If you are still traumatized by the analog blackout, get ready for new emotions because this is not over. The radio spectrum in Spain continues to change, and the government has already communicated the action plan that it will carry out in mid-2025 to relocate a couple of channels and make room for the arrival of new channels in 4K format. But how exactly are you going to do it?
An exclusive 4K multiplex
Today, La1 UHD is the only 4K channel that is broadcast through DTT. It does so through the RGE2 multiplex, which it shares with the Clan and DKiss channels. The idea is that RGE2 will remain exclusively for 4K channels, so the government will move the remaining two channels to other groups.
Thus, the mux would leave room for La1 UHD, a new 4K channel for RTVE, another for Atresmedia (very possibly Antena 3 UHD) and another for Mediaset (most likely Telecinco UHD).
This move will take Clan to RGE1, unifying it with the rest of the RTVE channels (La1, La2, 24h and Teledeporte), with the peculiarity that it is currently only allowed to host 4 channels due to bandwidth issues. So how will they go from 4 to 5 channels? Basically the emissions will reduce your bandwidth, so the image could be slightly affected.
The same will happen in the MPE2 and MPE3 multiplexes, which will receive the transfer of A3series and BeMad respectively, these being the fifth channel of the mux and forcing the bandwidth to be adjusted so that emissions do not suffer.
Four 4K channels
The problem with hosting 4 4K channels in the same multiplex is that two of them would be enough to consume practically all the bandwidth. The solution would be the implementation of DVB-T2, which is much more efficient and allows much more information to be sent.
What will the distribution of channels look like in 2025?
With the arrival of the new 4k channels, the distribution of channels per multiplex will be as follows:
- RGE1: La1, La2, 24h, Teledeporte and Clan.
- RGE2: La1 UHD, Channel 2 4K, Channel 3 4K and Channel 4 4K.
- MPE1: Gol, DMAX, Paramount and Disney Channel.
- MPE2: Antena 3, La Sexta, Neox, Nova and A3Series.
- MPE3: Telecinco, Cuatro, FactorÃa de Ficción, Divinity and Be MAD.
- MPE4: Boing, Energy, Mega and Trece.
- MPE5: Real Madrid TV, Ten, DKIss and a new TDT channel that will be launched.
Source: Expansion