The Seventh signs Verónica Sanz: the jump from laSexta to Javier Ruiz's channel

As of today, the administrative processing of the broadcasting license for La Séptima is essentially completed: the national DTT tender has been resolved, the license has been awarded to the SIETE consortium, and the Government has approved the channel redistribution and the technical schedule that allows the channel to start broadcasting from November 5, 2026. What remains ahead are mainly technical execution steps and compliance with legal conditions, as well as the uncertainty arising from Vox's appeal before the National Court.

Current status of the license and the channel

In October 2025, the Government called, by Council of Ministers agreement, the public tender to award a new national free-to-air DTT license, with an initial duration of 15 renewable years, in compliance with the National Technical Plan for DTT and Law 13/2022, General Audiovisual Communication Law (news on Demócrata and tender documents published in the BOE).

On May 26, 2026, the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function resolved the tender and awarded the license to Servicios Integrados Entretenimiento Televisivo SL (SIETE), over the competing offer from Mediaset, according to the Ministry's official note and sector analysis by media such as Audiovisual451 (Ministry note, Audiovisual451 analysis). This award is formalized in an administrative document signed by the competent minister, as explained by the Government itself and detailed by Demócrata in this piece.

Subsequently, on July 31, 2026, the BOE published the resolution approving the redistribution of DTT channels and setting the implementation schedule for the DVB‑T2 technological standard for ultra-high-definition (UHD) broadcasts. That same resolution expressly establishes that from November 5 the new DTT channel La Séptima, awarded to the SIETE consortium, can be tuned in, and that its programming must be available no later than November 27 (Ministry resolution and coverage on Demócrata).

In parallel, the press has confirmed that La Séptima is already preparing as a national free-to-air channel, with a premiere date of November 5, 2026, and a corporate structure linked to SIETE (channel profile on Demócrata).

Next legal and administrative steps

Based on the available information, the main milestones remaining before the effective launch can be summarized as follows:

• Formal notification of the broadcast start date: the tender documentation and Ministry notes indicate that the awardee must notify the competent authority of the planned broadcast start date to organize channel redistribution and retuning. This procedure is directly connected to the November 5 schedule set by the redistribution resolution.
• Compliance with license conditions and Law 13/2022: during the pre-broadcast phase, the company must demonstrate compliance with solvency requirements, service obligations, and the technical and content conditions established in the tender and the General Audiovisual Communication Law (quotas of certain content, protection of minors, advertising limits, etc.).
• Technical adaptation to the DVB‑T2 standard and broadcast tests: the July 31, 2026 resolution links La Séptima's launch to the deployment of UHD DTT. It is essential that the operator configures its equipment to broadcast under the established technical conditions (frequency, MPE5 multiplex, power, signal format), coordinates retuning, and passes the usual pre-broadcast tests required by the administration.
• Public communication and coordination with DTT reorganization: the resolution obliges companies affected by channel redistribution to inform viewers, from October 5, about the need to retune their televisions. La Séptima will have to be integrated into this campaign to ensure its dial slot is visible and accessible.
• Management of the legal dispute: according to Demócrata, Vox has appealed before the National Court the license award to the consortium promoting La Séptima, questioning the legality of the process (same source). While there is no precautionary measure or annulment ruling, the license remains fully effective, but this appeal introduces an element of medium-term legal uncertainty.

In summary, from the ordinary administrative perspective, the process is already in its final phase: tender resolved, license granted, and technical framework approved. What remains is for SIETE to complete communication procedures, ensure compliance with legal obligations, and finalize the technical launch so that La Séptima begins broadcasting from November 5, 2026, in a context where a contentious appeal remains open that could reexamine the award.

Spanish audiovisual regulations do not explicitly regulate the position of “editorial director” as a specific professional category in television networks. What they do regulate, especially Law 13/2022, General Audiovisual Communication Law, is the “editorial responsibility” and the obligations of the provider of the audiovisual communication service. In practice, in a television network these functions are concentrated in editorial management, content management, or an equivalent role.

