Mediaset spain gambles on a second kids’ channel to grab madrid’s last open-tv licence

Madrid is about to hand out the final nationwide slot on Spain’s terrestrial grid and Mediaset has quietly dropped a Boing-clone proposal into the ring, betting that cartoons, not current affairs, will seduce regulators before the April deadline.

The move pits the Berlusconi-backed broadcaster against a Prisa-led consortium pushing a 24-hour news offering, leaving the government with a stark choice: more animation for pre-teens or more talking heads for adults. Both bids landed alone in the inbox of the Ministry for Digital Transformation after the October tender closed; no one else applied.

A licence that arrives in 4k clothing

The new channel will ride on the DVB-T2 standard, freeing enough spectrum for ultra-HD broadcasts and giving the winner an instant technical glow-up over the ageing Boing signal. Sources close to the panel expect a decision before the Easter break, triggering a six-month countdown to launch. If the calendar holds, Spanish televisions will greet the newcomer between Christmas 2026 and Reyes 2027.

Mediaset’s playbook is refreshingly cynical: copy what already works. Boing, its joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery, has hovered around 1 % national share for years yet dominates the under-14 demographic, thanks to a loop of Adventure Time, Ben 10 and Doraemon. The proposed outlet would mirror that mix, repackage existing library deals and strip out the adult adverts that currently fund Boing’s late-night hours. Same cartoons, cleaner balance sheet.

Prisa’s news gamble looks upstream

The rival bid, assembled by former Prisa executives and regional media investors, offers the opposite: live newscasts, economic debate and a flagship breakfast show aimed at the 35-65 cohort that still watches linear TV. It is a direct pitch for the slot that disappeared when La Sexta moved to Atresmedia and 13TV went niche-religious. Yet the ratings math is brutal—Spain’s all-news channels average 0.3 % share, a tenth of Boing’s child-only slice.

Regulators face a cultural fork. Green-lighting Mediaset means doubling down on commercial animation at a time when TikTok is devouring kids’ screen minutes. Choosing Prisa revives the ghost of a public-service news channel Madrid has refused to finance directly. Either way, the state pockets €10 million in concession fees and offloads any future blame onto market forces.

Behind the scenes, lobbyists whisper about jobs: Mediaset promises 150, mostly in Madrid’s already crowded Fuencarral studios; Prisa’s consortium talks up 250 scattered positions across Valencia and Seville, sweetening southern votes. The Ministry’s evaluation sheet gives 40 points to content diversity and 30 to technical solvency; the rest hinges on vague “audience sustainability” forecasts—code for who can look profitable on paper without ever turning a real profit.

For viewers, the outcome feels like a remote-control coin toss. One remote will land on another cartoon island; the other, on yet another rolling ticker of political outrage. Spain’s last open channel will not expand choice—it will merely magnify whichever demographic already shouts loudest. The grid is full, the spectrum is gone, and the clock runs out in three weeks. After that, the spectrum closes for another decade.