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Sky TV in Valencia. UK TV in Valencia. Satellite TV News and Information
Xativa and Ontinyent Tourist Information
All content used on this site are protected by copyright and should not be used without expressed permission. (C)2003 - 2012 J Worby
Costa Blanca Free Adverts and Business Directory
Rebroadcasting / MMDS / Mircomesh Microwave Systems In Spain - are they illegal?
Prompted by the recent evens concerning Telmicro Levante and their visit by the Guardia during August 2008, and the subsequent issue of rebroadcasters in Spain, I hope that this page can be of some use. There are a number of these rebroadcast services around the Costa Blanca, including Moraira Digital, Torrresat, Superbeam, Javea Cable, Simulsat, Swiss Cable.
AUGUST 2009 REBROADCASTING NEWS AND MORE RAIDS
UKTVDirect from satellites using a small 60cm satellite dish" - Yeah Right!
There is a "new" type of rebroadcasting currently being pushed on a number of EXPAT forums, in Costa Blanca Newspapers, and around most of Europe, which claims that you can receive UK TV channels and programmes in the Costa Blanca Spain direct from the satellite using on an 60cm, and claim (again!) that it is 100% legal - which of course it isn't!
Its true, the signals are direct from a satellite - but they are not direct rom the satellite used for the UKTV channels / programmes! The system uses a totally different satellite to rebroadcast channels to Spain. To put in simply, all this system does is rebroadcasting free to air channels via a satellite and not via a land based mast. You are getting these signals from a third party and not directly from the main UK TV satellite!
Some "distributors" of this system are saying that it is all in HD...which is correct...in about 1% of the sense. They are using HD technology to compress 24 channels onto one frequency. Non of the channels are in HD, although you do need a HD receiver to decode these channels. They are also encrypted...to stop people stealing their "stolen" signals. International Copyright law states that you cannot redistribute material, like TV channels, without permission from those channels, and especially not for profit without this permission!
Again, be wary of people offering this system. It comes with all the risks of a normal rebroadcaster, transmitting channels without the channel permission. Although many laws in the EU state that you can freely rebroadcast channels that are available free on satellite, many of these companies are overlooking all the national, EU and international copyright laws, that state that you can only broadcast copyrighted material (i.e. channels) "with the owners permission".
The BBC have reiterated the point that they do not licence any company in any EU country (apart from in Holland and in Switzerland) to rebroadcast their channels or copyrighted material, and those that would wish to do so would have to seek permission from them.
The kit is at least 500 euros and will require a annual subscription. Bear in mind that many of the channels offered can be easily received in Spain FOR FREE on an 80cm dish!!
Discussion of this service has been removed from many satellite and expat forums due to questions over its legality, and so far investigations have not revealed the company who is operating these signals...much contact has been via an untraceable HOTMAIL email account. And most questions about its legality have been "tactfully ignored" - as you can see from this thread where the agent "charles" repeatedly ignores questions about this service,and just insults those asking him! In fact most of the information about this service came from two other posters "mmmmmm" and "spanman", who look to be clued up about the system, but were continually told "you don't know nothing its all rumours" by "charles" who then does not supply any answers about why they are wrong! Why so secretive if the service is 100% legal!?!?!
Another update on this story : 3rd August 2009: I have heard that the UK broadcasters are pursuing legal options with the satellite operator. These "new" rebroadcasters are using Intelsat - a satellite company which is also used for distributing Freeview to the UK, and for links and feeds (i.e. used by news channels), and this company has close business ties with many official broadcasters.
Another update: more rebroadcasters shutdown. According to newspaper report, several local rebroadcasting networks, specifically for communities and apartments, where the community TV Cable systems distributes pay tv channels from a receiver "head end", have been raided by the police. More here
NEWS UPDATE: This small dish rebroadcast system has been removed from the satellite and has not been in operation since October 2009, despite agents claims that all was legal with the system and that they would be here for the long run.
AUGUST 2008 ILLEGAL REBROADCASTERS CLOSED DOWN WITH GUARDIA CIVIL RAIDS
No company, even legally registered companies, have permission to rebroadcast BBC, ITV Channel4 or any of the Sky subscription channels in Spain. To rebroadcast these channels legally, the rebroadcasters must have expressed written permission from the channels involved. Due to the nature of TV contracts, it is very unlikely that this will ever happen. If you are unsure whether a company can legally rebroadcast channels, ask to see their permission and contract from the broadcaster allowing them to do so!
For example, from 2007, TVE have exclusive rights to broadcast the Premier League in Spain. No one else can broadcast the games in Spain without permission from TVE and the FA.
Under the Rome Convention, which is an EU Law regarding copyright and broadcast rights, broadcasters have the right to authorize or prohibit the re-broadcasting of their broadcasts. "Re-broadcasting" is defined under the Rome Convention as the simultaneous broadcasting by one broadcasting organization of the broadcast of another broadcast organization. Broadcasters also have the right to authorize or prohibit the fixation of their broadcasts; the reproduction of unauthorized original fixations of their broadcasts; the reproduction for purposes other than those authorized fixations of their broadcasts.
Basically it says you need authorisation from the "Broadcasting organisations" like BBC and ITV to rebroadcast their transmission in the EU.
Look at the screen shot of a message from Telmicro, even though they knew that it was illegal to retransmit Sky Sports channels, they still did!
Removing the Sky subscription channels from their service is a start in complying with copyright regulations, but these regulations apply to all channels, both free and subscription. Leaving BBC and ITV channels is still a violation.
