On August 7, Javier Ruiz bid farewell to ‘Mañaneros 360’ with a slogan for the audience: “Reward journalism, punish trash.” Eleven weeks later, that farewell at La 1 has a special resonance: Ruiz appears today as director of La Septima, a progressive network that begins broadcasting on DTT on November 5. He is perhaps the most relevant figure among those who have left other networks to join the staff of the new channel, starting with a significant part of the morning team and working with him on TV. genius from different chains.
The grill. The new network brought nine presenters, who were announced with its programming: Ruiz himself, Rocio Delgado, Alba Carrillo, Marta Marquez, Hector de Miguel ‘Qué’, Lujan Argüelles, Sarah Santaolala, Noor Ben Yessef and Veronica Sanz. Its star program will be presented by Ruiz Prime time And Sanj will host ‘El Pulse’ in the morning.
Unbalanced distribution. The network presented 16 journalists on Daniel Fernández, a director of ‘Manneros’ and previously responsible for the program of Ana Rosa Quintana, accepted as director of content, a position that in other networks is divided into two aspects, news and programs. RTVE has rebuilt its morning slot with Jesús Cintora as presenter of ‘Mañaneros 360’ since August.
Among presenters, departures from personal are more timely. Veronica Sanz is leaving LaSexta after seven years, and Sara Rincón has been with the same network since May 2022. Among the talk show hosts is Marta Nebot, who left ‘En Boca de Todos’ in Cuatro after writing in X in July that the program had decided to “discard my words”. La Septima will not impose exclusivity as a rule and will study on a case-by-case basis whether its presenters can continue on other networks.
Why so many people? A look at the lineup helps to understand why there is so much talk about anchors and reporters and why the channel has signed few stars. Contreras will leave fiction, movies and great entertainment programs for Live and Current Affairs Live. He knows what he’s talking about: he was one of the promoters of Globomedia and La Sexta.
Target audience. They change depending on who says them. There are those who say that La Septima wants to get closer to the 2% quota at the start and exceed 3% in the first year; Others, however, have revealed that the goal is to get as close to lasexta y cuatro as possible to 4%, with a career of at least two years, an investment of just under ten million in the first full year, and an expected operating profit for the fourth year. Its two great rivals finished the 2025/26 season with 6.1% (Cuatro) and 6% (laSexta). share. Of course: the results of other exclusively opinion channels are not very flattering: Veo7, La 10 or 7NN could not sustain themselves without a large team behind them.
And there is the election. With the election progressing on November 29, the start date of the campaign was announced: from the 13th to the 27th. La Septima will air eight days before it begins. During these weeks the same rules will apply as in any private party: respect pluralism and equality during election periods, and proportionality and information neutrality in debates, interviews and campaign information. Read another way: If the entire schedule consists of current affairs, those rules affect the entire programming.
factionalism On May 26, the Council of Ministers awarded the license to SIETE, the company behind La Septima, for 15 renewable years over other candidate Mediaset. Vox appealed this to the national court in July, and some media directly called it “Sanchez’s new chain”. Contreras, for his part, maintained that introducing a team would be “the biggest stupidity in the world”. A television running turned into a partisan fight, and which has a precedent that we know well: in 2024, Broncano had to deny that his jump to TVE was to promote Pedro Sánchez.
In Xataka | La 1 only had to win the morning battle. It achieved this like everything else: by politicizing its content
Header Image | Vitoria-Gasteiz Festival