Law 13/2022 defines the audiovisual communication service as one that provides content to inform, entertain, or educate the public, “under the editorial responsibility of a service provider.” It understands editorial responsibility as the exercise of effective control over the selection of programs and their organization in the schedule or catalog, and editorial decision as the periodic decisions linked to the daily management of the service. This core of control is what, in business reality, an editorial director assumes.

1. General framework of editorial competencies

Based on these definitions, the competencies and functions that the law attributes to the subject with editorial responsibility — and that project onto the editorial management of a television network — can be grouped as:

• Selection and organization of content: deciding which programs and other audiovisual content are broadcast or offered on demand, in what order, at what times, and under what format (linear or on demand). This capacity for choice and ordering is the core of editorial responsibility.
• Guarantee of the general principles of audiovisual communication: the law sets principles such as pluralism, diversity, respect for human dignity, rejection of content that incites hatred or violence, and the need to guarantee users’ right to know who is responsible for the content. The person exercising editorial management must ensure that all programming respects these principles.
• Compliance with public service obligations (in public operators): for public service providers (RTVE or regional and local operators), Law 13/2022 and specific legislation (for example, Law 17/2006 for RTVE) add missions of social cohesion, promotion of culture and European works, political and social pluralism, and informative objectivity. Governance is articulated through administrative bodies and executive management, while advisory bodies in editorial management inform that management, which makes the final content decisions.

2. Protection of minors and the general public

Law 13/2022 develops very precise obligations regarding protection of minors and the general public against certain content. From this derive key editorial functions:

• Properly classify content by age and nature, and respect the time slots of special protection for minors, particularly in linear television services.
• Avoid broadcasting content that may harm the physical, mental, or moral development of minors, or frame them with reinforced protection measures (warnings, restricted hours, parental control).
• Apply reinforced criteria to commercial communications directed at or accessible to minors, especially for sensitive products (alcoholic beverages, gambling, foods with certain nutritional profiles, etc.), where the law even foresees the adoption of specific codes of conduct.

3. Advertising and other commercial communications

The editorial director shares, with the commercial and compliance areas, the responsibility that audiovisual commercial communications (advertising, sponsorship, teleshopping, product placement) comply with the quantitative and qualitative limits set by Law 13/2022 and its implementing regulations:

• Control that the identification of advertising as such is clear and not confused with editorial content.
• Guarantee compliance with product restrictions (for example, tobacco) and time or format restrictions when the law requires them.
• Supervise the use of sponsorship and product placement, so that they do not unduly condition content independence nor violate specific limitations in news, children’s programs, religious programs, or consumer protection.

4. Self-regulation, accessibility, and supervision

The law encourages the adoption of codes of self-regulation and co-regulation, for example in matters of accessibility or commercial communication directed at minors. Editorial management usually plays a relevant role in:

• Promoting and applying the internal codes of conduct of the network regarding content, journalistic ethics, treatment of violence, gender equality, or diversity.
• Coordinating with technical services the integration of accessibility measures (subtitling, audio description, sign language, etc.), whose quality and degree of implementation are subject to legal obligations and control by the audiovisual authority.
• Attending to the supervision by the CNMC and, where applicable, regional audiovisual authorities, responding to requests and adapting content policy to regulatory resolutions and recommendations.

In summary, Spanish audiovisual regulations do not describe a “job manual” for the editorial director, but they do define a very demanding scope of editorial responsibility. In a television network, the person holding that management assumes, on behalf of the service provider, the ultimate responsibility for what is broadcast, how it is organized, and that all complies with the principles of pluralism, protection of minors, advertising correctness, accessibility, and other obligations set by Law 13/2022 and its complementary regulations.

From the founding of laSexta in the mid-2000s until the launch of La Séptima in 2026, José Miguel Contreras's trajectory combines a very intense career in the audiovisual sector with a progressive public projection linked to political analysis, but without formal positions in parties or government posts accredited in the consulted sources.

laSexta stage and consolidation in private television (2006‑2015)

The starting point of your question is 2006, the year laSexta was born. According to the profile published by Demócrata, Contreras was the main promoter of the channel and its CEO, a role he held until 2012, when the integration operation with Antena 3 was closed (Demócrata). Under his direction, laSexta consolidated as one of the major private channels and established a very recognizable identity, with formats such as El Intermedio, whose creation is directly linked to Contreras.

