by Josephine Quintero

The Spanish are avid TV watchers (after the Americans and Brits, that is). Most TV's receive between five and six channels, two from the state run Television Española, three independent (Antenna 3, Tele 5 and Canal Plus) and a couple of regional or local ones, including the all-Andalucía Canal Sur.

The majority of programming is aired 24-hours. Apart from news (of which there's a respectable amount) programming consists largely of game and talk shows, sport, soap operas and English language films dubbed into Spanish. Canal Plus is a pay channel with several films a day but non subscribers will only be able to receive fairly fuzzy reception on most programmes.

Satellite TV is popular too, mainly in private homes, though some bars, cafés and hotels have it too. Foreign channels you may come across include BBC World (mainly news and travel), BBC Prime (other BBC programmes), CNN, Eurosport, MTV, Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Movies and the German SAT 1. There are a few locally produced English channels, check local newspapers for exact listings.

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