'El Mundo' returns Veo 7 to DTT, thirteen years after closing it

BarcelonaIn times of mass exodus from digital channels, there are those who still rely on DTT. This is the case of Unedisa, the publisher of the newspaper The World, which has announced the revival of its former television station Veo 7, which closed in 2012. This new phase, which begins on Wednesday, will focus on broadcasting canned programming consisting primarily of current films. Among the first films announced are Criminal lives (a black comedy starring Jennifer Aniston), Pixie (with Ben Hardy and Olivia Cooke) and Weird (the biopic of comedian Weird Al Yankovic).

The series section will be represented by two titles that have been broadcast for a long time on different networks. On the one hand, Baywatch, with Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff. And, on the other hand, Flashpoint, a Canadian series about an elite police force starring Enrico Colantoni and Amy Jo Johnson. Veo 7 will use the frequencies previously used by Gol Play, Mediapro's free-to-air sports channel, which, after nine years on the air, is closing its broadcasts this Tuesday. In fact, this channel was broadcasting on a sub-leased basis, as the license was originally granted to Unedisa.

A failed channel

The arrival of Veo 7 had a clear political component. It was in 2000 when José María Aznar saw the future arrival of DTT as an option to shape the television landscape in favor of his interests. Thus, he granted two licenses to companies that were close to him: Unedisa, publisher ofThe World, and Vocento, responsible among others for the newspaper Abc. But there was a significant problem: to receive those televisions, it was necessary to have a television adapted to the new technology or a decoder. And, in those years, the population had not yet begun the process of replacing their devices because Europe allowed traditional broadcasting. That is to say, the vast majority of the population could not receive broadcasts from Veo 7 (then Veo Televisión) or its premium Net TV, owned by Vocento.

With no audience, the broadcasts that finally launched in 2004 were mere token programs: programs linked to the news generated by the newspapers themselves, with a large number of in-house people to minimize investment. Audiences were minimal, and it soon became clear that if there was any chance of making amends and turning that license into a lucrative one, it wasn't by developing content and hoping advertisers would buy in, but by subleasing the airtime granted and having a surplus, so that other television stations such as 13TV, Marca, and AXN could exceed €4 million annually for each of the three leased channels. It wasn't a subsidy, but it seemed sufficient.

It wasn't long before the channel was in its death throes. The vicious cycle indicated imminent closure: workers were laid off, in-house programming was cut, and ratings fell even further, which ultimately led to more layoffs. In July 2011, the show went dark, and suddenly, its screen became a teleshopping mall. The Unedisa group began negotiating severance pay for the 250 workers who remained on that ruined project. In September, it returned with a few months of erratic and irregular programming, before throwing in the towel and handing over its DTT space to Discovery Max.