels for South America most are inaccessible to us in Europe, due to the direction of the ‘Americas’ beam used. This channel ‘Tv Chile’ is beamed from another satellite at Norway!!

The channel is receivable here in the Uk and can be combined with the other Spanish channels from Astra on a single dish

Chile tv here in the Uk
Chile tv here in the Uk

see Chile Page of main site

Spanish and …..

Having met some amazing couples on my travels installing satellites, I am aware that  not everyone wants just Spanish channels. I have been asked for Greek and Spainish, French and Spanish, German and Spanish, Dutch and Spanish….. and the list grows every day.

If you would like a quote for satellite tv from 2 countries, I am always happy to come up with new solutions.

Dont forget too, that Uk channels can be combined with Spanish on a  single dish, you dont have to have 2 dishes ( ** except Hispasat , if you want Valencia tv **)

What Else??

Several of our readers have asked, what else can I see when I purchase a satellite system to receive Spain?

Several other European countries can be received, using the same satellite gear. Spain can be combined on a single dish with several others, the easiest to tune in would be Germany, France or a few channels from Poland. So a Spanish setup on 19 degrees , could also receive these 3 countries.

With the addition of an extra LNB adaptor and Diseqc switch, many more channels become available, Italy for example broadcasts over 350 channels free, with football being shown occasionally too! On the same satellite there are many more Polish, Arab and Middle Eastern channels without encryption.

To see what is available in addition to your Spanish channels , have a look at my Spain 2 Package on the main site

TVE international gone from Sky

SKY channel 975 TVE international stopped broadcasting last week, good old reliable Sky…… NOT. Well the solution is easy. We supply and fit full satellite systems which not only get TVE FREE but also many other FREE Spanish channels

channels from Hispasat and Astra Satellites
channels from Hispasat and Astra Satellites

This fantastic line up is all Free from the Hispasat and Astra  satellites NOW

Ring 07756 482 669 or go to www.satellitetveurope.co.uk/allspain.html to order

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 )

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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