Boob Tube Gets Boobier
Once upon a time, there were only two television channels in Spain. La Primera, and La Segunda. Both were owned by the state company, Radio Television Española, RTVE for short. Generally, the first channel was the popular one, with movies and some national and international series. The second was the more informative channel, generally with documentaries and cultural programs, kind of like the PBS I grew up with in Boston. Then, in the 1980's, the autonomous regions received the right to set up their own channels. Born were Televisión de Galicia (TVG), Telemadrid, TV3 de Catalunya, Canal Sur, EITB (Basque), and others, all publicly controlled. A few years after that, private broadcasters were allowed channels, and we got Telecinco and Antena 3. In these past twenty years, two more were added before digital television appeared, Cuatro, and laSexta.
So, just before the digital rearrangement began, we had quite a few open channels to choose from. Then, some months before we had to buy a decodifier, or whatever the thingy did to a digital signal received by an analogical television, we lost some channels to antenna vagaries. The antennas that send the signals were having something done to them to get ready for digital, and it seems their strength was diminished. Our house is on a sort of plateau with hills and pine woods that sometimes cut off the television signals, especially in bad weather.
Then, it turned out we had to install a different, newer antenna to receive the digital signal. And it received most of the channels at first. Until a storm came up and we lost a couple of channels. Then we lost some more when the government declared nine of them had committed fraud to acquire their broadcasting signal and were taken off the air. Then there was a shuffle and amplification of the digital signals and we all had to re-syntonize our televisions. And we lost most of the rest. As of this moment we cannot watch Antena3 nor two or three other new channels that belong to their company. We cannot watch laSexta and its offshoots, nor many of the other independent channels. We can watch La Primera, La 2, both channels of TVG, Telecinco and two of its offshoots, and Cuatro. Of over fifteen or so channels that now air nationally and locally, we can only watch eight.
Eight channels are many more than my husband could watch when he was a child. But there was usually quality programming forty years ago. Eight channels are the most paltry selection of choices in today's world, where too many channels have mind-numbing programs that tend to appeal to those who think the least; or who don't even know what the word means. Even the movies that they tend to show are boring. Sometimes they will show movies again that have been seen only a month before. Three of the channels we can watch tend to have reruns of shows and movies the major channels put on just a few days ago. Some nights we can leave the television on, even if we don't really pay much attention because it's a rerun of a rerun, but better than what's on the rest of what we can see.
Other nights, such as Friday, it gets turned off. There are only movies, most of which are either the dumber ones that were made for TV, bombed at the box office, or have already been seen a couple of weeks ago. There is a weekly show on Telecinco that appeals to the most gossipy of the gossips, but not to us. It's supposed to be a discussion show in which the lives of the famous and wannabe famous are torn apart and lived for them, by various hysterical "experts." Lord, no. There's also a musical variety show on TVG that must be the longest running show on regional and national television. It's been there for close to thirty years. When I first arrived, it was interesting, with good, modern musical groups. Now, it has some of the cheesiest of the cheesiest groups, that appeal only to those well over retirement age. I may be getting on in years, but I hope my tastes don't degenerate that much.
The problem is that open television is on its way out. Now, there are television packages you can pay for. They're offered by the telephone companies, along with internet, cell phone lines, and landlines. Unfortunately, to subscribe, you have to have a landline. We don't, and neither do many other families that have given up their landlines for cell phones. I don't see the need of paying for the installation of a landline for a phone we will not use, to then pay every month to watch more channels than we can now. Once upon a time, the government was determined to have every hamlet be able to access television as a public service. Now, it is giving concessions to private companies to set up broadcasting signals that can only be seen if the customers pay for different services, whether they use them or not. I protest. Free quality television is still a public service that can be used for what it was originally intended - education and information.
So, I guess I'll just have to read more in the evenings.
So, just before the digital rearrangement began, we had quite a few open channels to choose from. Then, some months before we had to buy a decodifier, or whatever the thingy did to a digital signal received by an analogical television, we lost some channels to antenna vagaries. The antennas that send the signals were having something done to them to get ready for digital, and it seems their strength was diminished. Our house is on a sort of plateau with hills and pine woods that sometimes cut off the television signals, especially in bad weather.
Then, it turned out we had to install a different, newer antenna to receive the digital signal. And it received most of the channels at first. Until a storm came up and we lost a couple of channels. Then we lost some more when the government declared nine of them had committed fraud to acquire their broadcasting signal and were taken off the air. Then there was a shuffle and amplification of the digital signals and we all had to re-syntonize our televisions. And we lost most of the rest. As of this moment we cannot watch Antena3 nor two or three other new channels that belong to their company. We cannot watch laSexta and its offshoots, nor many of the other independent channels. We can watch La Primera, La 2, both channels of TVG, Telecinco and two of its offshoots, and Cuatro. Of over fifteen or so channels that now air nationally and locally, we can only watch eight.
Eight channels are many more than my husband could watch when he was a child. But there was usually quality programming forty years ago. Eight channels are the most paltry selection of choices in today's world, where too many channels have mind-numbing programs that tend to appeal to those who think the least; or who don't even know what the word means. Even the movies that they tend to show are boring. Sometimes they will show movies again that have been seen only a month before. Three of the channels we can watch tend to have reruns of shows and movies the major channels put on just a few days ago. Some nights we can leave the television on, even if we don't really pay much attention because it's a rerun of a rerun, but better than what's on the rest of what we can see.
Other nights, such as Friday, it gets turned off. There are only movies, most of which are either the dumber ones that were made for TV, bombed at the box office, or have already been seen a couple of weeks ago. There is a weekly show on Telecinco that appeals to the most gossipy of the gossips, but not to us. It's supposed to be a discussion show in which the lives of the famous and wannabe famous are torn apart and lived for them, by various hysterical "experts." Lord, no. There's also a musical variety show on TVG that must be the longest running show on regional and national television. It's been there for close to thirty years. When I first arrived, it was interesting, with good, modern musical groups. Now, it has some of the cheesiest of the cheesiest groups, that appeal only to those well over retirement age. I may be getting on in years, but I hope my tastes don't degenerate that much.
The problem is that open television is on its way out. Now, there are television packages you can pay for. They're offered by the telephone companies, along with internet, cell phone lines, and landlines. Unfortunately, to subscribe, you have to have a landline. We don't, and neither do many other families that have given up their landlines for cell phones. I don't see the need of paying for the installation of a landline for a phone we will not use, to then pay every month to watch more channels than we can now. Once upon a time, the government was determined to have every hamlet be able to access television as a public service. Now, it is giving concessions to private companies to set up broadcasting signals that can only be seen if the customers pay for different services, whether they use them or not. I protest. Free quality television is still a public service that can be used for what it was originally intended - education and information.
So, I guess I'll just have to read more in the evenings.
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