For the last decade, media concentration in Chile has been a topic of concern for academics and observers of the industry (see also Del Valle-Rojas et al., 2011; Godoy, 2016; Guerra, 2019; Mayorga-Rojel et al., 2010; Monckeberg, 2009; Sunkel & Geoffrey, 2002). This became one of its defining characteristics, and as a result, Chile stood out among other Latin American countries in this aspect (Becerra & Mastrini, 2017), particularly for print, although it also demonstrated high indexes of concentration in the television market. Noam (2016) measured the concentration of the market share among the top four firms and found that Chile ranks 4 of 30 countries, with over 90 per cent concentration. In the same study, for the Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index – measuring market concentration, going from most to least concentrated in all media markets – Chile ranks 11 of 30 countries. Within this analysis, Chile has a little over 3 points out of 10, in a range going from 2.5 upwards; this is considered a high level of concentration.
As for plurality of content, the Noam Index (Noam, 2016) gave Chile less than 2 points, placing it 14th among 30 countries, from most to least pluralistic (the index ranges 0–10; the higher the number, the lower the pluralism).
As for cross-concentration, that is to say, actors being present in more than one media industry, the Power Index – combining the results from Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, concentration ratio of the four largest firms, and Noam Index – shows that Chile ranks 12 among 30 countries, with an index close to 4 out of 10. Additionally, the study shows that the country has over 60 per cent foreign ownership in its media market and less than 10 per cent public ownership.
The 1980 Constitution forbids state monopoly for media and allows the entrance of private companies to the television market. The law “on freedom of opinion and information and the exercise of journalism” (Ministry Secretary General, 2013) includes pluralism as a value and defines it. This law establishes the liberty of different actors to edit, establish, and sustain media organisations or companies and allows foreign property for radio within a maximum of 10 per cent participation. Exception is granted as a principle of reciprocity if, in the country of origin of the investor, a Chilean can access the same or higher property of radio stations or television channels. Owners of media houses have not followed this rule strictly, as in the case of radio stations bought by the Prisa group, without any subsequent sanction (Anguita Ramírez & Labrador Blanes, 2019). There is also a duty to be transparent and account for changes in ownership of media to the Office of the National Economic Prosecutor. This, as opposed to the Tribunals for Free Competition, was established as the entity in charge of ensuring free competition in the case of media companies after a modification to the original law.
The law “enabling the introduction of digital terrestrial television” (Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications, 2014) modified the National Television Council and accords the entity a role of safeguarding the inner plurality of the television system. Further, it understands the radio-electric spectrum as a national good, and therefore, not attributable to one person: concessions are temporary, and the State must be paid for their use. This law does not allow an owner to have more than one national open access television concession in VHF, except for the public channel. However, they can also opt to own a digital land-based signal UHF. For everything else, the media market falls under the law for free competition. Advertising investment has, during and since 2018, dropped for every form of media, except digital outlets, where there was an increase. Table 6 shows that most advertising in the market is concentrated in digital media, followed by open access television (AAM, 2020).
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The Chilean media market has among its main actors several media holdings, shown in Table 7.
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Considering the whole of the media market, the Bethia Group concentrates most of the advertising (with 30–40%), followed by the Luksic Group (10–20%), the Edwards Group and Copesa (both 5–10%), and the Prisa Group (0–5%) (FNE, 2019), representing how one key actor leads the proportion of total advertising in the realm of television and radio products. If we consider media markets separately, for newspapers, El Mercurio has an average circulation of 123,687 copies throughout the week, surpassing its competitor, La Tercera (weekly average of 77,478 copies) by a wide margin (Valida, 2018), this is even bigger after Copesa reduced its circulation in 2021. However, regarding newspapers, there has been a change in the business model. Both Copesa and El Mercurio SAP began boosting digital subscriptions in 2019, making them compete with other free and independent actors. Therefore, there is an absence of sufficient data to precisely understand the role they play within the digital market regarding readership and subscriptions.
In 2016, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index for television market shows a concentration of 2,314. This is significantly high considering that the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission in the United States declare that a market is highly concentrated when it reaches 2,500. An explanation for this is the emergence of Bethia Group as a strong actor in a market facing an economic crisis and taking a big share of the audience and the advertising (Julio, 2017). The contents offered by television channels are equal, without any of the channels going over 20 per cent (CNTV, 2020b). Among the cable companies, the market is shared between Vía Trans Radio Chilena – VTR (34.2%), Movistar (21.3%), DIRECTV (18.9%), Claro (13.5%), and others (12.2%) (Julio, 2017), demonstrating a competitive marketplace.
For the radio market, Prisa Group received the largest number of radio commissions at 10, twice as much as the Bethia Group’s 5, and, thereby, concentrating the most. This is consistent with investment in advertising. While Prisa has a higher investment, between 30–50 per cent, the two larger groups competing in radio, Bethia and Luksic, hold between 10–20 per cent. The Chilean Communications Company was not included in Table 7 because it only owns Radio Cooperativa, with 10–20 per cent of investment, followed by Copesa, with 5–10 per cent. Finally, BioBio and El Mercurio SAP account for 0–5 per cent of the advertising market. Regarding audiences achieved by each of these companies’ radios, there is an equal percentage relationship, but Copesa exchanges its position with the Chilean Company of Communications (FNE, 2019).
The native digital landscape has a variety of actors of different scales, like Ciper Chile, Interferencia, El Dínamo, El Mostrador, El Desconcierto, Cambio 21, and so forth. This, alongside others with print and digital outlets like The Clinic and El Periodista, nevertheless, provides a diversity of ownership in the media market.
