The Spain Forums

Lee · 18-09-2008, 08:38 PM

Tomorrows round town news is running another story on Telmicro

So I will post it tonight

Quote:

N
ot surprisingly, our open invitation to Telmicro Levante to speak to us regarding the dire situation that it has found itself in, went unanswered. Here at Round Town News we are still being inundated with e-mails and telephone calls from disgruntled customers and have spent the week getting various statements in order so that we can tell you, our readers, the best course of action; a legal way to get British TV here in Spain. As we told you last week, we have contacted many companies in both the UK and here in Spain so that we can determine exactly what is the best and legal way to receive TV and what isn’t. As we confirmed at the time, the crux of the whole issue is that Telmicro Levante S.L. were re-broadcasting British TV. Basically, they were using the mesh dishes to receive a signal that was itself being received via a larger dish. The signals were transmitted all over the Southern Costa Blanca and as this is illegal, the authorities shut them down. It is believed that they will be also targeting other companies doing this in the near future. Through our investigations, we have confirmed that the only legal way to get British TV is to buy a satellite dish that is large enough to receive the signal directly from the satellite that is in orbit. This has been confirmed by the Telecommuncations Ministry in Madrid.

SKY

We contacted BSkyB to determine what their position is with regards to their channels being broadcast over here. Their spokesperson said; “Sky only authorises the reception of Sky TV in the UK and Ireland. Our terms and conditions expressly prohibit reception elsewhere in Europe. If we have evidence that a viewing card is being used outside the UK or Ireland, we switch it off. We also have no formal distribution or re-broadcasting of our channels outside of the UK and Ireland.” The Spokesperson continued; “Because we don’t own the rights to broadcast many of our programmes outside the UK and Ireland, we are unable to make our Sky TV services available in other countries. We only provide Sky TV services to customers with an address in the UK or Ireland. Telmicro Levante S.L. has no connection to Sky and, while we are very sympathetic to its former customers, we are unable to assist them in this situation.”

BBC & ITV

The BBC told us that their programmes are financed by UK Licence Fee-paying citizens and outside of the UK they are licensed by BBC Worldwide. They said; “BBC Worldwide’s portfolio of 22 channel brands brings the best mix of entertainment, factual, learning and children’s programming to around 259 million homes in over 100 countries around the world, making BBC Worldwide the UK’s number one international television broadcaster in terms of reach. BBC Worldwide is the only service that can be transmitted legally outside of the UK.” ITV on the other hand said that it would be legal to transmit their channels if an interested party were to buy a licence. They said; “ITV’s channels are produced for broadcast in the UK. Any party wishing to broadcast them in another territory, such as Spain, would need to enter into a licence or agreement with ITV” They refused to speculate as to how much a licence would be to buy.

Digital +

It soon became apparent that none of the main British TV companies are willing to transmit here in Spain, so after we had exhausted the UK companies, we turned our attention to the Spanish. We contacted the Comisión de Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (CMT), the Spanish Broadcasting Market Commission. They told us that in order to transmit a signal of a paid satellite channel in Spain, that channel only has to ask for a permission from the UK authorities, to get the signal out of the country. This can be done in every country where the satellite has coverage and that channel won’t have to ask for any broadcast permit in Spain. If a company wants to broadcast that channel here they will need to, contact the broadcast channel to ask for permission to re-broadcast and pay the copyrights to the channel. The channel will have to ask for the permission from the UK authorities first though. Secondly, they need to be a legal company which is registered at the CMT and at the Comunidad Autonoma de Andalucia. With this in mind, we then contacted Spanish company Digital Plus. The press department of Sogecable, the group that owns Digital Plus, issued this statement to RTN; “We confirm that we have no intention at the moment of getting the rights of SKY channels for Spain. Therefore Digital Plus will not transmit that signal.” The reason that they gave is that due to the majority of English speaking people only living in pockets along the coast of Spain, they won’t transmit specific channels just for one or two regions. They have a countrywide signal and it wouldn’t be in their interests to provide British TV to the whole of Spain.

