English Television in Spain Telmicro Levante, Cina, Satellite, Downloading, Alternatives

English Television in Spain Telmicro Levante , Cina, Satellite, Downloading, Alternatives

Spanish property company 1980 s.l
Article refernce page / http://spc.realtors.officelive.com/tvandradio.aspx

Sky English TV and the Mesh system - CINA, Telmicro Levante, Torrestat

Many people located in Costa Blanca were using a small mesh dish of approx 1m2 to recieve English TV. This is a rebroadcast service offered by a number of companies including Telmicro, Torrestat as well as a few others. Recently Telmicro offices were raided by the guardia. This subject has been a bone of contention for SKY as well as other channels as technically rebroadcasting intellectual property rights without permission is illegal.

Spanish law has allowed the matter to continue, but much pressure has been applied by SKY television as well as other broadcasters. We do not wish to speculate at this stage the situation of such companies as Telmicro Levante as mixed information is being published and the full story has yet to unfold.

At time of writing Torrestat is broadcasting, but there is no guarantee as EU law could force closure of all of these type of companies.


Don't get scammed

Since August 2008, it is estmated between 60,000 - 100,000 expatriates have lost their UK programming through Telmicro. Many companies seem to have sprung up in local papers, forums and on the internet offering the cure. Most of these if not downright dishonest are blatant scams to try to deceive those who are desperate to get their TV back.

A number of companies have appeared offering a service re-routing your computers IP address - so it appears you are in the UK and then can download directly off websites such as the BBC (iplayer). These companies tend to use complex terminology to try to baffle people with technicalities or call it a completely different service.

This is illegal as currently BBC (and the other major broadcasters) only have the right to broadcast the shown programs in the UK. Companies who are offering this service are breaking the law as well as charging a considerable sum of money. Additionally anyone wishing to use this type of service can do it considerably cheaper than these companies are offering by downloading relatively cheap software off the internet.


The BBC has stated that it will soon start BBC world iplayer service for expatriates abroad. Currently we have no release date.

Before you spend any further money on expensive set up costs - many companies that are still broadcasting are offering a similar service - however there is no guarantee that all of these companies will be closed down in the near future. €500 for a new mesh rebroadcasting system will not guarantee you ongoing future viewing.


Free services & downloading from the internet

You will need a broadband internet connection and a computer.

There are a number of ways of receiving television on the internet. Many major TV stations now publish on http://www.youtube.co.uk/ there are 1000's of internet general interest channels which can be viewed and downloaded for free with http://www.getmiro.com/

http://www.uknova.com/ broadcasts the main UK programs soon as they are published on the internet by the TV stations - Coronation Street, Eastenders and everything else in between. You will need to download http://www.bitlord.com/ (free) which assembles the downloaded programs (known as torrents).

Setanta sports - Provides live international sport broadcasts to Irish and British expatriates living in Britain, Europe, North America, and Australia. http://www.setantasports.com/ covers different sports including Football, Boxing, Motor racing, Rugby, Golf, Horse racing, Cricket as well as a few others.

Many UK TV stations now offer media players directly on their websites - such as BBC's iplayer, however these do not work (currently) outside the UK. Software is available on the internet to change you IP address to appear it is in another country, such as the UK.

http://www.hide-my-ip.com/premium.shtml Please review the Is it legal? section below for further information on this matter.

If you are interested in Radio, there are many websites which broadcast worldwide radio for free.


Multimedia players

Multimedia players are stand alone computer hard drives with decoding chips and video output to your television. Any television programs you download can be copied across to these devices, then plugged into your television and press play on the remote control (as you would with a DVD player). They are suitable for downloaded files for TV / Video as well as audio and digital pictures. Many of these have digital camera card slots, so you just plug in to view you digital camera photos on your television. At time of writing Multimedia players in Spain are available from €89.

If you have a laptop many modern TV's have component out leads as well as svideo out. These allow you to watch whatever is on your computer - on the television. This would remove the need for a Multimedia player - though you do not have the convenience of a remote control or the simplicity of use of the Media player.


Other options - Slingbox

Slingbox is a device which connects directly to a UK Skybox and a broadband line. This signal can be sent out to any country in the world as long as you have a computer and a reasonable speed broadband connection (there is a speed test on their website).

You can also change channels on a UK skybox whilst in a foreign country as well as use all of SKY+ services. This is useful for those individuals who have family in the UK where you can buy an extra Skybox cheaply and access all the channels without affecting anyone elses viewing or paying an additional subscription. http://www.slingmedia.com/


Is downloading and P2P filesharing legal in Spain?

Most major broadcasting stations are now releasing programs simultaneously on the television as well as the internet. These can be downloaded as mentioned previously from the sites above. However downloading the latest films and music off the internet is generally considered to be illegal. The situation in Spain is currently unclear - related articles below.


June 27 2006

Spain outlaws P2P filesharing

(Daily Variety Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) MADRIDA Spanish intellectual property law has finally banned unauthorized peer-to-peer file-sharing in Spain, making it a civil offense even to download content for personal use.The legislation, approved by Congress on Thursday, toughens previous provisions. An early May circular from Spain's fiscal general del estado, or chief prosecutor, allowed downloads for purely personal use.Now Spaniards caught grabbing content from, say, eMule, will have to reimburse rights holders for losses - although such losses will be difficult for authorities to track. But the government is going after Internet service providers; it's a criminal offense for ISPs to facilitate unauthorized downloading.

