The Minister for Finance and Economy, Ruth Merino, has presented the actions for the technological renovation of 133 centres for the extension of the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) signal, a measure that allows the current signal to be improved and the television channels available to 210.000 inhabitants in 170 municipalities of the Valencian Community to be expanded.
The Minister of Finance and Economy made this announcement in Teulada, one of the towns where this improvement will be carried out. It was developed by the public telecommunications company ISTEC in collaboration with the General Directorate of ICT and has a total budget of over 8 million euros.
On the occasion of the presentation of this plan, the councillor held a meeting with the mayor of Teulada, Raul Llobell, which was also attended by the managing director of ISTEC, Juan Alegre, who explained the details of the action planned in Moraira, which will be carried out this month, and in the other 114 municipalities included in the project.
Ruth Merino has assured that, once the works are finished, people who already had DTT coverage in Teulada and the rest of the towns that benefit from this improvement will be able to enjoy better signal reception quality and tune into new television channels. Specifically, Boing, Energy, Mega, Trece, Atreseries, BeMad TV, Real Madrid TV and Ten.
The renewal of these 133 DTT extension centres will make it possible to extend DTT coverage to around 210.000 inhabitants in 170 municipalities in the so-called Zone II, which includes rural inland areas and geographical areas that are disadvantaged in terms of signal quality due to their characteristics.
The Ministry of Finance and Economy, through the General Directorate of Information and Communications Technologies (DGTIC) and the public telecommunications operator of the Generalitat (ISTEC) launched this network renewal project in 2024
The project includes the installation and commissioning of new equipment, both for the technological renovation of the network and for the broadcasting, from all centres, of all the national television channels that citizens already enjoyed in the rest of the Valencian territory.
Extension of coverage throughout the Community
Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) is the result of the digitalisation of the terrestrial television service, which has allowed the channel offer to be expanded and broadcast with better quality. In the case of the Valencian Community, households can receive channels from up to nine different multiplexes: seven at national level (RGE1, RGE2, MPE1, MPE2, MPE3, MPE4 and MPE5), one at regional level (MAUT) and one at local level (TDTL).
During the conversion process, Spain adopted a series of measures according to which public and private television channels had to provide coverage to a minimum of 98% of the population for the national RGE1 multiplex and 96% for the rest of the national territory. This territory was called Zone I and the territory excluded from these commitments was called Zone II.
According to state regulations, public administrations could implement other initiatives to extend coverage in Zone II. In the Valencian Community, between 2006 and 2009, the Generalitat deployed an audiovisual network of centres to offer the DTT service, since without this intervention, a significant part of the Valencian population would not have had access to television channels in all areas, as they are mostly located in geographically disadvantaged and rural areas in the interior.
Renovation project
The Generalitat carries out continuous actions to improve and renew the technology of its own telecommunications networks, including the DTT extension network.
The project will increase the network's operability, performance and reliability, improving the quality of the public broadcasting service in Zone II and substantially reducing the electricity consumption of the broadcasting centres.
The 133 centres are distributed throughout the territory of the Comunitat: 34,59% of them in the province of Castellón, 40,6% in Valencia and 24,81% in Alicante.
The new equipment will replace the broadcasting equipment currently in operation at all centres and will enable the broadcasting of all national multiplexes, including MPE4 and MPE5, thereby expanding the number of national television channels accessible to households in Zone II.
ISTEC, the public company of the Generalitat in charge of the renovation, began work last July and has already worked in 15 municipalities, to which 75 will be added this year, 30 in 2026 and the remaining 13 in 2027.
Specifically, the equipment has already been renewed in the DTT extension centers of the Generalitat of Benigembla, Calp, Planes, Santa Pola, Cinctorres, Peñíscola, Ademuz (Cerrellar), Alpuente, Benagéber, Godelleta, Vilamarxant, Villar del Arzobispo, Gátova and Teulada Moraira.
The following activities are planned for the following locations: San Miguel de Salinas, Arteas de Abajo (Bejís), Navajas, Puebla de Arenoso, Sueras, Vilafamés, Vistabella del Maestrat, Atzeneta d'Albaida and Beniatjar, Ayora, Navalón (Enguera) and Marines.
