Sky tv in Spain, the time is coming to watch out.!!!

Hi

We are about to take a digi box out to Spain are we wasting our time?

Jojan

So is it illegal for SKY to broadcast here or illegal for me to receive SKY here OR BOTH ??

If the police drive around this Urbanizion they could fine at least 400 people with 2.4. Sat Dishes in their respective gardens !!! (Bloody eyesores)

This thread is quite confusing and speculative with no-one here with the truth. So whilst I'm please it's been raised it serves (for me anyway) to confuse.

Quite frankly I think the World would be a btter place with out SKY - a communications conglomerate gone global crazy and infultratiing homes with it's censored and biased clap-trap, not to mention crap programmes of repeat after repeat. SKY has cheapened and degraded TV since it hit us in the 80's.... I came to Spain to get away from bloody 24/7 news bulletins, hyped up sports events and (un)reality TV... but as I walk the dog I still hear the theme tunes from Coronation Street, EastEnders, X-Factor and the likes coming from ExPat homes... YUK !!!  (yes I know these aren't SKY progs ).

It would be more rewarding to learn Spanish on an evening instead of being glued to 'goggle-box'. Or watch Spanish TV you may learn something new.

Hi

firstly message for Jojan, no your not wasting you time bringing you sky to spain, if the new law does come in to place than it will be a simple license fee, I should think this will be more than around €50 a year for a residential fee, however dont quote me on that. The Government is not saying you cannot have Sky but they basially just want it to be legally notified.

Hi Zoso,

If you read a ealier post on this it does say that this will not effect those who choose not to bother with ENGLISH tv, and I do agree we should educate ourselves to watch and learn Spanish.

However not really sure what relevents this has to this subject as we are discussing a potential license fee and not what the broadcasters programmes etc.  also you mention this thread is confusing, so just to explain again, this thread is about a recent report stating that the Spanish Government plans to introduce a license fee for people who use Sky and yes it is illegal to watch and broadcast sky in Spain.  hope this explains again.

To Jojan,

I see your post about bringing your digi box, like xpatman has said this will be fine as as yet this law has no been implied and also see this new license as a good thing cause once you have it you have no worries anymore about a possible fine from the police. hope this helps and enjoy spain when you come here.

the report is Government leak which cannot be identified on here for legal reasons. please note Goldie

Methinks there is far less in this than meets the eye.  I would like to see the original article in which this 'story' appeared. A few things seem strange.

For one, how on earth can the police determine who is a Sky subscriber?  As someone has already pointed out, there are hundreds of thousands of dishes all over Spain belonging to Spaniards, Brits, Germans etc. etc. and receiving Sky, Freesat, UPC etc etc. What amazing technology has been invented that is so cheap and portable that Spanish police can wander/drive about with it to catch Sky subscribers specifically?

Secondly, it is contrary to EU law to apply one-sided sanctions.  It is amusing to consider the muddle and confusion which would be occasioned by the mass 'arrest' and fining of tens of nationalities, some EU, some not.

Thirdly, I am amazed to learn that not paying a tv licence would be a criminal offence pursued by the police. I stand corrected but it is my belief that prosecution for non-possession of a tv licence in the UK does not give one a criminal record.

I could write a small book about the things I've been solemnly assured that I must or must not do since I came to live here.  The fact that this is not the only country I've lived in has led me to find out hard fact wherever possible and in the absence of that to use common sense and trust my judgment.

And never to panic.

the report is Government leak which cannot be identified on here for legal reasons. please note Goldie

Oh. So how come you got it?  Who leaked it?  Only to you/

Curioser and curioser.

Hi Zoso,

If you read a ealier post on this it does say that this will not effect those who choose not to bother with ENGLISH tv, and I do agree we should educate ourselves to watch and learn Spanish.