November 2006

"The state prosecutor's office and two music distribution associations had sought a two year sentence against the man, who downloaded songs and then allegedly offered them on a CD through email and chat rooms. However, there was no direct proof he made money from selling the CDs.

Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopéz Aguilar says Spain is drafting a new law to abolish the existing right to private copies of material. Due to different regulatory regimes in Europe, the proceedings against file sharers differ greatly in each country. However, most European judges tend to take a harder stance on file sharing. Twenty two people in Finland were fined €427,000 last week for illegally sharing movies, music, games and software, while courts in Sweden also fined two men who had downloaded movies and music for personal use."

24 October 2007

The case against Sharemula.com, a website publishing P2P download links through which users can acquire movies, music and software, has been recently dismissed by a Spanish magistrate.
The case was opened in October 2006, when the Brigade of Technological Investigations retained 15 people responsible with Sharemula.com, asking the closing down of the site for alleged copyright infringement. At that time, the Spanish media made a big fuss of the case, the 15 retained people having been considered as belonging to a large international clandestine pirating network. The case was considered a big success by Federación Antipiratería in Spain (Anti-pirating Federation).

A year later, a Madrid court decided that the site and its administrators have not infringed any law as the links to P2P downloads have no commercial purposes. Furthermore, the site included no illegal content but only links to downloads. The defence of Sharemula was based on three previous similar rulings.


SERVIMEDIA - Madrid - 27/08/2008 SERVIMEDIA - Madrid- El Pais
Customers Europeans are mobilizing to save the P2P

The associations of Internet users expect that the European Parliament decides against 'amendments torpedo'

The association of Internet Users have been informed today that a number of European organizations are mobilizing to users that the European Parliament decide on amendments known as torpedo, which include measures such as eliminating or reducing the speed of P2P and installation and enforcement of software on computers to detect alleged infringements of intellectual property.

The adoption of these amendments also supports cooperation between Internet providers and content producers to judge what content is legal and what not, and the obligation of service providers, to monitor and alert via e-mail to users when downloading illegal content.

According to the association, through a communique, the European Parliament will vote in the last week of September, the telecom package, and with it the amendments torpedo. The adoption of these supposed "cutting civil liberties, surveillance and censorship of the Internet" the Chinese style "and impersonation of the Judicial Authority by the interests of private companies."

Customers assured that the ideal is to reclaim the European Union rejection of these amendments and at the same time, demand a clear pronouncement in favorr of Net Neutrality, that only judges can decide on the legality of the content and favour that only judges can decide on the closure of a website.


P2P Operators Spanish willing to consider a system of warnings against P2P.

The employer AETIC is analyzing the French model but not considered applicable in Spain in the short term

LUZ FERNÁNDEZ - Madrid - 04/07/2008 LIGHT Fernandez - El Pais

A year ago negotiations broke down between management companies and the rights of film music and telecommunications operators Spaniards, who have failed to reach an agreement to launch a series of measures to curb the illegal distribution of content on the Internet.

Proposals for the owners of the rights has focused on a system in which any of these associations could send a notification to the operator for this step to remove the illegal content."This goes against the Spanish legal system, and we have always denied such collaboration," says Edmundo Fernandez, director of Electronics Professional employers AETIC, involving all telecommunications companies in Spain.

"We are still waiting to return wanting to come to negotiate," says Fernandez, when asked about whether the audiovisual and music they have raised some proposals to the style of French policy against P2P networks, which cut access to the Internet those users who after three warnings continue downloading content.

AETIC acknowledges that is studying the model adopted by the government and that Sarkozy has also begun implementing a pilot of an operator in the UK. "It could create a similar mechanism that always had a public authority with powers controlled by a legal body," says Fernandez, que cree that despite everything, we should change the law and the Spanish community.

AETIC sees no clear that in the short term is going to take a measure of French-style warnings, as well as legal problems, we should assess the costs that can pose to call this mechanism put in place, in addition to the deterioration that would this measure for its brand.

Despite all the difficulties encountered by the call, AETIC insists that being analysed carefully the French model as a possible alternative to curb piracy on the Internet. In this sense, the call want to make it clear that they are totally agree that it is very urgent to combat illegal content on the Internet, and ensure that piracy harms also prevents your business because they develop services based on the distribution of legal content.

"We put the pipe to pass water, but can not blame us if people put poison. We are blaming us when we supply pipe, but not the server from which provides that illegal content," insisted Fernandez


Spanish terrestrial television - in English

For around €70 you can obtain a freeview box and external ariel. As this is a digital service you are able to switch the language over to English on a few of the channels, usually for films and American produced shows. Available in Carrefour, Media Mkt and other electrical outlets.

Canal + offer a digital subscription service across Spain, again you can switch to English on many channels and they show many popular American TV channels as well as sport. http://www.plus.es/ They have English speaking representatives. Available in Carrefour.


Information on Spain and more - http://www.spcinvest.com/