América Tv

América Televisión is currently the channel with the biggest audience in Peru while some of its series and youth programs are leaders in national ratings. At the beginning of 2016 it also signed an alliance with ATV, the channel with second biggest audience in the country, to share content production.

However, in the last few years Canal 4 has been criticized for its vulgar and racist content, for being contrary to human dignity, as in broadcasting private content without authorization, and for violating the safe harbor schedule. For this reason, in September 2016, América Televisión signed and added an addendum to the self-regulatory pact in order to avoid these kinds of productions.

La Compañía Peruana de Radiofusión was established as a radio station in 1942 and, in 1958, became the first channel to launch the television era in Peru. Between 1971 and 1980 the channel was controlled by a military dictatorship.

In the 90s, the the founders’ successors sold Channel 4 to Televisa de México, to eventually pass it to the businessmen José Enrique and José Francisco Crousillat. Both left the channel indebted and were involved in a scandal for selling the editorial line of the aforesaid media organization to the former presidential advisor Vladimiro Montesinos.

After the Crousillats fled, the channel was controlled by a board of creditors from 2003. Among the creditors, those that stood out were “El Comercio” and “La República,” as well as the Colombian brewery “Bavaria.” At that time, “El Comercio” sold Canal N to Plural Tv -a subsidiary of “El Comercio” (70%) and a minor part of “La República” (30%)- with the intention of reinforcing advertising sales through both television channels.

In 2007, the Miró Quesada family bought the part of Bavaria and became the majority shareholder of América Televisión. In 2010, the board of creditors was disbanded and Canal 4, along with Canal N, became definitive parts of Plural Tv.

Key facts

Audience Share

Missing Data

Ownership Type

Private

Geographic Coverage

National coverage

Content Type

Free content

Data Publicly Available

ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

2 ♥

Media Companies / Groups

Grupo El Comercio (hoy Vigenta Inversiones S.A.)

Ownership

Voting Rights

1 shareholder

Group / Individual Owner

Plural Tv

Compañía Peruana de Radiodifusión S.A. -which controls the channels América Tv and Canal N- is owned solely by the company Plural Tv, created by Tv Perú, which is part of “El Comercio” (70%) and the newspaper “La República” (30%). During the 2011 election, the Instituto de Prensa y Sociedad (Institute of Press and Society) (IPYS) issued a statement warning of the attempt of the “El Comercio” group to support Keiko Fujimori's candidacy using pressure and dismissing independent journalists from Canal N and América Televisión.

99%

Media Companies / Groups

Grupo El Comercio (hoy Vigenta Inversiones S.A.)

Facts

General Information

Founding Year

1942

Founder

Antonio Umbert Féllez and Nicanor González Vásquez

Affiliated Interests Founder

Antonio Umbert Féllez and Nicanor González Vásquez

Businessmen and founding partners of the first commercial channel in Peru on December 1st 1958. This media organization was born as part of the Compañía Peruana de Radiofusión, established in 1942. President Manuel Prado Ugarteche was there during the launch of the organization. Between 1971 and 1980 the channel was taken over by a left-wing military dictatorship and the founders, along with a third partner; Avelino Aramburú, permanently lost ownership of the company.

Ceo

Luis Miro Quesada Valega

Affiliated Interests Ceo

Peruvian businessman. He was chairman of the board of directors at “El Comercio” between 1999 and 2005. Since 2007 he has served as president of the Board of Directors at América Televisión, the most-watched channel in Peru. At the same time he was member of the board at Graña & Montero, his cousin José Graña Miró Quesada’s company, until 2014.

Editor-In-Chief

Clara Elvira Ospina Garzón

Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief

Colombian journalist. Editor-in-chief at América Televisión and Canal N. Former director at RCN Noticias in Colombia. She replaced the journalist Laura Puertas, who was fired from the channel for "humanizing" the then nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala during the 2011 election. During the Ospina administration, the program “Cuarto Poder (Fourth Power),” one of the channel's most-watched shows, revealed a testimony of a DEA informant who accused a congressman and financier of Keiko Fujimori of money laundering during the last election in a case in both Peru and the United States. No registered political affiliations. She appears 11th in the television sector of the annual power survey in Peru (2016), produced by Semana Económica (Economy Week) magazine.

Other Important People

Pablo Llona García Miró, Gustavo Mohme Llona, Eric Jurgensen Flores, César Pardo Figueroa Turner, José Antonio Miró Quesada Ferreyros, José Samanez Acebo, Miroslav Lauer Holoubek

Affiliated Interests other important people

Pablo Llona García Miró

(Vice President of the Board), Businessman, beekeeper.

Gustavo Mohme Llona

(Director of La República) Businessman and owner of one of the most important newspapers in Peru. Although he is not a member of any political party, the media organization that he manages is considered center-left.

Eric Jurgensen

(General Manager at América Televisión) Business Manager of Bolivian nationality. He began working for this media organization in 2003, when it almost went bankrupt after entering bankruptcy proceedings and was involved in a political scandal thanks to its previous owners, Jose Francisco and Jose Enrique Crousillat, who fled after revealing that they had sold the editorial line of the channel to former presidential advisor Vladimiro Montesinos.

César Pardo Figueroa Turner

(Member of the Board) Industrial Engineer. He has held the position for 20 years and is also a director of the other subsidiaries in the “El Comercio” group

. José Antonio Miró Quesada Ferreyros

(Member of the Board) Member of the family who owns "El Comercio," shareholder and brother-in-law of the late Eduardo Calmell del Solar, who fled Peru after selling the editorial line of the newspaper that he controlled to the Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (National Intelligence Service) (SIN) which was run by Vladimiro Montesinos. In 2010, the seminar "Hildebrandt en sus trece" revealed a recording of a long conversation between Miró Quesada Ferreyros and the lawyer Alberto Quimper, who were involved in a corruption case called "Petroaudios" during Alan García’s administration. In the recording the latter suggests the director of the aforesaid media organization to do "collateral business with the channel...because it pays a lot of money. " A year later, in 2011, the digital media organization "IDL-Reporteros" revealed Quimper’s declaration in Congress, who was then in prison, about the range of his contact with Miró Quesada Ferreyros. The latter then told the lawyer that the "Petroaudios" investigation would not be broadcast by América Televisión.

Miroslav Lauer Holoubek

(Member of the Consejo Consultivo Editorial (Editorial Advisory Council) and columnist of the newspaper “La República”) Peruvian writer, poet and essayist. He is one of the eight people who reported “El Comercio” for violating freedom of expression laws following the commercial operation that ended with the purchase of a large number of shares of Epensa (now Prensmart) in 2013. He was a political opponent of Alberto Fujimori’s government in “La República” and was a victim in the process due to his communications being intercepted by the deactivated “Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (National Intelligence Service)” (SIN). This year he was included in the top ten in the newspaper sector in the annual power survey in Peru, produced by Semana Económica (Economy Week) magazine.

José Samanez Acebo (Member of the board and general manager of the newspaper “La República”)

Peruvian engineer. No registered political affiliation.