Madrid
TV & Internet in Madrid
TV and Radio service in Madrid
The standards for television reception in Spain aren't the same as in some other countries. Due to the differences in transmission standards, television sets and video recorders operating on the British (PAL-I), French (SECAM) or North American (NTSC) systems won't function in Spain. Spain (along with most other continental European countries) uses the PAL-BG standard.
There is no TV licence in Spain.
Tv Channels in Spain
Radio y Televisión Española (RTVE) is the national state-owned television broadcaster in Spain. Its activities were earlier financed by a combination of advertising revenue and subventions from the national government. However, since January 2010 it has been supported only by public subsidies. RTE has responsibilities to deliver public service programmes in Spain.
In the rest of the channels broadcasted, adverts are very frequents, sometimes doubling the length of the film or program content.
There are several Tv channels in Spain. Between the most important, we can highlight:
- National Tv channels
- RTVE1 - Main RTÉ national station. "La 1" is a generalist channel which mainly broadcasts news reports and programmes, documentaries, magazine programmes, Spanish and Hispanic Latin American TV series, films (particularly Spanish and American films) and some popular sports competitions.
- RTVE2: La 2 mainly broadcast cultural programming, North American TV series, documentaries, Spanish and European films, news reports, debates and musicals.
- Clan: Clan is a children's channel, but also offers some programming aimed at teenagers during the evening and repeats TVE content from other channels during the early hours.
- TeleDeporte: Teledeporte broadcasts major Spanish and international sporting events.
- 24h: It broadcasts news reports, debates, analyses, interviews as well as rolling news. It was Spain's first 24-hour news channel.
- Autonomic (regional) channels. TeleMadrid is broadcasted in Madrid
- Rest of the most popular and private channels
Cable TV in Spain
If you wish to have access to a wider range of programs, you can subscribe to a monthly cable service. Most of the properties are already wired for cable service, but you can also set-up a connection when you subscribe for service as well. Average price is around 300€ a year.
The Cable system main providers are:
Satellite TV in Spain
A satellite receiver should have a built-in Videocrypt decoder (and others such as Eurocrypt, if required) and be capable of receiving satellite stereo radio. With a 1.2 or 1.5 meter motorized dish, you can receive hundreds of stations in a multitude of languages from around the world. If you wish to receive satellite TV on two or more TVs, you can buy a satellite system with two or more receptors. To receive stations from two or more satellites simultaneously, you need a motorized dish or a dish with a double feed antenna (dual LNBs).
The Satellite system main providers are:
- Movistar +
- Hispasat (https://www.hispasat.com/es/flota-de-satelites )
- SES (http://www.ses-astra.com/business/es/index.php )
- Astra
Internet in Spain
Internet is available in all populated areas of Spain, although it might be less available in rural areas.
The maximum speed that you can reach in Spain is 60Mbps (4G). However, offers for higher speed are dependent on the quality of the line, such as length of the wire, attenuation, and noise.
Providers
The majority of providers offer service packages that include a phone line and interactive TV in addition to an Internet connection. The speed and price of the Internet connection depends on the infrastructure available at your address. Commonly the price of a router is included in the contract, however you can choose to buy your own.
Services and prices vary from provider to provider. The main Spanish broadband providers are:
WiFi in Madrid
WiFi is being offered around the city for free and it is available 24/7 at various hotspots. Grupo Gowex, in collaboration with Madrid government, offers wi-fi connexion in some newspaper kiosks (kioscos de prensa), municipal buses, shops and cafés, etc.
Moreover, the connection on the buses is totally free, as are many of the other hotspots, although with a limited bandwidth.
To connect to the hotspots, you will have to register on Gowex.com website and look for a hotspot named "GOWEX WiFi" or "Madrid WiFi".
A map of the Gowex wi-fi hotspots can be found here
Update 8/06/2018
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and it was a real pain to get internet access.
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Hence, I had to sign up to a satellite internet service.
I used a UK based company who also work within Europe http://www.broadbandwherever.net
They offer 2 way satellite internet which is really quick and reliable.
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TV licence in Spain?
Hello, just to let you know that I have lived in Spain for the last 32 years and you don't need a TV licence. Of course we have Channel + (canal +) and other private channels but it does not work as here in the UK. You don't need a TV licence.
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