Latest news from Spain

16th SEPTEMBER 2008

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TV PROBLEMS ON COSTA BLANCA

For many years the expats on the Costa Blanca and adjoining areas have had the luxury of being able to receive TV programs from both Sky, BBC and ITV plus many other Sky channels including Sky movies and Sky Sports. The charges these companies make  20 euros a monthare a fraction of the UK monthly charges at around 50 to 60 GBP per month.

The system used to serve the expats is known as re transmission. Several companies have been down loading the signals, mainly from Sky, and then sending the signals out as terrestial signals. The system has up to now worked well and the signals received were in excellent digital quality.

The problems is that Sky, the BBC and ITV do not license these re transmissions but up until recently there was little they could do. However a new Spanish law brought in in 2007 made it illegal to re broadcast TV programs. Although several channels were what is known as "Free to Air" which means they are available to anyone free. It does not give anybody the right to charge customers a monthly fee. The Spanish ruling means that they cannot charge the monthly fee for their services and of course this means there is no real incentive for them to carry on.

The largest company Telmicro Levante SL has recently been closed down by the Guardia Civil. With reportedly 40,000 and 60,000 customers, this meant that Telmicro Levante were bringing in some 1.2 million Euros per month. It is said on other related matters but so far despite promises that they would start re transmitting a new service at the beginning of September, Telmicro's customers screen's are still blank.

The whole re transmission industry in now in chaos, with several smaller companies still transmitting although most have now stopped transmitting all Sky channels apart from Sky news ( a free to air service). However nobody knows how long these companies can carry on.

The feeling in Torrevieja, situated in the enter of the Costa Blanca and one of the main expat areas, is that nothing will happen until the legal process has been completed with Telmicro Levante. Then everybody will know the future of the English Language programs.

Many of Telmicro's customers have already switched to other companies but advice given from many quarters is do not bother until you know if these other companies will be affected to.

SO WHY NOT JUST HAVE YOUR OWN SATELLITE SYSTEM AS THE UK DOES.

Traditionally there was no need. The service provided by the re transmission companies was excellent. The picture quality was as good as in the uk and the service only cost 20 euros per month for everything including sports and movies. There was no unslightly dish just a small square mesh ariel.

With the possible demise of this service, expats will not almost certainly have to consider a satellite system.

The problems with this are many. The main consideration is dish size. Where in the UK a 60cm dish will provide excellent quality, this is not the case in southern Spain, where a minimum 1.4 metre dish is needed and in alot of cases a 2 metre dish is needed. These are vast contraptions to have on your roof or in your garden. The main reason why a dish of this size is needed is not as some people think that Spain is further south than the UK but in signal strength.

Comapnies such as Sky are licensed to beam their signals down to the UK and Ireland only. To try and stop these signals going further afield, the signals are beamed down at the lowest possible strength. Fine for the UK but not in southern Spain.

So those who now feel that a change over to a satellite systems is the only solution have several systems to choose from.

Firstly, they can have a full Sky system. They will need to have a normal UK or Irish Digital receiver and a normal Sky viewing card. They can either bring to Spain their box and card everytime they come over, or have an extra box and card and leave them in Spain. The problem with this is that they must have a UK address and bank account for the monthly payment.

Secondly, they can have the new "Freesat" system. This is a joint venture between the BBC and ITV and is nothing to do with Sky. So for your one off payment of as low as 50 GBP you can buy your own digital receiver in the UK from Argos or Maplins and bring it over. As the service is free no viewing card is needed. Again the dish size is going to be an issue but a 1.4 metre dish will suffice in many areas.

As always, supply and demand will rule here and very soon we will see many new companies opening up selling these systems in Spain and the demise of the re transmission companies will surely follow.

1st September 2008

ILLEGAL DOG BREEDING CENTRE CLOSED DOWN

Brilliant news for all of us dog owners.

Many of us see posters in Spain of lost dogs and it is obvious that many may have been stolen for illegal breeding purposes.

This is of course not just a problem for Spain but everywhere in the world.

The Guardia Civil have just announced that they have successfully closed down an illegal breeding centre at Cogollos Vega in Granada. The owner has been arrested.

Nearly 300 pedigree dogs were found in cages, only 50 of these dogs were found be microchipped and one, a Yorkshire terrier was reported missing two years ago.

13th May 2008

WORLDS LARGEST CRUISE LINER IN CANARY ISLANDS

The 'Indepence of the seas', Royal Caribbeans latest and larget cruise liners is currently  cruising the Canary Islands on her maiden voyage. Although she currently hold the title at 158,000 tonnes, she will soon be dwarfed by another class in Royal Caribbeans fleet when the Genisis type enter service, these new ships will weigh in at a massive 220,000 tonnes. The 'Indepencence of the seas' will visit Santa Cruz, Las Palmas and Arrecife before heading home to Southampton.

13th May 2008

REPSOL LOOKS FOR NATURAL GAS OFF MALAGA

Repsol, one of the major gas and petrol companies in Spain have announced plans to look for natural gas in the sea bed of Malaga. They have concluded a photographic study of the sea bed which although showed no oil reserves concluded that gas may be present. They are now studying data to decide if and where to start exploratory drilling.

12th May 2008

TENNIS

The Spanish Tennis federation has decided that Madrid would be the venue of the semi final of the Davis cup against the United States of America in September despite protests of the Spanish players. Nine players including Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer say the high altitude of the Las Ventas bullring, the chosen venue would favour the Americans.

Other venues were considered more suitable by the players these were Benidorm,Tenerife and Gijon. The nine players have hinted that they may boycot special pronotional events for the federation in protest.

The Spanish captain, Emilo Sanchez Vicario was not suprised that the players concerns were ignored. Media reports suggest that the reason Madrid was chosen is because it's tourist board is the major sponsor of the event.

10th May 2008

MEDIEVAL WRECK FOUND IN BUILDING SITE

The wreck of a medieval ship has been found in Barcelona. The ship which is reputed to be from the 13th century was discovered during building work near the city centre.

6th May 2008

PROTEST AT SPANISH BULL FIGHT

In Madrid at the famous "Las Ventas" Bull ring six protestors managed to gain access to the ring. They were removed by the security staff but not before they made their protest heard.

Although for years it was mainly the British and other expats who complained about this barbaric custom, the Spanish themselves are questioning the so called sport more and more. A recent poll shows that over 70% of Spaniards are not interested in the spectical.

25th August 2008

MORE TROUBLE FOR SPANAIR

Following last weeks crash of a Spanair MD-82 jet. Another Spanair flight bound for the Canaries was forced to make an un scheduled landing at Malaga.

The passengers noticed that the lights in the cabin started flickering and the pilot found one of the generators was not functioning.The flight from Barcelona to Lanzarote landed without problem at the southern Spanish airport and passengers had to spend the night at local hotels before carrying on with their journey.