🔜 Spain Transitions to Ultra HD
Spain’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Civil Service has taken a pivotal step toward the technological modernization of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT).
The ministry has launched a public consultation on a draft resolution that defines a clear timeline and technical parameters for the country’s large-scale transition to Ultra High Definition (UHD) broadcasting. The public consultation will run until July 17, after which the document will be officially approved.
The proposed roadmap marks the launch of the first phase of modernization under Royal Decree 250/2025. The project involves reorganizing national multiplexes and widely implementing the DVB-T2 broadcasting standard to improve spectral efficiency. As a result, residents nationwide will be required to retune their television sets.
The document establishes two key transition dates for this coming fall:
- November 3: Overnight, the state broadcaster RTVE will optimize the capacity of the RGE1 multiplex.
- November 5 (by 08:00 CET): The new nationwide UHD broadcasting structure will officially take effect.
From that moment on, the RGE2 multiplex will begin simulcasting existing HD channels in UHD format using DVB-T2 technology. Half of this multiplex’s capacity will be allocated to RTVE (to broadcast La 1 UHD and a second UHD channel), while commercial broadcasters Atresmedia and Mediaset España will each receive 25% of the capacity to launch Antena 3 UHD and Telecinco UHD, respectively.
The reorganization will also affect other frequencies. To free up resources, Atresmedia and Mediaset España will temporarily consolidate five of their HD channels each onto the MPE2 and MPE3 multiplexes, completely vacating the MPE5 multiplex. The DKISS channel (owned by Radio Blanca) will move into the freed capacity on MPE5. Additionally, La Sép7ima—a new national free-to-air channel from Servicios Integrados Entretenimiento Televisivo, which won a license in a tender earlier this year—will launch its broadcast on the same multiplex.
To minimize disruption for viewers, all broadcasters are required to launch extensive public awareness campaigns starting September 8 to explain how and why to retune TV receivers.
These current changes represent only the first phase of the government’s strategy. In the second phase, the government plans to transition absolutely all Spanish multiplexes to the DVB-T2 standard. Once this reform is complete, each national multiplex will be capable of broadcasting up to four channels in full Ultra HD quality.
Source: Advanced Television