Satellite

A satellite TV expert confirmed; “UK TV is only legally obtained by installing equipment that receives the TV transmission direct from the satellites (Astra2D and Eurobird). It is possible to purchase and install readily available consumer products and equipment designed to receive these satellite transmissions and when using a free to air ‘digi’ box the customer is not infringing any copyright laws or licenses by viewing channels received via satellite transmissions that are readily available in Spain. In summary, the use of a large dish and a free to air ‘digi’ box decriminalises the viewing of UK television in Spain.

lightalex1 · 19-09-2008, 08:37 AM

Hi Lee

Just read the report myself on RTN web site this morning, the small piece of info that is very interesting is

Quote:

The signals were transmitted all over the Southern Costa Blanca and as this is illegal, the authorities shut them down. It is believed that they will be also targeting other companies doing this in the near future.

From this I guess that all the rebroadcasting companies, including torresat and teleast will eventualy be shut down somtime in the future, oh well have to get big dish and sky digibox!!

Lee · 19-09-2008, 12:48 PM

I liked Telmicro for the channels they supplied. Stuff being without the likes of BBC etc, I'm more into the discovery and history type channels. Which if you go for a satellite dish, your still very limited on finding without paying some kind of subscription.

When you read the latest reports in the papers it is predictions of the end of nigh for the rebroadcasters.

Sol Productions have a warning if you read between the lines on their latest announcement. As much as Sol Productions have taken a knocking for some of their broadcasts, they are still a valid TV station.

RTN have given TM every opportunity to leak some information. The information that seems to be in abundance on the internet is from "the local installer said" or "we heard from a member of the policia". But even RTN have now gone down the lines of making valued recommendations about the best way to receive British TV

Euro Weekly again are giving similar information to RTN

Why are these leaks of information not contacting the papers directly with proof of what they have been told or know for fact.

Or are they getting the information, but cant confirm the sources, hence the swing towards recommending satellite television as the safe bet.

After a month with no TV for some, there seems to be very little or too little fact in circulation. People are still none the wiser

Boskie · 19-09-2008, 01:59 PM

just heard a discussion on the radio that telmicro are not likley to be up and running again so we are left with there equipment which I for one will not be giving them back.
So are there any cards that we can get to go with coship boxes that would allow us to use the same equipment

vantage · 20-09-2008, 12:54 AM

Thank you RTN for bringing all of this to light and probably precipitating the need for me to buy a 1.9m dish. I was quite keen on the Teleast dish I already have.

vantage · 20-09-2008, 01:02 AM

Another thought. If I was the owner of Torresat right now, I would spend 1 month getting as many clients as I could, than I'd stop all advertising.

TM had 60,000 people paying them €20 per month. I'd settle for half of that, knowing that the grapevine would get me most new customers anyway. If the authorities can't see the ads, why would they need to prosecute/close down?

Lee · 20-09-2008, 10:51 AM

Remember this is Spain, whats illegal today can be fully legal tomorrow and visa verse. Especially if any one important is involved.

They are also missing out on tax revenue generated from those changing to satellite. 60,000 less people paying tax for a service is a fair chunk of money to lose out on.

So is there any new laws being considered, size of dish in your garden, size of base dish is mounted on, depth of base the dish is mounted on.

Someones got to mention it, no doubt the thought has already passed through some peoples minds

RTN this time I personally think have done a good report this time. They have explored all the possibilities of getting English television, including contacting the Spanish television broadcasters.

You cant blame RTN IMO for contacting the BBC and SKY. There are plenty of others who already have. Some in disputes trying to prove what can and cant be watched over here.

People keep saying about the illegal channels TM etc have been broadcasting. If these television rebroadcasters were so adamant about breaking the laws on what they were transmitting, how come none of them went down the lines of showing the latest films that were due at the cinemas or just broadcasting rented films to replace the SKY film channels they removed.

After all, would they have been breaking many more laws

vantage · 20-09-2008, 02:42 PM

Doesn't the fact that many people were paying in cash kind of mean that TM may not have been declaring it? I mean why offer a discount for up front cash payment if you are then going to declare it?

Lee · 20-09-2008, 03:26 PM

Minor over sight, easily made error on their part

They also gave sweeteners to gain customers from other companies as well.

Reduced prices for changing over etc

Depending on how their prices compared to the rest, it might just have been a sweetener to keep the customers.

Then again the cash the police took away would have made your pockets bulge a bit

vantage · 20-09-2008, 06:31 PM

Yes, but that would only account for less than half of one months subs.......

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Telmicro Round Town News 19/08

Telmicro Round Town News 19/08

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