Media Ownership
Who owns the media?
MOM-Peru researched the ten most important media groups and the thirteen individuals who are majority shareholders of the companies which control the most important media. We investigated who they are, how many media outlets they own, in what other sectors of the economy they operate and what their associated interests are.
Of the 40 media researched, 39 belong to the some of the ten most economically important groups in the country. The other, Willax Television, belongs to a corporation unrelated to the media. No independent media feature in the Top 10 for its sector.
All the media monitored by MOM have a business name and belong to a company. None operates illegally.
It is evident from the analysis that there is a high concentration of ownership in the print sector, given that just one publishing company owns eight of the ten most read newspapers. In the television sector, there is audience concentration in the three most important channels: two of them have associated with one another and the third associated with another free-to-air channel. Three groups control the Top 10 ranked radio media. Finally, all ranked digital media support the largest radio, television or print media. There is multimedia integration in all cases.
The dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori from 1990 to 2000 represented a watershed in the configuration of media ownership in Peru. The capture of the editorial line of the television channels created difficulties: on several occasions, there were changes of ownership, legal problems and some were sold. The purchase of América Televisión by the El Comercio Group and the La República Group was one consequence. Some media were weakened, while others began to strengthen.