In Britain and America, the last few years of television have been labelled a ‘Golden Age’ by critics and fans alike. This comes from the presence of great shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and many more. But what are things like in Spain, is television actually consumed differently by people here?
The old and the new
A quick history lesson first. Television broadcasting only really got going in Spain in 1956, with a single channel at first, before expanding into the variety that we see today. The government are also heavily involved with programming, perhaps to a greater extent than in the UK. By far the most popular channel in Spain is Telecinco, launched in 1990, which is a ‘broad church’ in terms of offered programming. The Western obsession with reality television apparently extends to Spain on this channel in particular, accompanied by various Spanish films and television shows.
None-stop watching
The wonderful new trend of ‘binging’ various TV shows via online services like Netflix appears to not quite have caught a hold in Spain yet. This is partly because the various streaming services which are now the norm in the UK haven’t actually been implemented. However, plans are reported to be in place to move Netflix into Spain and other European countries still without it, following their expansion into Germany and France. This should bring a whole host of English and American shows to Spanish audiences, but have they experienced this before at all?
Foreign products
Certainly, blockbuster Hollywood films are very easy to come by in Spain with multiplex cinemas offering dubbed, subtitled or original versions. Satellite television, in the form here of, for example, CANAL+, is available for Spaniards but not without a considerable cost. Many international fans of shows like Game of Thrones are disappointed with how difficult it can sometimes be to watch these shows outside of the States. This is slightly ironic because that particular show’s new season actually featured a great deal of scenes which were shot in Spain! This is even more surprising when one looks at the sheer amount of channels available for digital and analogue television consumers, which it turns out are often highly specific and only show a couple of shows on each one.
More information about plans for Netflix in Spain can be found here.