Torrespaña () is a high

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

freestanding broadcasting tower in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Spain. It is the central and main transmission node of the terrestrial

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and radio networks in the country as well as the station that covers the city and its

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

. National and regional television channels and radio stations broadcast from there. The tower, currently owned by Cellnex, is located in a depression at the Salamanca district near the M30 highway. Torrespaña is also the name of the television production center at the foot of the tower where the central news services of

Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in Equatorial Guinea. T ...

(TVE) are located. Both facilities were built jointly by

Radiotelevisión Española The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española (''Spanish Radio and Television'', RTVE), is the Spanish national public Broadcasting, television and radio broadcaster. It is a state-owned enterprise f ...

(RTVE) on the occasion of the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national footbal ...

Characteristics

Torrespaña is a high

freestanding broadcasting tower that reaches with the antenna on top. Its shaft supports eight floors and more than four hundred different antennas. Despite its height and panoramic views, it is not open to the public. Torrespaña is the central and main transmission node of the

terrestrial television Terrestrial television, or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the content is signal transmission, transmitted via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV rece ...

and radio networks in Spain. It is in visual contact with the production centers of the main national broadcasters. Through a radio link, they send their signal to the tower, which is in charge of relay it to all the repeaters in the country.

(RTVE),

Mediaset España Grupo Audiovisual Mediaset España Comunicación, S.A.U. (formerly Gestevisión Telecinco, S.A. and Mediaset España Comunicación, S.A.) is a Spanish media company, controlled by the Italian-based company MFE – MediaForEurope N.V., which i ...

Atresmedia Atresmedia Corporación de Medios de Comunicación, S.A., previously Grupo Antena 3, is a Spanish media group, present in the television, radio and filmmaking industries. Significant shareholders include Grupo Planeta and Bertelsmann. On 6 Marc ...

and PRISA, among others, broadcast their television channels and radio stations nationwide through Torrespaña. The tower is also the broadcasting station that covers Madrid and its

. Regional broadcasters, such as

Radio Televisión Madrid Radio Televisión Madrid S.A. (RTVM) is the public broadcaster of the Community of Madrid. History The Ente Público Radio Televisión Madrid was created by means of a 1984 law, during the government of Joaquín Leguina, with the endorsement of ...

(RTVM), also broadcast throughout the tower. It is also used by the broadcasters as a link to receive the signal from

remote broadcast In broadcast engineering, a remote broadcast (usually just called a remote or a live remote, or in news parlance, a live shot) is broadcasting done from a location away from a formal television or radio studio and is considered an electronic fiel ...

History

Torrespaña was built as part of the infrastructure works for the

, which allowed

(TVE) –who held the monopoly on television broadcasting in the country and was in charge of producing the official live television feed of the event– to carry out a major modernization with the construction of the broadcasting tower and the production center at its foot. Both facilities were designed by RTVE's architect Emilio Fernández Martínez de Velasco. Construction work on the tower began on 17 February 1981 and was completed in just twelve months. It was carried out by the temporary union of the companies Dragados and Agroman and it costed 350 million pesetas. The freestanding construction technique used was pioneering, as it had never been used before, and it makes the tower stand by its own weight. The idea of installing a

revolving restaurant A revolving restaurant or rotating restaurant is a tower restaurant designed to rest atop a broad circular revolving wikt:platform, platform that operates as a large turntable. The building remains stationary and the diners are carried on the rev ...

in the tower was initially considered, but was soon rejected for safety and economic reasons. The tower and the production center were inaugurated on 7 June 1982 by the King and the Queen of Spain, although the tower was in operation since the night of 18 May. The production center, which served as the International Broadcast Centre during the World Cup, was occupied by TVE's central news services after it. El Piruli and neighbourhood

On 19 May 1989, in response to the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

(EEC) requirement to separate the

natural monopoly A natural monopoly is a monopoly in an industry in which high infrastructural costs and other barriers to entry relative to the size of the market give the largest supplier in an industry, often the first supplier in a market, an overwhelming adv ...

of infrastructure management from the competitive operations of running services, and with the imminent arrival of

commercial television Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...

, RTVE's broadcasting network, including the Torrespaña tower, was transferred to Retevisión. TVE kept the production center at the foot of the tower where its master control room, its central

newsroom A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editing, editors, and Television producer, producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournalists, videojournalists, associate editor, residence editor, visu ...

, the 24 Horas news channel, ''

Telediario ''Telediario'' (''Tele-journal'') is the Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television newscast produced by Televisión Española (TVE), the television division of Spanish state-owned public broadcaster RTVE, Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). ...

'' and '' Informe Semanal'' studios are still located. In December 2003,

Abertis Abertis Infraestructuras, S.A. () is a Spanish worldwide corporation engaged in toll road management. The company is headquartered in Madrid. The company runs over 8,600 kilometres of toll roads in the world. In October 2018, it was acquired by I ...

acquired Retevision, thus the Torrespaña tower became their property under Abertis Telecom. On 1 April 2015, Abertis Telecom was renamed to Cellnex to prepare for its stock launch.

In popular culture

Torrespaña is popularly known as "El Pirulí", given the similarity between the tower and a particular type of

lollipop A lollipop is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. Different informal terms are used in different places, including lolly, sucker and sticky-pop. Lollipops are avail ...

of conical shape very popular in Spain in the eighties.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torrespana Buildings and structures in Salamanca District, Madrid Towers completed in 1982 Communication towers in Spain 1982 establishments in Spain