Television in Argentina

The first license for a television network in Argentina was given to Martín Tow in 1945, but only experimental.[5] Argentina's first television broadcast occurred on October 17, 1951, with the inaugural of then state-owned Canal 7, developed by Radio Belgrano executive Jaime Yankelevich. The broadcast began with a transmission of the last public act of Eva Perón alongside Juan Perón on the Loyalty Day at 14:20 p.m.[6][7][8]

On November 25, 1957, the decree-law 15460/57 was approved, which established the granting of licenses, leading to the birth of private television.[9]

Since 1960, Argentine television began to expand. On April 18, 1960, Canal 12 (now El Doce) from Córdoba started broadcasting, becoming the second network to launch.[10] During the same year, on June 9, Canal 9 launched on Buenos Aires under the Compañía Argentina de Televisión S.A. or Ca-de-te (Argentine Company of Television), linked to the Argentine film studio Emelco and with financial support from NBC.[11] On October 1, 1960, Canal 13 began broadcasting under the company Río de la Plata S.A. TV, founded by Cuban businessman Goar Mestre and the American network CBS.[12] One year later, on July 21, 1961, Canal 11 launched from Buenos Aires under the Difusión Contemporánea S.A. company (Contemporary Broadcasting S.A.), known as DiCon for a short period of time. The last national broadcast network to launch was Canal 2 from La Plata, on June 25, 1966.

Despite the fact that the legislation did not allow foreign companies to participate in the television business in any case, the three private networks in Buenos Aires in the beginning had a relationship with the Big Three television networks from the United States as shareholders and exclusive providers of technology and content. NBC worked with Canal 9, ABC with Canal 11, and CBS with Canal 13. Due to the low success with programming proposals from the American networks, they were finally sold to new owners. On December 1963, Canal 9 was sold to the owner of Radio Libertad, Alejandro Romay. In the mid-1960s, Editorial Atlántida and Mestre's wife bought the shares of the Canal 13, and later in 1970, Canal 11 was acquired by Héctor Ricardo García, owner of newspaper Crónica.

At the same time, networks outside of Buenos Aires began to incorporate the recording machines, broadcasting the programming of Buenos Aires on a delayed basis. The poor quality of the signal beyond 60 kilometers from the transmitting antennas led to the creation of network affiliate stations, in addition to the creation of the first closed circuits in various locations, giving birth to cable television.

In 1968, the government expressed that network licenses should be renewed every 15 years. In 1973, the licenses expired and were not renewed, so Canal 9, Canal 11, and Canal 13 were in an irregular situation. The private networks were intervened by the government, first partially and then definitively by a decree of the government of María Estela Martínez de Perón on August 1, 1974, arguing that Argentina was not in a position to have commercial networks, and that television had to adopt a model similar to the European, dominated by public institutions.

After the 1976 Argentine coup d'état and the establishment of the civic-military dictatorship, previously private television channels came to be controlled by the Armed Forces: Canal 9 by the Army, Canal 11 by the Air Force and Canal 13 by the Navy.

Since Argentina was selected to host the 1978 FIFA World Cup, preparations to launch television in color began, by adopting the PAL system. This led to the change of name of Canal 7 to Argentine Color Television (Argentina Televisora Color or ATC) on May 3, 1979. Later, the official inauguration of color transmissions was successfully held on May 1, 1980.

Also known as the "television czar", Alejandro Romay managed to create several television hits in the 1980s and 1990s.[13]

Licensing for commercial networks started after the return of democracy to Argentina. Alejandro Romay returned to own Canal 9 on May 25, 1984, and Canal 2 was given to José Irusta Cornet, whom associated with Héctor Ricardo García between 1987 and 1988. As for Canal 11 and Canal 13, their licenses were declared void as there were no interested companies, and therefore, they continued under the government's administration during the government of Raúl Alfonsín, being later privatized by Carlos Menem on December 20, 1989. Canal 11 was eventually acquired by Editorial Atlántida and later renamed as Telefé, and Canal 13 was took over by Artear. On April 15, 1991, Canal 2 was acquired by Eduardo Eurnekián and renamed as América TV.[14][15]

Since 1986, the use of satellite television was authorized. This formed one of the main offers of cable television, which began its development.

Starting the 2000s, television saw the arrival of various reality shows such as Big Brother, Star Academy, Popstars and Dancing with the Stars. Adaptations of sitcoms and other American series were also important, like The Nanny, Who's the Boss?, Married... with Children, Bewitched and Desperate Housewives. Telenovelas still remained important, and foreign telenovelas managed to reach large audiences. Later, networks started switching to high-definition and allowing to interact though social media.[16][17]

Argentina has a "decentralized", market-oriented television system, particularly in regard to broadcast television. The country has a national public television service (Televisión Pública). Local media markets have their own television stations, which may either be affiliated with or owned and operated by a television network. Stations may sign affiliation agreements with one of the national networks for the local rights to carry their programming.[18]

Broadcast networks in Argentina
Network	Launch date	Type	Owner	Operator
Televisión Pública	October 17, 1951	Public	Government of Argentina	Radio y Televisión Argentina S.E.
El Nueve	June 9, 1960	Private	Albavisión	Telearte S.A.
El Trece	October 1, 1960	Private	Clarín Group	Arte Radiotelevisivo Argentino S.A.
Telefe	July 21, 1961	Private	ViacomCBS	Televisión Federal S.A.
América TV	June 25, 1966	Private	Grupo América & Claudio Belocopitt	América TV S.A.
Net TV	October 1, 2018	Private	Perfil	Kuarzo Entertainment Argentina

In the late 1950s, broadcast television coverage did not reach most of the cities of the country. That is why a group of entrepreneurs decided to let households from all the provinces have access to television, which was a privilege of Buenos Aires and a handful of cities across the country.

The first milestone of cable television was on November, 1963, when a closed-circuit television service was developed in the neighborhood of Villa Cabrera in Córdoba that had a range of 4 kilometers. This was followed by the project Sonovisión in Salta, which between 1963 and 1965 reached to 700 subscribers. These initiatives were replicated quickly, through closed-circuits and community antennas. It is estimated that, by 1966, there were already about 30 systems running, and most of them were assembled with technology national manufacture; and, by 1970, there were already 31 cities with cable television systems.

Later, after almost a decade of commitment to the development of the sector, closed-circuits and community antennas got the recognition of the government through the "National Telecommunications Law", sanctioned in 1972.[19]

In the 1980s, cable television system reached 1,000 operators, with an estimated number of 300,000 subscribers in Buenos Aires and 2 million subscribers across the country.[20]

During the 1990s, satellite television began operating across the country with the arrival of companies such as DirecTV.

In 2007, the government authorised the merging of the two biggest cable television companies in the country: Cablevisión and Multicanal, making it the biggest provider of cable television with the owning of 47 percent of the market.[21]

Cable television has become the most used type of delivering, with 73.2 percent of households having a cable provider. Meanwhile satellite television only reaches 10.2 percent of households across the country.[2]

The table below lists television networks and shows in Argentina with the highest average audience rating for each television season since television ratings began being measured in 1985.