It is very possible that you have seen on TV that the DTT frequencies are going to change again. Or else, you may have directly stopped watching one of your favorite channels. Why is this happening? Well, it is due to the so-called Second Digital Dividend, a process by which the 700 megahertz (MHz) band of the radio spectrum will be released to deploy future 5G telecommunications networks in it . It is a process similar to the one already carried out during the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 (called the First Digital Dividend) and which is being carried out throughout the European Union.
The reorganization of DTT has already been underway for some months, but it is being carried out in stages throughout the national territory. To carry it out , Spain has been divided into 75 geographical areas and each of them is affected in one way . For example, not all of them have to adapt the same channels. It is even possible that, depending on our area, we are not even affected by this second digital dividend. We are going to explain how to check if you are affected and, if so, what you should do to continue watching DTT as always.
What should we do?
Luckily, this time it will not be necessary to change either the television or the decoder that we currently use. All of them will work without any problem.
Neither will there be changes in the television offer, there will be no loss of channels or new channels . Simply, the same ones that are received today will change their broadcast frequency.
As not all areas of Spain will require the aforementioned changes, the official website of digital terrestrial television allows us to search by postal code to know if in our town we should make any changes or not . If you do, this change will depend on the type of home you live in.
If you live in a building with more than three houses , you have to adapt the collective antenna . How to do it? The president or property administrator of your community of owners will have to request estimates from the local installers from the date the channels begin to broadcast on the new frequencies. The Government has provided an aid plan to defray the costs derived from the adaptations, so you can comment on this to the president or the administrator so that the adaptation of the antenna is cheaper.
Once the community antenna is adapted to the new frequencies, we as users will only have to retune our television or DTT receiver . With this process we should see all the channels again, already on their new frequencies.
If we live in a single-family home , a building with fewer than three homes, or we have an installation with a broadband amplifier, no modification is necessary . Our house will already be ready to receive television channels on the new frequencies.
What we will have to do is retune our television or receiver when the channels have stopped broadcasting on the old frequencies in our town. On the website that we have discussed before we can see the date on which the channels will stop broadcasting on the old frequencies in each location.
Finally, it may be the case that in your area there are no channel changes . If so, you will not have to make adjustments to the collective antenna to continue watching national and regional channels. You will simply have to retune your television if you stop watching any of the channels .