Radio y Television Argentina (RTA)

Radio y Televisión Argentina Sociedad Anónima Unipersonal (RTA S.A.U.), successor of Radio y Televisión Argentina Sociedad del Estado, is Argentina’s state broadcaster. It manages the national public television channel Televisión Pública (Canal 7), the public radio network Radio Nacional and its stations across the country, the regional Canal 12 TV Pública Regional in Trenque Lauquen, and the external service Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior (RAE).

Media assets

Television: Televisión Pública (Canal 7), the country’s oldest television channel, whose first official broadcast took place on 17 October 1951, and the regional Canal 12 TV Pública Regional, based in Trenque Lauquen.

Radio: Radio Nacional, whose first transmission took place on 6 July 1937 and which operates a national network of 51 stations according to RTA’s own institutional information, and Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior (RAE), the state’s international broadcasting service, established in 1949. RTA also distributes content through its websites, streaming services, historical archive and social-media platforms.

Ownership and governance

RTA was created by Law 26.522 of 2009 and has since been transformed into a Sociedad Anónima Unipersonal (RTA S.A.U.), that continues the activities of the original state company. On paper, its highest governing body is a seven-member board of directors designed to dilute direct executive control: the chair and one director are appointed by the Executive, three directors are proposed by the parliamentary bicameral commission, and two are proposed by the Federal Council for Audiovisual Communication, the broadcasting regulator, with the timing of appointments intended to fall out of step with the electoral cycle so as to reduce political interference. Law 26.522 tasks RTA with ensuring pluralism and diversity in its programming, supported by an Honorary Advisory Council for public media.

In practice, this arm’s-length design has been overridden. Following the election of President Javier Milei in 2023, his government transformed the state companies into sociedades anónimas unipersonales and, through Decreto 117/2024, placed RTA and the other public-media entities under state “intervention,” suspending the normal board governance and running the company through a government-appointed administrator (interventor). That intervention has been repeatedly extended: under Decreto 79/2026 it was prolonged until 1 February 2027, with Carlos María Curci González, who took the role in August 2025, ratified as the administrator responsible for restructuring the state media. This direct executive control, in place of the statutory board, is the core of the SC classification: whatever independence the law envisaged, the company is currently run by an appointee of the president.

The government’s stated aim has been to reduce or dispose of the public broadcaster. Milei’s administration initially sought to privatise RTA, but the company was excluded from the privatisation list in the 2024 Ley Bases, and privatisation of the public television channel is prohibited by law. With that route closed, officials have said they intend to shrink the broadcaster as far as possible: the chief of the cabinet, Manuel Adorni, who oversees the public media, has said publicly that Televisión Pública cannot be privatised but could in principle be closed, and has announced that the channel will be renamed to move it away from what the government characterises as a “kirchnerista” identity.

Source of funding and budget

RTA is funded primarily by the state, supplemented by a share of a levy on commercial broadcasters, advertising, sponsorship, content commercialisation and donations; under Law 26.522 it is entitled to a portion of the revenues collected through that levy, although Law 27.802, published in March 2026, repeals that levy share with effect from 1 January 2028, a change that does not affect 2026 funding but removes a dedicated revenue stream in future. Its public funding has been sharply reduced under the current government. Independent analysis found that, in the first quarter of 2024, transfers to RTA fell by around 41 per cent in real terms against the previous year, and the company’s transfers for 2024 amounted to roughly half of the prorogued budget it had been operating under. Precise figures are difficult to state in a stable form given high inflation and exchange-rate movements over the period.

The restructuring has fallen heavily on staff and output. From a workforce of around 2,400 across RTA and related public-media units, the government has pursued successive rounds of voluntary retirements, non-renewals and cuts, and in early 2026 announced a plan to shed on the order of 500 to 600 posts, about a fifth of the total, alongside the elimination of weekend newscasts and in-house programmes. An earlier controversy concerned whether Televisión Pública would broadcast the 2026 football World Cup, after the government signalled in 2025 that it would not buy the rights; RTA subsequently announced in January 2026 that Televisión Pública and Radio Nacional would carry Argentina’s matches and other key tournament coverage at no cost to viewers, financed through advertising rather than direct public funding.

Editorial independence

RTA has no structural guarantee of editorial independence, and its output has consistently reflected the orientation of the government of the day rather than an autonomous public-service line. This is the constant across changes of administration and the basis for the State-Controlled classification: because the company’s leadership is set through political appointment, its editorial direction shifts with political power rather than standing apart from it. Under previous governments its news coverage was widely seen as aligned with the incumbent; under the current administration it has been brought under direct intervention, restructured and cut, and its programming reduced.

That absence of independence is not offset by any effective external safeguard. While Law 26.522 obliges RTA to ensure pluralism and created an Honorary Advisory Council intended to protect the independence of the public media, the council’s members are all drawn from government-forwarded nominations, and its role is advisory; it does not constitute an enforceable firewall between the executive and the newsroom. Under the current intervention, the statutory governance that the law established has itself been set aside.

AI and digital policy

SMM found no published editorial AI-governance policy for RTA, and found no comprehensive AI law in force in Argentina. As a state broadcaster currently under direct government intervention, its digital operations follow the administration’s objectives for the public media. Its digital footprint has itself been a point of contention: in 2024 the government suspended the social-media accounts of Televisión Pública and Radio Nacional, a step independent journalists criticised as an attack on the broadcaster’s public-communication role.

Classification rationale

RTA is classified State-Controlled because its statutory arm’s-length governance has been overridden by a direct state intervention, its administrator is appointed by the president, its funding and structure are being reshaped by the executive, and its editorial direction has no protection from political control. The company that the law designed to be an independent public broadcaster is, in practice, run by the government.

RTA’s reclassification from ISFM to SC in 2023, and the subsequent intervention, capture a broader shift: a public broadcaster whose independence existed largely on paper has been drawn fully under executive control. It is not an independently managed public-service broadcaster; it is a state company run by a government appointee, and its classification is unchanged as State-Controlled for 2026.

June 2026