Have you lost any TV channels on your urbanization? As a community president in Spain you are probably fielding all the enquiries from the owners so we thought we’d give you an update you can share. As the president of my community, I have been lucky enough that through our community website, I’ve been able to update our owners and stop the spreading of large dishes across the community.
There has been much talk recently about the loss of certain UK TV channels such as 4HD, 4Seven and Channel 5 after many households across Spain stopped receiving them. A number of channels have moved from Astra 1N to Astra 2F with more channels due to make the move and to most this has come as a shock as they were unaware of any expected changes.
Other popular channels will be moving anytime between now and next summer and its said that if you have lost channel 5 now, then you will be very likely to lose all BBC, ITV channels and the remaining Channel 4 group including E4. However, until the channels actually make the move, it is uncertain what your current set-up will be able to receive.
What options have I got?
There are various companies offering solutions to this at the moment and many households on the Costa Blanca are being told to buy a bigger satellite dish in order to still pick up the channels. However on the Costa del Sol it’s still uncertain whether a bigger dish will even receive the channels after the move. So don’t rush out for a bigger satellite dish yet!
At the moment it seems the best advice would be to do nothing until more of the channels have made the move to the new satellite then you know exactly what you can still receive. Some people are being told they will lose all channels on the 16th December but it’s not certain which channels will be moving on that date, if any at all, however what is certain is that it will not be all of them.
The reception of the UK channels received in Spain from the new satellite is currently unknown so there is still a chance you could pick up some of the channels after the move. There is not enough space on the new satellite for all the channels to move at the same time either which is why two new satellites will be launched in 2013 and 2014 and the remaining channels will be moved over then, so rest assured that this process is likely to be gradual.
If you really miss the channels you have already lost then a solution at the moment would be IPTV which is television through your internet. Many companies are currently offering this as a solution but its worth baring in mind that it may not be the same quality you would be used to with HD channels and it relies on a strong internet connection. You can also watch UK television via filmon.com.
To be able to connect with owners on your urbanization and answer questions like this, a handy tool is an online community forum which is one of the features of our OCM community website.