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Argentine television broadcasting began in 1951 with the inaugural of then state-owned Canal 7, developed by Radio Belgrano executive Jaime Yankelevich. Color television broadcasting, however, was not widely available until after 1978, when the government launched Argentina Televisora Color (ATC), now Canal 7 (Argentina's principal public television station). The prevalence of cable television, increasing steadily since the first CATV transmitter opened in the city of Junín in 1965, is now the third-widest in the world, reaching at least 78% of households.^[1]

Digital television

Satellite transmitters at Channel 7, Buenos Aires.

Argentina has adopted the Japanese standard ISDB-T, with the modifications done by Brazil. Initially Argentina had selected ATSC standard in 1998 (Res. 2387/98) which was backed by Grupo Clarin and promoted by the U.S. Embassy^{[citation needed]} over DVB-T promoted by the biggest incumbent telcos and European cellular phone manufacturers like Nokia. There had been experimental ATSC broadcasts since 1999 before the government overruled the decision.

There is an agreement between Brazil and Argentina, signed in the light of Mercosur trade bloc, where both countries agree to share information, studies and efforts to select the same Digital TV standard.^[2]

By August 27th, 2009, Argentina government announced officially that Japanese standard was adopted, with Chile and Perú at the same time. The goal behind this political decision is to achieve a wide, free, high quality regional TV.

Major TV broadcasters, namely El Trece and Telefe had been showing off sample digital broadcasts at electronics and media sector shows like the CAPER exhibition, but they still haven't started to broadcast in the now official Argentina standard.

HDTV-ready TV sales are increasing in Argentina, with the first TVs made available since 2005 by local firm Philips. The firm introduced back then three HD-ready (1080i) CRT TVs in 25, 29, and 33-inch versions^[3]. These tvs were manufactured in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina and included Pal-N/B and NTSC analogue tuners, plus HD component video inputs. Only a single model, the 25-inch, 16:9 one featured HDMI. As of 2008 the firm has switched to LCDs.

On November 2008, local cable TV firm Cablevision, which merged with Multicanal, started offering its "Cablevision HD" service^[4]. This rather expensive offering costs an additional $30 ARS over the standard Digital-TV service price. It uses ATSC and the firm makes mandatory the purchase of its "HD Tuner with DVR" at a cost of around $200 US dollars. As of late 2008 most LCDs advertised as "Full HD" offer at least 1080i signal support.

Cable

Cable television had its origins in the 1960s, when a CATV service started to operate in Junín, Buenos Aires. Currently, cable television is available in 5.5 million homes, the best ratio in Latin America and second in the world.

In the 1980s cable operators started operations in the absence of local regulations. Those earlier operators started a merged process which evolved toward the merge of Cablevision and Multicanal, the two biggest cable companies. The resultant company, named Cablevision, is owned by Grupo Clarin, the biggest newspaper in Argentina, who is also the owner of LS85-TV (the 2nd highest-rated TV station in Buenos Aires) TyC the owner of the monopoly of the soccer TV broadcast rights, thus turning into the dominant player.

Some small TV cable companies are operating, but the tendency now is that Cablevision will dominate this market in the future. Telecom Operator, Telefonica and Telecom, the monopoly in the fixed-cellular market is lobbying for opening the market towards the triple play. The Government is opening a window to allow the cable operators to enter in the telephony and extend internet coverage, before fully deregulating this market. In order to operate as a cable company in Argentina, a license from Comfer is required. This license is very difficult to get.

National networks

• El Trece
• Telefe
• América
• Canal 9
• Canal 7

See also

• List of Latin American television channels

References