Spain’s digital dilema

A Fonsagrada is a small Spanish town situated in the mountains of the north-west province of Galicia. The history of this village of no more than 5000 inhabitants is linked to the well known pilgrim way to Santiago de Compostela, but in April 2008 A Fonsagrada was in the spotlight in Spain for a very different reason: it became the first Spanish municipality where the analog blackout took place. Many years have passed since 1961, when the first analogical television signal arrived at this picturesque Galician town, which more than a year ago welcomed in the 21st century.

In December 2005 the European Commission recommended that all its member states should have completed the digital switchover by 2012. The digital television transition (DTT), also known as the digital switchover or analog blackout, refers to the process in which analog television broadcasting is turned into digital television. For us, the end-users, the DTT means an improved image quality and sound reception, a major increase of TV channels and the so long-desired interactivity, in contrast with the unidirectional televisión. DDT has also.

DTT made its entrance into Europe and although not all of the European countries have ceased analogical television transmissions, “the process has already been completed in countries such as Germany, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden, the Netherlands, in Flanders here in Belgium, as well as in major areas in Austria”, outlined Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Telecoms and Media at Lisbon Council’s Ludwig Erhard Lecture in Brussels on 9 July.

A further group of countries have already begun the analog blockout and Spain is one of them.

The Spanish government designed a transition plan that would be spread out in three stages. The first one started on the 30th June 2009 and 13% of the Spanish population was affected by it; the second one will commence on the 31st December 2009 and will cover 32% of the population; the final stage will take place the 3rd April 2010, after which analogical television transmissions will no longer function in Spanish territory.

Previous to this schedule, the Spanish government put into practise two DTT transition tests. The first one, as mentioned above, was carried out in the town of A Fonsagrada. A Fonsagrada was chosen because its difficult geographical situation would provide useful information as to how DTT would work in isolated areas with a small population. Soria, a province located north-east of Madrid, was the second location to try the analog switchoff. In this last case some 50.000 citizens were affected by the plan that seeked to serve as an example for the rest of the country.

In the year 2000 Spain was one of the first countries, along with the United Kingdom in 1998 and Sweden in 1999 to launch DTT with platforms heavily reliant on pay television. But in Spain the process between the launching of these platforms and the completion of analog switchoff has been pretty slow, whereas other European countries, such as Norway and the Netherlands, have been able to complete it within 2 years.

Thus, in recent years there have been a number of surveys and studies expressing disbelief in the future of digital television in Spain. The “Estudio de Opinión: Tendencias del Sector Audiovisual” (Study of Opinions of Trends in the Audiovisual Sector), carried out by Time Consultants for IESE's Public-Private Sector Research Center in June 2008, outlined that 60% of Spanish audiovisual industry leaders thought the country was little or not at all prepared for the switch to digital. Results also revealed that skepticism was even higher among private TV operators (74%) and local institutions (83%). On the other hand, technology companies and public television operators appeared to be less gloomy, saying that Spain was well or somewhat prepared (60 and 57% respectively).

Most criticisms related to the difficulties in achieving a wide coverage; the uncertainty sorrounding the date of the blackout; the little interest in DDT by certain TV operators; the absence of concrete plans of implementation; and the lack of action and information towards the viewers, who, at the end of the day, are the most affected part of this process.

Have they taken enough time to prepare us for it? Has the audience been engaged in this process? Changes in the media sector have to be based on a simple and self-interested truth: citizens must participe in them because an informed public will always respond better to these changes than a non well-informed one. The next example backs up this idea.

Yet in 2006, FACUA-Consumers in Action-, a Spanish non-governmental and non-profit organization, warned the government that the lack of information could make the digital transition more complicated. They informed that an important number of consumers living in areas with no DTT coverage had already bought DTT receptor units thinking that was all they needed to be able to capture the new digital transmition.

Completing the analog terrestrial platform in Spain will not be easy and it will be very interesting to observe how major cities like Barcelona or Madrid addapt to it. Yet at the beginning of 2009 figures were not very encouraging: DTT coverage was 90%, but not even 50% of Spanish households could reach the digital signal and, what is even worse, only 22% of them were DTT consumers. Something similar happened in the United States, where the analogical swithoff was planned for February the 17th, but it had to be put off until June because some 6 million households did not have access to it. Just a couple of months after the complete digital swithover took place, some NGO's have reported the problems that some public sectors such as inmigrants and families with a low level of incomes are facing difficulties to get access to the new digital television. Let's not hope this issue turns into a matter of civil rights.

This only comes to show it is imperative that gobernamental bodies, audiovisual industry leaders, private TV operators and local institutions strive hard together so that the so long-expected digital platform becomes a reality for everyone. This scenario will also let us see how society responds as a whole when it comes to adapting to the latest technology and its new products.

Back in A Fonsagrada a year and a half later, results have not been as expected. Some 18% of the population, according to data provided by the Xunta de Galicia, the regional government, have still no access to the digital transmition. Having stated this, it should be taken into account that these figures may not be very reliable due to the fact that the Xunta is not aware of how many inhabitants receive the digital signal from other platforms.

Whatever the case may be, if we are eager to experience television in the 21st century, we need only look towards a small village in the north of Spain, they should surely know by now about big changes!