Visit Wotsat.com for daily news, reviews and updates from the world of digital TV, or join our forums . Instant guide to free digital TV channels EYES ON IBERIA How to get Spanish and Portguese sat channels Want to see more? SPAIN & PORTUGAL SEPTEMBER 2011
Wotsat looks at free and pay-TV from the Iberian peninsula
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Digital+ Satellites: Astra 19.2°E, Hispasat 30°WEncryption: Nagravision 3Channels: 110 SD, 21 HDWebsite: www.plus.es The biggest pay-TV platform in Spain, and the only one via satellite, Digital+ has a complex commercial history – taking in Via Digital, Canal+ Mediaset, Sogecable and others and today is owned by the huge Spanish Prisa media group.
Digital+ includes the main terrestrial channels and the very popular Canal+ sports and film channels with packages starting at €18 a month.
Zon TVCaboSatellites: Hispasat 30°WEncryption: Nagravision 3Channels: 89 SD, 11 HDWebsite: www.zon.pt Part of Zon Multimedia – spun off from Portugal Telecom and almost the only
IBER
IAN
pAY
-tv
Pay or pirate
Spain and Portugal
SpANiSH TV dominates the satellite airwaves in this part of Europe and many Spanish channels can be found
broadcasting from Hot Bird, Astra 19.2°E and Hispasat at 30°W.
Hispasat was originally Spanish through and through, but it is now owned by international shareholders, including Eutelsat. Nevertheless, it still majors on channels for and from Spain, Portugal and Latin America.
Most Spanish satellite channels are broadcast encrypted, as part of the Digital+ package.
This includes the main national terrestrial
channels, La1, La2, Antena3, Cuatro, Telecinco, and La Sexta.
The first two are from Spain’s public service broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE) while the other four are private stations (Cuatro and Telecinco are majority owned by Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset España).
For the most part, free-to-air channels on satellite are limited to more minor national and
local general entertainment channels, news, shopping and religious channels.
However, for overseas Spanish speakers, there is one FTA beacon of quality entertainment from news to game shows, documentaries to soaps – TVE Internacional provides an overseas service compiled from La1 and La2 programmes.
Once available free-to-air on many satellites (including, even, 28.2°E), TVE Internacional is now
You can learn Spanish cooking on ExtremaduraShopping channels are the same the world over
What you need to receive Spanish and portuguese free TVn Free-to-air DVB digital satellite receiver n 50cm dish for 28.2°E, or 60cm (13°E, 19.2°E, 9°E, 30°W), or 80cm (12.5°E)
toolkit
this month Wotsat looks at tV from the iberian peninsula
Pay or pirate cable provider in Portugal – Zon TV Cabo provides satellite TV, phone and broadband services (and connected TV apps). Included in the various packages (from €10 a month, plus receiver rental) are the main Portuguese channels, a number of thematic ones, Portuguese international channels, a smattering of channels from elsewhere in Europe and South America, plus Zon’s own sports and film channels.
MeoSatellites: Hispasat 30°W
Encryption: Nagravision 3Channels: 89 SD, 7 HDWebsite: www.meo.pt Meo is a relative newcomer to Portuguese satellite, expanding out of Lisbon cable TV. In competition with Zon, ironically, Meo is also from Portugal Telecom. Meo distributes the main Portuguese channels plus mostly Portuguese versions of international channels via satellite, broadband and fibre, and bundles broadband and phone with TV in packages from (TV only) €10 a month plus receiver rental.
euro focus
also mostly encrypted, but remains FTA on Hot Bird.
Minority languagesWith a population of under 11million, Portugal has never been awash with homegrown TV channels and the main terrestrial channels – public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal’s RTP1 and RTP2, along with private channels, SIC and TVI – are not available free to air by satellite.
However, like TVE, RTP broadcasts an overseas combination of RTP1 and RTP2 FTA on Hot Bird – RTP Internacional.
Otherwise, religion dominates the FTA Portuguese satellite channels, with the only relief coming from two channels from Rede Record in
São Paulo, Brazil. Record News provides 24-hour news and
Record Internacional Europa brings youth-orientated populist entertainment to Europe, broadcasting from several satellites – including our very own 28°E.
For the more linguistically adventurous, there’s more to the Iberian Peninsula than just Spanish and Portuguese.
You can also watch channels for speakers of Catalan, Basque and Galician, which extend the reach of these minority languages beyond their native areas.
Starter for 10: TVE Internacional gets quizzical TV Canção Nova Internacional offers religion
n Free TV from italy
Next
Aidan Channel: Telecincon On air: Sundays, 10pm CETn www.telecinco.es/aida
Sitcom Aida is huge in Spain. Airing on Telecinco (similar to our ITV1), the show has now finished its eighth season and has been commissioned for another four.
First aired in 2005, Aida was a spin-off from another big hit, 7 Vidas (Seven Lives), a kind of Spanish Friends set in Madrid – that began in 1999. Aída García, one of the ever-changing characters in 7 Vidas, was given her own series in the same way as Frasier was spun off from Cheers.
Aida Garcia is an earthy single mother and the stereotypical Spanish working-class woman. The series follows her life in Madrid, with her ageing mother,
ex-junkie brother, teen son, boyfriend-hungry daughter (the audience has watched her, and her cleavage, grow), and the neighbours.
It is a testament to the popularity of the show that for 60 episodes Aida has been without its main character and namesake. Carmen Machi, who played Aida, left the show in 2009 during Season 6, but Aida continued without Aida.
The storyline was changed to send her to jail, more characters were brought in, including Aida’s eldest daughter and her child, Aida junior, and the laughs continued.
And it seems that life outside Aida was not all that Machi hoped for; Telecinco has announced that she is returning for several episodes of season 9, which starts in September.