Media Power and Ownership in Argentina

The mass media in Argentina is the one of the leading media markets in South America. It is said
that Argentina is characterized by a strong and concentrated private media system, comparatively
weaker public media organizations, and high online connectivity compared to other Latin
American countries.
It is said that Argentina’s media is a big business for a few. Most of them are owned by a few
private companies mostly located in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires. They concentrate
audience shares, income from private and state advertising, news production and distribution
networks. State-owned media outlets are less and less influential.

The major media companies in Argentina are:

Grupo Clarin - The largest media company in Argentina and the only conglomerate that
has a considerable market power in all areas of the media and telecommunication industry.
Some businesses under Grupo Clarin:
Clarín - a newspaper with the largest circulation in Argentina that prints over 1,000,000 copies
of its Sunday edition.
Clarin.com – most visited online news portal in Argentina
La Voz del Interior
Los Andes
Radio Mitre
FM 100
El Trece – The second largest open TV network in Argentina
TN – One of the most popular cable news channels
Cablevisión – Argentina’s main cable TV operator
Telecom - one of the two most important telecom operators
PapelPrensa S.A. - The only newsprint factory in Argentina
OTHER BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT:
mobile broadband services, the farming industry, tourism, video games, film production, etc.

TV Network run by Clarin - 22.6% market share

Grupo América – The second most important multimedia in Argentina with companies
presents in 70 provinces. It is focused on free TV and radio since it sold its cable TV company
Supercanal in 2018.
Under Grupo America is América TV which is the most watched open TV channel in Argentina
and one of its news channels, A24, ranked among the most popular news channels

Newspaper
AM/FM RADIO

TELEVISION
DIGITAL NEWSPAPER

OTHER BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT:

Grupo América’s shareholders and founders are Daniel Vila and José Luis Manzano, holds
powerful interests in the energy and oil industries, as well as in the supply of public services.
One of their partners, Claudio Belocopitt, owns one of the largest private health care companies
in the country, Swiss Medical Group.
Grupo Indalo – This company operated in several economic sectors, mainly transportation,
casino and gambling, oil and fuel. In 2010 Indalo entered the media industry after purchasing
two radio stations (FM Del Mar 98.7 and FM 90.3), a newspaper (El Patagónico), a magazine
(Polar) and a TV channel (Canal 9). Grupo Indalo expand over the year by obtaining 5 more
radio stations and by purchasing the news portal Minuto Uno, La Corte, Pensado Para
Televisión, and TV channel CN23 among others.
As of 2016, the group’s shareholders face prosecution for evading fuel sale and distribution taxes
worth $8 billion. Cristóbal López and his partner Fabián de Sousa are in prison for tax evasion.
Media relation to the government
When analyzing the leading media outlets in Argentina, it becomes obvious that concentration in
the industry has grown in recent years considerably. The fact that large conglomerates have
become more powerful is largely due to the deregulation practices furthered by the national
government.
Argentina’s national government provides media companies with the largest amounts of funding,
both direct (official advertising) and indirect (such as financial help, loan forgiveness, fiscal and
social security debt redemption, license extensions). As a result, the government’s leverage is
considerable and most media outlets’ editorial lines remain highly influenced by, with the
owners highly dependent on any changes in government.

Argentina’s print and online media companies are not obliged to disclose their corporate
structure or any related piece of information. For audiovisual media (TV and radio) this
obligation exists according to the Law on Services for Audiovisual Communication. However,
many companies simply chose to not comply with the law, and the National Communications
Entity (ENACOM) prefers to ignore this breach. As a result, it is burdensome to find out who the
real owners of media companies are.

Argentina’s executive branch is the main advertiser in media on both federal and local levels.
The national government regularly publishes the budget that is planned to be allocated to media
outlets and MOM’s research and analysis efforts are built on these data sets. However only very
few local governments provide as easy an access to this information and thus, the picture of
Argentine media funding remains incomplete – also as the commercial advertising sector appears
mostly opaque, even though the Argentine Chamber of Media Agencies publishes rough
estimates annually. Corporate financial information of most of the media companies is also
difficult to obtain with the notable exception of Grupo Clarín, which is a publicly listed stock
company and thus, obliged to publish detailed corporate data to satisfy financial markets.
The leading media holdings obtain most of their revenues from a mix of related businesses or
other economic sectors, so their media outlets tend to operate mainly to promote these other,
more profitable interests. Clarín for example, achieved not only a dominant position in all media
segments, but also controls a majority interest in the only newsprint (paper) factory in the
country, PapelPrensa S.A. (together with La Nacion and the national government). In addition it
holds interests in fixed and mobile broadband services, the farming industry, tourism, video
games and film production, among others.

Grupo América, whose main shareholders and founders are Daniel Vila and José Luis Manzano,
holds powerful interests in the energy and oil industries, as well as in the supply of public
services. One of their partners, Claudio Belocopitt, owns one of the largest private health care
companies in the country, Swiss Medical Group.

The activities of Grupo Indalo, whose owners Cristóbal López and Fabián De Sousa are in prison
for tax evasion, were originally spread across the transportation, gambling, oil and fuel sectors. It
entered the media industry late in 2010. In 2012, the group grew by purchasing Daniel Hadad’s
multimedia group.

Only a small minority of media groups obtains most of its income from traditional content
production and publishing. These include Telefé, owned by Viacom, Grupo La Nacion and
Grupo Perfil.