News channel war: TN leads and, far from the podium, La Nación+ grows hand in hand with a former C5N director

News channels had an 11% growth in their audience in March, compared to the previous month, reaching 8.25 rating points, according to Ibope data. TN consolidated itself at the top of the ranking, winning the ratings in almost all time slots, followed by C5N and A24.

Far from the podium, The Nation+ had a 26% increase in its audience in March, since it took office the new Content Director, Nicolás Bocache -who came from C5N-replacing Esteban Talpone, who had been in charge of LN+ when Juan Cruz Ávila left for channel A24, at the end of 2024. The new director of LN+ managed to move the channel from 0.76 rating points to 0.96 in his first month of management, displacing Crónica TV from fourth place in the ranking.

Bocache was the Media Director at Grupo Indalo and Director of News and Content at C5N. But at the beginning of March he took over as Content Director of LN+ and He disembarked together with Fedor Mossayebeh and Alejandro Lewinwith whom he worked for more than 10 years at C5N, the news channel of Kirchnerist businessman Cristóbal López.

“Although this is a year of transition, we already have a screen with more impact, which combines journalism with entertainment and greater proximity to people”, said an LN+ source. And he added: “We reinforced the live programming on weekends, we changed the artistic one and we sought to have a less formal atmosphere on the screen.”

An example of this new relaxed image was Luis Majul’s note with President Javier Milei on LN+on March 8, when he asked him some questions “as if he were an opposition journalist”, a situation that generated a role-playing atmosphere, with more interesting answers from Milei and made the interview more entertaining. They also added to the La Nación channel more breadth in the guests and a less formal dynamic in the conduction, as well as a special artistic that is seen in the plates, graphics and baseboards.

An audiovisual industry analyst told Clarion that “Bocache is a man of the industry, who took away from C5N the ‘ultra K channel’ image that it had before. He gave it more entertainment, show, spectacle, artistic, debates, without losing the essence. Also coverage and services in the morning, with another agenda in the afternoon. And that worked on C5N and consolidated it in second place, behind TN. We will have to see what budget they give it now to carry new formats, a more active artistic one and new faces in the morning, to reinforce a schedule that in La Nación+ it is very cold”.

The location in the audience ranking changed a lot over the last year. The thing is that A24 hit the road in April of last year, when it displaced LN+ from third place in the ranking; and then Crónica produced a similar phenomenon, when in August it also surpassed LN+, a situation that was reversed last month, when LN+ recovered fourth place, data that was only now known with the consolidated numbers of Ibope.

The rating of news channels was led in March 2026 by TN (from Grupo Clarín), with 2.40 points; followed by C5N, with 1.83 points. Then A24 (1.30), LN+ (0.96), Crónica (0.89), Canal 26 (0.70) and Ar/12 (0.16), Monday to Sunday, from 7 a.m. to midnight.

In the first days of March, one of the topics with a strong journalistic impact, which drove the growth of the audience of the news channels, was the opening of ordinary sessions of Congress, with Milei’s speech. Also the start of classes throughout Argentina and the controversy surrounding the trips of the Chief of Staff, Manuel Adorni, and his increase in assets.

All channels reinforced their programming, with strong competition for the audience, in line with the coverage of events with high political impact, such as irregularities in the AFA, the unstable economic situation and the war between the United States and Israel against Iran, in the Middle East, which positioned TN and LN+ very close to the place where the events occur, with Nelson Castro and Alfredo Leuco in Israel.

“Nelson in Israel arrived a week before the rest of the media. And we also had Alan Ferraro in Lebanon, so we were the only channel that was in two points covering the war. And already in April we started with the transmission of the launch of the mission to the Moon, Artemis, being the only Argentine media that was in Cape Canaveral covering the launch, with Nelson Castro, who had peaks of five rating points,” he told Clarion a TN source.

In March, the victory in the ratings went to the majority of TN programs. They stood out Mario Massaccesi and Paula Berniniin “TN from 6 to 10”; they followed him William Wolf and Lorena Macielin “TN from 10 to 13”, with the highest mark of the signal. Furthermore, they led Roxy Vazquez and Federico Seeberat 1 p.m.; and Eleonora Cole and Federico Wiemayeruntil 5 p.m. Then the programs won Franco Mercuriali, Jonatan Viale, Diego Sehinkman and Jessica Bossi.

Prime time had tough competition, starting at eight at night, with Jonathan Viale (TN), Luis Majul (LN+), Pablo Rossi (A24) and Gustavo Sylvestre (C5N) at the same time, among the main political journalism bets on the news channels.

Second place in March went to C5N, with very competitive programs, such as Argenzuela, in the 4 to 6 p.m. time slot, with Jorge Rial. C5N also did well at night, with Gustavo Sylvestre; the same as Hard to Tame, with Paul Duggan and controversies among its panelists. Also highlighted was the Nancy PazosArtisan Intelligence, on Friday nights.

The best LN+ numbers were those of Luis Majul, Esteban “Pelado” Trebucq and Cristina Perezwhose programs were above one rating point. Those at noon and afternoon also improved a lot, with María Laura Santillán, Paulino Rodrigues and Deborah Plager.

In A24, the best measurements were those of Luis Novaresio, Eduardo Feinmann and Antonio Laje. And on Crónica TV “Duro de caller” did very well, Tomas Mendez; “Always News”, with Pampa Monaco and Agustina Diaz; and “No Man’s Land”, Nahuel Suarez and Diego Esteves.