Speak the Culture: Spain: Be Fluent in Spanish Life and Culture

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1. Identity: the
   building blocks of
   2. Literature
   and philosophy
   3. Art and
   architecture
   4. Performing
   arts
   5. Cinema
   and fashion
   6. Media and
   communications
   7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
   the details of

Quantity vs. quality

OK, so Spain has some of the best weather in Europe,

the people are famously sociable and, with all due

respect, theirTV shows don’t enjoy the best reputation.

So why are they all indoors watching telly?

Few European nations watch the tube more than the

Spanish. Current estimates put their averageTV

ingestion at three and a half hours a day. Only the United

States, watching four and a half hours a day (where do

they find the time?), has a significantly tighter grip on

the remote control. When they’re in front of the box

the Spanish seem to prefer a fatty diet of game shows,

soaps (the South American variant especially), panel

shows that provide little more than televised gossip and,

above all, sport. Squeezed in between the lowbrow fare,

Spain does have a clutch of excellent documentary and

current affairs programmes, most notably the weekly

Informe Semanal.

Changing channels

Spain’s relationship with television developed under

Franco and, consequently, had a rather stilted upbringing.

Like much of the media it was used as a mouthpiece for

the regime. First broadcast in 1956 on a single state-run

channel (TVE), SpanishTV was subject to twice the

censorship of anything else. Programmes had to get

through two different panels and content that was

otherwise acceptable in Spanish cinemas was often cut.

The 1966 relaxation in press censorship didn’t lap over to

television; only with thedestapeperiod of the late 1970s

did matters begin to improve. Even then television didn’t

enjoy the same degree of liberalisation as the press.

They may watch a lot of
it, but the Spanish don’t
take TV too seriously:

Telebasura, literally
‘trash telly’, is a bit of a
buzzword for the light
entertainment output
that makes up much of
the evening schedules.

The TV is also often
referred to as thecaja
tontaor ‘idiot box’.

Soap operas, particularly
those imported from
Latin America, are
known asculebrones,
literally ‘serpents’,
because they meander
on and on.

TV terminology

6.1.2 Love at first sight: the Spanish and their TVs