Supreme court ruling frees up US$15mn ad market

A supreme court ruling that gives Chilean electronic dailies have the right to publish obligatory corporate advertisements opens up a 10bn-peso (about US$15mn) market to competition, according to Federico Joannon, president of local online daily El Mostrador. The 10bn peso figure is a broad estimate, he told BNamericas, adding that new competition from electronic dailies will now bring the market down to about half its current size. On September 3 the supreme court ruled 5-0 that online newspapers must be considered "dailies of national circulation," a necessary qualification to publish corporate statements such as quarterly results or shareholders meetings, as required by securities regulator SVS. Chile's print daily newspaper market is dominated by two companies, Copesa and El Mercurio, though there is a third, state-owned publication, La Nacion. El Mercurio, the market's largest player, started the dispute by asking the courts to stop El Mostrador from selling corporate statements, arguing it was not a legitimate newspaper with national circulation.