La Séptima arrives, the television of the perpetual talk show

BarcelonaProgressive, politicized and small. These are the three Ps that define the new television station that arrives this Thursday at 12 noon on DTT under the name La Séptima. Born with a modest budget of 30 million euros per year, where the duopoly spends hundreds of millions on Antena 3 or Telecinco, its promoters believe they can survive by playing a fundamental card very strongly: current affairs commentary, which weaves through the schedule from morning to night.

On weekdays, five programs cover all time slots with similar formats in which the most relevant change is the presenter: Verónica Sanz handles the mornings with El pulso, the afternoon slot goes to Sarah Santaolalla and her En línea, followed in the afternoon by Sobre la mesa, by Rocío Delgado, and then with La diana, by Noor Ben Yessef, to finish with La última hora, by Javier Ruiz, the channel's head of content.

The weekend shifts slightly towards formats where entertainment is present. The mornings will be led by Luján Argüelles, the afternoon slot will be for Héctor de Miguel, known as Quequé, with La comedia nacional, and the evenings for Alba Carrillo and Marta Márquez, with the program Fuera de control. Saturday nights will be for cinema –with another talk show around the theme raised in the film, conducted in rotation by the channel's presenters– and Sunday nights will once again be for Javier Ruiz, again with La última hora.

Although La Séptima has not defined itself politically, and its CEO, José Miguel Contreras, assures that it is a pluralistic television station–and rejects the nickname 'Telesánchez' with which the project has been criticized–the truth is that its main presenters are framed within the progressive orbit. And the channel obtained the license from the Spanish government–Spain is one of the few countries in Europe where it is not an independent authority that grants frequencies–ahead of the Telecinco proposal, which was much more solid from the point of view of financial muscle. Furthermore, in recent years, Contreras has been one of the shadow advisors on communication matters to the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.

Retune the television

The launch of the channel coincides –not by chance– with the so-called R-day, which is how this November 5th has been dubbed, a day in which the Spanish radioelectric space is being rearranged to accommodate ultra-high definition channels. TV3 is one of the televisions joining the 4K definition, after the Government unblocked the private multiplex, which had remained inoperative after the closure of 8TV. That said, to see these broadcasts it will not be necessary to call the antenna technician, but it will be necessary to retune the television if one wants to have the new offer organized. La Séptima has secured number 7 on the dial –displacing Atreseries– and has closed agreements with pay operators to also be present on Movistar+, Vodafone, Orange, and Digi.

Regarding audience goals, Contreras assured at the channel's presentation event that they aspire to reach a 2.5% market share. Below 2%, on the other hand, problems would begin, but, to play it safe, he joked that he committed to surpassing the 0.1% that La Sexta –a progressive channel he also promoted– recorded on its first day of broadcasts. Be that as it may, the proximity of the election campaign, media polarization in Spain, and the good audience results of Ruiz when he was at La 1 a few months ago allow the channel to have hopes of meeting its objectives. Political tension is yielding audience returns, as evidenced by the fact that Cuatro has achieved its best October in seventeen years thanks to the boost from the program Horizonte, by Iker Jiménez.