Before reaching that point, the same profile recalls that he was already an influential figure in the sector: he had founded the production company Globomedia in 1996, after working at Canal+ España as the first Programming Director and at Telemadrid as Director of Programs and Sports. From Globomedia, he participated in the launch of numerous entertainment formats and current affairs programs that marked television in the late 1990s and 2000s.

After laSexta's integration into Antena 3, Contreras took on responsibilities in the resulting group, Atresmedia: between 2012 and 2015 he was vice president and a member of its editorial committee, which kept him at the core of strategic content decisions of the largest private generalist television group alongside Mediaset.

Shift towards political analysis, academia, and new projects (2015‑2024)

From 2016 onwards, Demócrata describes a stage in which Contreras “intensifies his journalistic activity” as a political analyst in various media and strengthens his academic and business profile around political communication and news media (Demócrata).

Professionally and entrepreneurially:

• He consolidates as a PhD in Journalism from Complutense University, with a thesis on politics and television, and as a Professor of Communication at Rey Juan Carlos University.
• He appears as the main shareholder of infoLibre, where the medium itself highlights that he has been financially supporting the project for years, while he defends that this role does not interfere with the editorial independence.
• He maintains a social facet: he was president of Save the Children Spain between 2003 and 2009 and has participated in initiatives linked to hearing disability.

In the late 2010s and early 2020s, he reconnects with audiovisual production. In 2018 he promotes, together with Jorge Pezzi, LACOproductora, specialized in entertainment and fiction formats; Pezzi later appears as CEO of this company before moving to direct Boomerang TV, while sector chronicles continue to attribute to Contreras the role of co-founder and creative reference (Audiovisual451).

In 2024, the PRISA Media group takes a step further by appointing him Content Director, from where he assumes audiovisual strategy and coordinates projects such as Lacoproductora. That same year, another executive, María Jesús Espinosa de los Monteros, replaces him at the head of Lacoproductora so that he can focus precisely on that role as the top content manager of PRISA Media (Panorama Audiovisual).

La Séptima and the political dimension of his figure (2025‑2026)

Contreras's return to the forefront of free-to-air television occurs with the 2026 award of a new national DTT license to the Siete (Servicios Integrados de Entretenimiento Televisivo) consortium. The Council of Ministers agreement granting the license identifies Contreras as one of the key drivers of the project, alongside shareholders such as Andrés Varela Entrecanales, Adolfo Utor, Diego Prieto, and Argentine businessman José Luis Manzano (Panorama Audiovisual).

From there crystallizes La Séptima TV, the new national free-to-air channel expected to start broadcasting on November 5, 2026. Demócrata profiles present him as the main driving force behind the channel and one of its editorial brains: he acts as advisor and launch manager, although he is not listed as a shareholder of the concessionaire company (Demócrata).

The medium itself emphasizes that:

• La Séptima is born with a strong news vocation, focused on current affairs, live coverage, analysis, and conversation, aiming to compete with Cuatro and laSexta.
• The project is supported by an initial investment of about 20‑25 million euros and a planned staff of nearly 300 workers.
• Reports indicate that the channel has been described by other media as oriented towards the progressive or left-wing space, while Contreras insists he does not intend a “red or blue” television, but a modern and independent channel.

Politically speaking, the consulted sources do not record appointments of Contreras as a formal advisor at La Moncloa, nor organic positions in the PSOE or other parties. His “political trajectory” is rather articulated in three areas: his academic specialization in political communication, his role as a analyst and commentator in media, and the fact that the projects he promotes — laSexta in its day and now La Séptima — are often read ideologically due to their impact on public conversation and the balance of the media landscape.

In short, between the founding of laSexta and the creation of La Séptima, Contreras goes from being the executive who launches and consolidates a major private channel to becoming a reference figure at the intersection of television, political information, and content strategy, maintaining his influence mainly from the audiovisual sector and not from formal political positions.