The Costa del Sol Gets Ready For The Big Switch-Off
English: The beach in Marbella in the Costa Del Sol, Spain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Expats from the United Kingdom are facing a huge change in Spain’s Costa del Sol; they are about to lose the ability to watch all the British TV channels. So what will they do? After decades of essentially getting their regular terrestrial channels as “freebies” all that is about to change.
Wow! All The Channels From Home, Plus Free Football
Having first travelled to Spain as a child with a best friend’s family, one of the things that stood out was that for some reason, Spain seemed to have the same TV channels as the UK. A young mind hadn’t worked out that all the places we were frequenting were trying to entice us Brits through the door, hence the UK channels on the TV. Obviously Spain has its own channels, but for years they have also picked up British television and satellite TV football matches, for no extra cost.
Perfect For The Ex Brits In Spain
This situation was perfect for the many expatriates living on Spain’s wonderful “Coast of the Sun”. You could have the great weather and laid-back life that the Spaniards enjoy, whilst catching your favourite soap on TV and still actively following your English football team. For holidaymakers, it just added to the appeal of Spain. The tourist areas on the Costa del Sol have always been smart to cater towards the Brits; you will find English food served in most restaurants, British ale served in bars and a fair few full-on British themed Pubs.
All Coming To An End
Unfortunately, the satellites that have been beaming these wonderfully free channels to Spain for the past 15 plus years are about to be replaced. The specific satellite that used to beam a broad signal across Europe will be replaced by one that directs its information directly to the UK only. This will effectively end the free channels (the likes of the BBC, ITV and Channel 5) from being picked up across much of Spain and indeed other parts of Europe. The days of catching up on Eastenders for free, at its regular time-slot will be over and with it, a little piece of what made the Costa del Sol special to Brits.
So, Is That The End Of That Then?
Well, not really. People will just have to be a little smarter with how they get their UK TV. There are online streaming services that you will be able to subscribe to and there are set-top boxes that will get the channels, although probably not all of them. Your PC will be your best friend, as sites such as youtube air a lot of TV anyway, so a decent internet connection should see you keeping up to date with most things. The days of just tuning in an aerial and finding everything you want are all over however. The answer is to get on the case now. By mid summer you will be without the old signal, so get to work ASAP and you might not have to miss anything.
AUTHOR BIO
Peter Smith has lived and worked in Spain for a number of years. He writes for various blogs and websites on travel and accommodation options across Europe, including sites such as http://www.brightsparktravel.com/.
Category: Travel
