The mass media in Argentina is the one of the leading media markets in South America, with a relatively free and fair press and media industry. While there are 15 major media companies in Argentina, most media outlets are owned by a very small number of large conglomerates such as Grupo Clarín and Grupo América.
Major media companies
The major media companies in Argentina are:
Grupo América
América Móvil
ARSAT
Grupo Clarín
Grupo Pierri (Telecentro) Infobae (owned by Daniel Hadad) La Nación Papel Prensa Grupo PRISA Telefe (the company owned by Paramount Global)
Facts and figures
According to a 2018 joint study between the University of Oxford and Reuters, “Argentina is characterised by a strong and concentrated private media system, comparatively weaker public media organisations, and high online connectivity compared to other Latin American countries.”
The same study reported that many Argentine citizens distrust both politics and the media.
Argentina has over 150 daily newspapers. Over 100 commercial radio stations exist throughout the country. One estimate places the number of Argentinian internet users at 16 million. Placing this on context: the population of Argentina is 44 million.
The main newspapers in Argentina are:
Clarín
Crónica
Diario Popular
El Cronista
La Nación
La Prensa
Página/12
Perfil (only weekdays)
Media conglomerates
Reporters Without Borders and an organization representing Argentine media workers got together and formed a project known as the Media Ownership Monitor (MOM). MOM “investigated the most influential media in Argentina (TV, radio, print and online), with the aim to highlight who the media owners and their political and economic interests are.” The MOM report found that Grupo Clarín is the only media conglomerate that has extensive market power in all areas of the media and telecommunications industries.
Grupo Clarín
The largest media company in Argentina is Grupo Clarín. The company owns Clarín, a newspaper with the largest circulation in Argentina that prints over 1,000,000 copies of its Sunday edition. Canal 13 is the second most popular TV station in Buenos Aires and Grupo Clarín owns it, too, among many other media assets.
The four largest media conglomerates in Argentina cover almost half of the national audience. One of the mega media companies, Grupo Clarín, covers 25% of the national audience.
Clarín owns three of the ten largest newspapers: Clarín, La Voz del Interior (from Córdoba), and Los Andes. These three papers represented nearly half the national newspaper reading audience in 2018.
After Grupo Clarín came into the audiovisual media market in 1989, it became the biggest media group in Argentina. Clarín owns over half of the pay-TV market and has significant power in controlling news, paper, film, and TV production companies. Telefónica is another major player in Argentine media. Telefónica owns commercial broadcast TV stations as well as landline-based and cell phone companies. (It does not, however, own any print media). Finally, Grupo Vila-Manzano is another large and significant power in Argentina’s media landscape. The company began within the Mendoza province and expanded to the rest of the nation, although it does not have much market penetration in Buenos Aires. Vila-Manzano owns pay-TV, local newspaper in provincial (state) capitals, radio stations, and TV stations.
Grupo América
In Argentina, the largest media companies don't make most of their money from media services. Instead, they make the majority of their revenue from other businesses and industries. For example, Grupo América is a media company owned by two businessmen, Daniel Vila and José Luis Manzano. It owns large firms in energy, oil, and public service supplies. One of the company’s partners owns Swiss Medical Group, the largest private healthcare company in Argentina.
Grupo América (formerly, Grupo UNO) is focused on free TV and radio ever since it sold its cable TV company Supercanal in 2018.
The company has 28 licenses between AM, FM and open television broadcasting. Manzano and Vila control to broadcast channel América TV and its cable TV channel América 24, La Red radio and newspaper networks including La Capital del Rosario and Diario UNO in Entre Rios, Mendoza and Santa Fe. With its extensive network of media services, the company reaches about 25 million people in Argentina and thus constitutes the second largest multimedia group in the country.