“Raw material of the lowest price”: this is how José Miguel Contreras defines saliva, the material with which he created La Septima. The channel that enters DTT today was born in line with the industry that has grown the most on the Spanish grid, taking the looped opinion to extremes (in the style of many Argentine television spaces, a presenter will take over from the latter). A model that, in the current climate, is condemned to work.
When does it start? La Septima starts airing today, November 5, at 12:00 It is the fifth general private television of the democracy, and it is directed by Javier Ruiz, who comes from ‘Mañaneros 360’ with a good part of his team. You’d have to restart DTT to see it, and its orientation would be overtly political and progressive, almost entirely abandoning (although there will be exceptions on weekends) entertainment in favor of fiction and pure debate. Objective: Compete in the audience with Cuatro and La Sexta.
A grid of tables and microphones From Monday to Friday, according to the schedule already published:
- 12:00-14:55, the pulse. Verónica Sanz started the day with a review of current events.
- 15:05-16:55, Online. Sarah Santaolla moves from TVE’s star talk show host to her own show.
- 17:05-18:55, on the table. Rocio Delgado, with everyday life and misinformation as axis.
- 19:05-20:50, diana. Presented by Noor Ben Yesef with a more social focus.
- 21:00-01:00, last hour. Opens every night with Javier Ruiz The final stretchAnd has already said it will monitor voting intentions daily during this pre-election period.
Programs include ten minutes of ‘The Relay’; Mornings are for broadcasting and early mornings are for teleshopping. The weekend is split between Lujan Arguelles (‘Weekend’, 12:00-1:55 pm), Quequé (‘La comedia nacional’, 2:05-4:55 pm) and Alba Carrillo and Marta Márquez (‘Out of control’, 5:05 pm-05). On Saturday night, ‘The Seventh Screen’ aired a film with subsequent discussion and Ruiz returned on Sunday.
A TV made of saliva. If we go into the accounts in detail, as analyzed by El Confidential, we have a budget of 30 million euros per year, which is ten times less than the 300 born in 2006 by LaSexta and far from the 180 reserved by Quattro in 2005 only for its programming. A very limited budget that forces the grid to fill the table (RTVE pays the affiliates of ‘La Hora de la 1’ between 150 and 450 euros per program, for example). Jose Miguel Contreras, head of the channel, estimates that each viewer point is worth about 15 million: 2% or 2.5% with it’s green and 1.5% with “we will suffer.”
bias Contreras acknowledged a “center-left bias” and described the changing times: A network used to have to appear neutral, and now it wants to tell its audience, “You’re one of mine.” He realizes that, in terms of audience, PP and Vox wins will be better for him, as many progressive viewers will abandon TV, as has happened in the US. late night After Trump’s victory. Their commercial argument is that private television has an “overwhelming abundance of conservative profiles” and no progressive gaps.
to the mud La Septima is a network designed and built for controversy and confrontation: it needs a counterpart in Moncloa or on the opposite set to justify every hour of its broadcast. But the demand exists: Digital News Report Spain 2026 33% of those who trust the news in general and 42% of those who trust the news themselves. But a former manager who worked with Contreras, in the same article, summarized one of the risks: the model retains biased audiences at the expense of alienating others and ends up in “confusion of opinion and information.”
precedent In 2012, laSexta filled its schedule with overnight political news, and La has implemented a version of that formula since 1 April 2025. And it gives an audience: La 1 closed 13% as the most watched network in October, and doubled its audience by politicizing the content of ‘Mañaneros’. On the other hand, Cuatro made ‘Horizonte’ the most watched program of his season with discussions as the core and desire of a controversial show.
Or put another way: five generalists added more than 123 hours of interviews with politicians between January and mid-September, and the cost of these interviews increased by 20.6% compared to 2025. At La Septima they boast that their project inspired TVE’s turnaround, but they draw the red line: based on the Contredress they’re already tracking. Controversy, and Ruiz promised an “anti-fox” without illness, without bullshit, and without trash. We still do not know the quality and spirit of the debate that awaits us, but it is clear that the trenches were already prepared before the first program.
header Festival Vitoria
In Xataka | The most watched Spanish political debate this week was not on Tele5, but on the Ibai channel and was hosted by Xokas
