Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Monday, December 30, 2019

Alliances Map in Argentina 2019

New categories to graph a more convergent market

Alliances Map in Argentina 2019 - Credit: © 2019 Grupo Convergencia
Alliances Map in Argentina 2019 - Credit: © 2019 Grupo Convergencia

A reformulation of the Map of Communications Alliances in Argentina was carried out, which Grupo Convergencia publishes 24 years ago. The categories that group the companies were reordered to graph the sector transformation. The three large operators (Telecom, Movistar and Claro) organized their shareholding structures, investments and commercial offers to see who earns more in the quadruple play market. Because most operators already offer more than one service, this year they were grouped as double and triple play providers, as the case may be. Cooperatives and cable providers in the interior continue to deploy optical fiber, incorporate linear television options and still hope to specify - through the OMV format or spectrum demand - the possibility of providing mobile services. 

In addition, the neutral operator category was created to identify the tower business, whose role gains relevance in the face of the necessary capillarity for 5G networks. To reflect the differences between the types of investors, two categories were created: investors with experience as operators differ from purely financial funds. 

The carriers are also individualized and the satellite services and operators are grouped into the same category. 

The remarkable growth of societies with a majority participation of the State, which in many parts of the country make it easier for connectivity to reach the most dispersed or serviceless population, made it necessary to highlight the Sapem with their own category. 

Within the audiovisual market, the separation between media groups is marked - those that have media on different media - and audiovisual content, which covers both the signals and the production companies. And the newspaper segment goes on to include digital news publications.

Finally, the category of digital platforms seeks to record the interference of Google, Facebook, Mercado Libre and others as substitutes for traditional, financial, entertainment, or other analogue services. 

This edition shows, for the first time, the four major brands managed by the main telecommunications group in Argentina. Thus, Telecom includes Fibertel, Cablevisión and Personal. In addition, through the four majority shareholders controlling the Clarín Group, it reflects a convergent conglomerate with corporate connections that reach Disney. 

Claro and Movistar follow in importance, trying not to lose their footprint by deploying fiber optics, subscription television and OTT video. 

Faced with national and international concentration, local media groups reformulate their approach to convergence. Grupo América - after the sale of Superchannel in 2018 - went from the broadband and cable distribution business to return to its origins, to the "pure media". Different is the case of Grupo Telecentro, which after a great expansion, only with a presence in the city and the province of Buenos Aires managed to position itself as the third broadband provider in number of subscribers, after Telecom and Movistar. It stands firm in both media and telecommunications, as did Supercanal and Cablevisión until about two years ago. 

The acquisitions were around AM and FM radios. Alpha Media, from producer Marcelo Figoli, is taking the steps to build a journalistic conglomerate: in 2019 it was made of AM Radio Rivadavia, which adds to its participation in Rock & Pop and FM Blue.


Another that was left with an AM license is the giant Warner Media, which installed CNN Radio in the country. Meanwhile, the Profile Group added the Net TV open TV channel and a license for its FM, both in AMBA. The Underground production company, by Sebastián Ortega, was sold to Telemundo and ceased to be under the orbit of the Olmos Group. The Indalo Media group, affected by the judicial prosecution of its owners, Cristóbal López and Fabián de Souza, had a favorable turnaround this year. After facing a possible dissolution, with cessation of payments to its employees and rumors of sale of all its companies - which led it to present itself as the Ceibo Group -, the political and judicial winds blew in its favor. And, at least in terms of its composition, it managed to remain intact, in addition to growing remarkably in audience. The Citizen of Rosario is a new cooperative newspaper. He joins Tiempo Argentino, who turned three years old. The biggest trade union conflict in the industry, where the trend of adjustment and layoffs, especially of journalists, followed in the state media. The struggle of the 357 dismissals of the Télam news agency, the work of the former head of the Federal Public Media System, Hernán Lombardi, ended - after a year and a half of conflict - with the reinstatement of all workers. This is the convergent map that Alberto Fernández's incoming government will encounter when thinking about the public policies of the digital economy.

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