There was a strange, heavy pause in the air when news alerts started flashing on Basque TVs over the weekend. Coworkers who had shared control rooms and microphones with Oihane Mateos for years were now telling the kind of news that they had spent their whole careers trying to put in context. The head of digital news for public broadcaster EITB died in her home town of Ibarra. She was only 45 years old. Her death left a sudden hole in Spanish regional journalism.
As someone who has watched regional broadcasting for ten years, Mateos’s change from a polished on-air news anchor to a sharp digital strategist was like seeing someone naturally understand where media was going. Before she took over EITB’s digital operations in 2022, she was a familiar face in thousands of homes as the host of popular news shows like Teleberri and Gaur Egun. Back then, working in a traditional newsroom meant following strict TV schedules and set air times. But Mateos seemed eager to break those rules, and he eventually started Orain, the network’s digital news initiative.
In the days after she died, people quickly started talking about the details of her illness, and news stories dug deeper into the diagnosis. Reports confirmed that she died on August 8 after a long battle with cancer, which she kept mostly to herself in her last years. When a famous person has a serious health problem, there is always a fine line between the public’s desire for answers and the family’s right to privacy and respect. As someone who works in journalism, I can say from personal experience how hard it is for media outlets to report on one of their own without losing perspective.
Many viewers may not remember that Mateos brought a unique physical discipline to her work in the media. From 2006 to 2013, she competed in rowing for the prestigious Orio Rowing Club. It takes a lot of intense, rhythmic coordination to pull oars thru coastal waters, which is a trait that seemed to be a lot like how she later handled complicated, real-time news streams. Watching her handle live breaking news while running a newsroom felt a lot like that—it required accuracy, endurance, and a calm demeanor when things got crazy.
There are a lot of tributes on social media from all over the Spanish media. Former coworkers like Adela González and Nerea Garmendia are sharing quiet memories instead of standard press releases. Today, when automated newsfeeds and quick viral headlines are the norm, Mateos’s real legacy may lie in her work to keep human stories at the heart of digital platforms. The newsrooms at EITB will miss her, but the digital framework she built is likely to remain the main way that Basque people get their news for many years to come.
Key Information Summary
| Fact / Field | Detail |
| Full Name | Oihane Mateos Oria |
| Year & Place of Birth | 1981 in Ibarra, Guipúzcoa, Spain |
| Date of Death | August 8, 2026 |
| Age at Death | 45 years old |
| Cause of Death | Cancer |
| Primary Employer | EITB (Euskal Irratia Telebista) |
| Position | Head of Digital News Services (Orain) |
| Key Broadcast Roles | Anchor / Reporter for Teleberri, Gaur Egun, De boca en boca, Pásalo |
| Athletic History | Rower for Orio Rowing Club (2006–2013) |
