Spain's new progressive TV channel sets its sights on RTVE stars

The government plants the seed of a new pogre channel for when it loses control of RTVE

While Sánchez's government speeds up the launch of a new pogre-oriented private television channel, the future of RTVE hangs by a thread. According to infoLibre, the project, still unnamed, will begin broadcasting before autumn and will focus on news and live programming. Its real strategy: poaching the big names of public television before the PP takes office and replaces them.

A media parachute in a hurry

The new channel is shaping up as a private alternative financed in the same spirit as La Sens, but with a more explicit goal. While La Sens has hardened its editorial line against Pedro Sánchez —to the point that industry sources describe it as "furious" with the prime minister— the new channel would be born unapologetically aligned. The operation seeks to secure a friendly megaphone when the PP regains control of RTVE and dismantles the current management. The candidates being courted are the network's heavyweights: pundits like Ferreras, Ana Rosa or Ángel Expósito, although zaine, Pito and Naranjo are mentioned in the industry as possible star signings.

Does it have a future with an ageing audience?

Scepticism about the project's viability is enormous. Linear television is losing viewers at an accelerating pace, especially among young people, who barely consume this medium anymore. Production costs are high and advertising is shifting to digital platforms. Several analysts doubt that an ideological channel can find a large enough audience, especially when its main asset is poaching talent from a public broadcaster that time has turned into a political propaganda machine. "Their viewers are dying off," critics sum up, seeing the new project as a prestige or business operation for a few, rather than a sustainable plan.

The threat of a political cycle change

The prospect of a PP victory completely transforms the media landscape. The left knows that control of RTVE is temporary and that, when the right arrives, its professionals will lose their main megaphone. Hence the urgency of having a private channel ready. However, experience shows that channels with an explicit political bias rarely work as a business. The question is whether the new outlet will manage to survive advertising cuts and competition from streaming platforms, or whether it will end up like so many other projects that were born with the same purpose and disappeared without a trace.

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