However not really sure what relevents this has to this subject as we are discussing a potential license fee and not what the broadcasters programmes etc.  also you mention this thread is confusing, so just to explain again, this thread is about a recent report stating that the Spanish Government plans to introduce a license fee for people who use Sky and yes it is illegal to watch and broadcast sky in Spain.  hope this explains again

No, it makes it more confusing.  What is this amazing technology that targets only 'English' tv?  My dish enables me to get Sky, all Freesat programmes as well as Spanish tv. How can my access to 'English' ytv be pinpointed/

You said you received this information via a 'leak' but here you say it was in a 'report'.

A leaked report, presumably.

 Hmmm.  I'm really sceptical about this one.  I don't doubt the veracity of the original comment and I am sure there is some fire behind the smoke but I would bet my Digibox that this will turn out to be a needless panic that comes to nothing.  I remember a similar rumour a few years back that the Astra satellite that reaches Spain was going to be switched off (or at least Sky was going to be taken off it); came to nothing.  Also that  ITV was taking its channels off Sky - they added more channels.  As someone said we'll wait and see and take everything in our stride.

On a related topic I saw an internet ad offering to get you an UK IP address for you to be able to use the BBC iPlayer.  That would be useful.

Some people just get off on spreading unsubstantiated runour as fact. Harmless enough until it makes people worry unnecessarily. But a lot of that goes on here.....

You will have no problem with your digibox, I'd put money on it. A lot of nonsense is peddled about receiving Sky abroad. I've been receiving it for years in other European countries via a UK address. My contract states that I am required to hold a UK landline for one year. So after that they're not interested whether I have a UK landline or not. After all, very many people in the UK choose not to have a landline for phone and internet. They use ASDL wireless, or a dongle for internet and Skype or a similar VOIP for phone calls plus the mobile.

Same with this 'Beware of ringing Sky UK about problems etc...'  If you use Skype you can choose a UK phone number as I have done. I've made a few calls to Sky from outside the UK.

And of course if you log on to your Sky account on the net y (MySky) you can order products including pay-per-view movies and sports events and upgrade to HD or whatever.

I'm interested in a link to BBC I-player. It would be great if you could pass on any information on that, either publicly or via pm.

As far as I know you cannot watch Sky Player abroad as they take a note of your IP address as we tried to watch Sky Sports when in USA on a computer there. Whether you can use your own "UK" computer to access your subscription channels I am not sure. I think the BBC iPlayer is only available in the UK but not 100% sure on that check the bbc's website for uptodate info.

Thanks for the feedback, Praguepics.

realise what you saying Praguepics, but the fact still remains that this could happen, understand there are alot of satelite dishes from differant countries as this point has been raised in a previous post, however one to bear in mind is the amount of bars along the coasts of Spain who advertise SKY SPORTS, WATCH TONIGHT ETC, im sure you would have seen these, I dont think the Government or Police will find it to hard to identify this , do you??

like has been said before the main target will be business like everthing else in spain you need licenses for, Having had a bar on the coast for over 10 years beleive me I know, I have to pay for the copyright rights to play music in the bar, this will just ve a addition to this.

Hope this makes it clearer for you.

It is not legal to use a Sky Encryption Card in Spain full stop!

I think this all stems from something that 'may' be correct, in that it is illegal for any bar here in Spain to offer Sky Encrypted programming for 'public' broadcast and the Police 'could' force them to stop doing so in the way of fines.

Having said that I cannot see how the Spanish Government can make this legal via a 'licence' when it is not legal to receive 'Sky' encrypted services here in Spain.

Let's try and clear this up:

1) Sky Broadcast encrypted services via the SES Astra Satellite Fleet on Astra Satellites 2A, 2B and 1D at 28.2°E and signals from these Satellites can be received in other countries as can been seen from their footprints.

2) Other European countries also use these Astra Satellites and other Satellites in the Astra Satellite fleet.

3) It is perfectly legal to erect a Satellite Dish on your property, and point it at this fleet, on the proviso it is allowed within your community rules.

4) It is perfectly legal to receive 'Free to Air' Channels outside the UK, and other non-sky channels, as there is no encryption card required for these channels.