How Rebroadcasting Works
These rebroadcast companies receive a signal from a big dish which is fed into a series of receivers, each programmed to a specific satellite channel - BBC, ITV, Sky etc. So if they want to show the three Sky Sports channels they will have three receivers, with three sky subscriptions. The signals from these receivers are then merged together and then rebroadcast on a specific frequency, which can be received by the individual “mesh” aerial and their receiver.
The Telmicro site consisted of one HUGE dish and aerial system.
The rebroadcasters only have access to certain frequencies, and so try to cram as many channels as they can on each frequency. This will mean that the quality of the pictures is not as clear as it would be if received direct from the satellite. Also, as the signal is passed from transmitter to transmitter there can be loss of the quality of signal – you could be in effect receiving a third or fourth generation signal, depending on your distance from the main transmitter.
It may be worth noting that many of these frequencies the rebroadcasters are using have only been allocated to them by their local town hall. They may not be allocated by the Department of Media and Communications in Madrid. It may be possible that, for example, mobile phone companies pay for the right to use the frequencies at a nationals level, and therefore these frequencies may well interfere with either the rebroadcasted TV system signals of the mobile phone signal. Obviously if one party complains then the winner and legal owner of that frequency will be the one that is registered in Madrid.
I must stress that the companies involved in the rebroadcasting may be legally registered, may have legally registered installers, and may have legally got permission to use the frequencies that they use, but it is the content that they are showing on these frequencies, without the copyright (i.e. the channels) permission, that an infringement of copyright. Although it appears that Spanish Law on this, that the rebroadcasters say allows them to retransmit UK TV channels without permission of those channels, it at odds with international and European copyright and Intellectual property law.
From the EU Directives:
Member States shall ensure that media service providers under their jurisdiction do not transmit cinematographic works outside periods agreed with the rights holders.
In other words, all providers of television, cable, internet, rebroadcasters must negotiate for the rights to broadcast the programmes in the relevant countries / territories on their system.
In fact some UK TV channels do actually allow their channels to be rebroadcast on some cable services in Holland and Switzerland, at some expense I would assume.
If another broadcaster established in the same Member State as the broadcaster seeking access has acquired exclusive rights to the event of high interest to the public, access shall be sought from that broadcaster.
An example of this statement could be that a Spanish TV channels who shows Champions League matches can complain and even stop other services (internet or rebroadcasters) as their exclusivity has been breached and there has been no secondary rights issue.
Also, in recent news (August 2009)
It could be a bit more interesting in the future also with regard to rebroadcasting as there have been reports that BBC Worldwide are planning to sell to an number of European satellite operators three new digital channels - BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge and BBC Children.
If these get sold onto D+, as part of D+s current strategy of trying to get more English expats signed up (see offers for joining, special English website, more channels with original language programmes, and possibility of D+ getting the next 3 season of UK Premier league footie), then D+ would own the Spanish broadcast copyright for many BBC and C4 programmes that will be on these three channels. In which case D+ would be perfectly in their right to try stop other broadcasters and rebroadcasters from showing these programmes, as the broadcasters and rebroadcasters would not hold the relevant copyright.
I dare say it will depend on a number of things (will D+ get the channels, will d+ pursue any action, whose side of the fence the judge / GC sit on). it may well be that when Eastenders is on d+ all rebroadcasters have to show a blank screen for 30 minutes....
Whilst the EU would like free movement of television transmissions throughout the EU, they are limited by the broadcast contract / rights arrangements between all television service providers (including mesh and internet.
I have always found it funny that:
They charge to view channels that are freely available on satellite – of which many channels can be received on a small 80cm dish for free!! Indeed, many rebroadcasters have replaced the Pay TV channels with other channels, that are available for free with a small 80cm satellite dish! And they have even added the Spanish digital TV channels to their channel line up - which again are available for free and as far as I know legally have to be made available to all community developments and new houses.
They encrypt their services to stop people from robbing their signals – when they are robbing the signals from BBC, ITV and Sky!!! I understand that it is an international copyright law that states that you cannot encrypt a free to air signal.
As they use encryption, I wonder how the company that supplies the encryption would react if they knew that their encryption software was being use to for copyright infringement!!!
The correct way
You can legally watch BBC, ITV and Channels 4 (and the thousands of other free TV channels on all the other various satellites) via a satellite dish and appropriate satellite receiver. These channels are broadcast unencrypted – FREE – and there is no law against watching free TV channels. The signals will come from the satellite direct to your dish and receiver.
Remember that there are benefits of a satellite dish to get the free TV channels, like over 100 free channels, timeshift (+1) channels, BBC Interactive (New, Sport, weather, teletext), BBC Sport Interactive (6 screens of different events during the Olympics, multiscreen F1 (from 2009), Wimbledon interactive (choose from 5 matches)), full 7 day programme guide (freesat and sky receivers’ only), and over 50 free radio stations.
And the rebroadcasters cannot get enough space on their frequencies for High Definition broadcasts so it makes you HD TV useless.
In Summary:
It is not illegal to receive the free TV channels direct from the satellites via a satellite dish to your home
It is illegal, under EU and Internaltional law to rebroadcast ANY TV or radio channels without permission from the channel operators / owners.
Any system offering BBC and ITV for a monthly fee on an encrypted signal is illegal (again without permission from the operators) – BBC and ITV are free on satellite
Any system offering only 20 “satellite” channels is illegal – there should be 100’s of channels if direct from the satellite.
Any system offering Sky Sports, ESPN or UK PAY TV channels for less than £16 is illegal – Sky Sports alone costs a minimum of £36 per month, ESPN £9.99 per month.