5) There would have to be a massive amount of EU legislation to allow Sky to 'Broadcast' in Spain.

6) Just because it is 'possible' to pick up Encrypted Sky channels via the Astra Satellite fleet here in Spain doesn't mean the Spanish Government can 'make it legal' by charging a 'licence fee' for it, in fact they cannot without as I said a massive amount of EU legislation allowing Sky to legally 'broadcast' throughout the EU countries that the footprint of Astra Satellites 2A, 2B and 1D cover. 

7) It is illegal for any business in the UK to allow public broadcast of Sky Encrypted Services without obtaining such a license from Sky, so there is no way you will get one here in Spain.

Therefore, taking all the above into consideration, what the Spanish Government can do is fine businesses that allow public broadcasts of such services, as it is an illegal activity here in Spain as EU law prohibits such, and Sky themselves actively discourage!

So unless future EU legislation permits Sky to offer their services in other EU countries, the Spanish Government cannot decree a new licence for receiving such.

So 'licence fee in Spain to allow Sky'... pure hogwash I'm afraid.... at least for now! 

EDIT - And as to why we are talking about Satellite TV in the 'Renting Your Property - Short Term' Thread is beyond me!!!

So 'licence fee in Spain to allow Sky'... pure hogwash I'm afraid.... at least for now!

Hi thanks for your comment on this, wouldnt agree with the hogwash thing, as you answered this yourself at the end "at least for now"  that is the whole point on this to explain that it may well happen,  the Government has 2 choices 1 is to fine and 2 to introduce a acceptance license which is whats about to happen, you have been warned.

Quote "to introduce a acceptance license which is whats about to happen, you have been warned."

As I stated, the Spanish Government cannot impose an 'acceptance license' or any other license for any business allowing them to publicly broadcast Sky Encrypted services, as it is illegal to do so in any EU country other than UK and Ireland.

When I said "at least for now!", I meant that!

It 'may' happen in the not too distant future when the bureaucrats in Brussels allow Sky to supply their services to other EU countries, which there has been much speculation on in the past, but as yet it hasn't happened, and may never happen!

Time will tell!

But back to what you are saying, that the Spanish Government will pass this law now on the proviso that a business pay a 'license fee' to publicly boradcast Sky Encrypted services or be fined, then that is hogwash! Until such a time that EU legislation allows this, and Sky themselves, and that for the time being is no way!

The only thing the Spanish Government can do, right now, is pass a law that allows the Police to fine businesses that publicly broadcast non-spanish, encrypted TV services... if they haven't done so already!

Well thats that then 

Yes thats the end of that, xpatman and tobywoods are talking through their you know what. Techno is correct the spanist can not licence what is not theirs to licence. Pat.

Well, tobyw, you haven't made it clearer. You've now changed your focus away from private subscribers to business users. I too have owned and run a business, not exactly ICI but a couple of dozen plus employees and heavily reliant on IT so I know a bit about licencing and copyright law.

If you were offering Sky in a bar in the UK without a commercial contract with Sky you'd be in trouble and rightly so. I don't know about rules regarding tv licencing for commercial premises in Spain - I try not to make statements about things I'm not sure about - but I would be very surprised if there were no requirement to hold some kind of licence.

I think we've killed this one now. It just annoys me to read hyperbolic thread headings which serve no purpose other than to frighten the gullible.

 If you Google "a UK IP address" you get a lot of stuff about hiding / changing your IP address to enable BBC iPlayer and other similar services.  Don't know about the legality of it all.

On another Telly note, I am a football fan and I was delighted to discover that I am going to be able to watch both legs of the Arsenal vs Celtic Champs League tie as they are both on FTA:  1st leg on Spanish telly (TVE1 I think)  tonight and 2nd leg next week on ITV.  ITV seemed to have changed their coverage from Tuesdays to Wednesdays which means a double dose of free Champions League for us it would appear.