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Media · Uruguay

Televisión Nacional Uruguay

Canal 5, the television channel of the Servicio de Comunicación Audiovisual Nacional, carried 32 of the 104 matches of the 2026 World Cup; the Kantar Ibope ranking of the first ten months of 2025 put a match on it first.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026
TypeFree-to-air public television channel, Canal 5
OperatorServicio de Comunicación Audiovisual Nacional (SECAN)
Founding instrumentLey N° 19.307 of 2014, article 150: “Créase, con el nombre de Sistema Público de Radio y Televisión Nacional … un servicio descentralizado”
Sister servicesRadio Uruguay, Radio Babel, Radio Clásica and Radio Cultura
2026 World Cup32 of 104 matches, on television and via Antel TV, per El Observador

What is Televisión Nacional Uruguay?

Televisión Nacional Uruguay is the free-to-air public television channel known on air as Canal 5. Its own domain, tnu.com.uy, redirects to the content portal of the Servicio de Comunicación Audiovisual Nacional, which describes itself as the “Portal de contenidos del Servicio de Comunicación Audiovisual Nacional - SECAN - Uruguay”.[1] That portal is where the channel's material is published, and it is the address recorded on this list for that reason. Alongside the television channel the service carries Radio Uruguay, Radio Babel, Radio Clásica and Radio Cultura, and organises its output under sections including Deportes.[1]

The founding instrument is a statute. The normative section of the same portal cites Ley N° 19.307 of 2014, the law regulating radio, television and other audiovisual communication services, and quotes its article 150: “Créase, con el nombre de Sistema Público de Radio y Televisión Nacional (en adelante SPRTN) un servicio descentralizado con los fines, cometidos y atribuciones que especifica la presente ley”.[2] The portal's own pages carry the name Servicio de Comunicación Audiovisual Nacional, while the statutory text it publishes uses Sistema Público de Radio y Televisión Nacional; the relationship between the two names is not stated on the page.[1][2]

What does Televisión Nacional Uruguay cover?

Sport reaches the channel mainly through national-team football. El Observador reported on 17 September 2026 that Canal 5 was the only public broadcaster transmitting the 2026 World Cup and carried 32 of the tournament's 104 matches, on television and through streaming with the state telecommunications company's Antel TV service.[3] The channel had earlier carried Uruguay's World Cup qualifiers.[4]

The portal's Deportes section also publishes results coverage outside football; its news index carried, for example, an item on a bronze medal won by Manuela Vilar del Valle in hockey.[1] No published statement of a sports commissioning policy could be retrieved, and none is described here.

How large is Televisión Nacional Uruguay's audience?

Three measured figures could be retrieved, each with its measurer, its date and its base, and they are not interchangeable.

First, Kantar Ibope Media's ranking of the twenty most-watched programmes of 2025 to that point, covering what the report calls “los diez meses y monedas que han transcurrido del 2025” and published by El Observador on 11 November 2025, put the Uruguay v Peru World Cup qualifier on Canal 5 first, at 22.5 rating points and 272,227 viewers, and it was the only sport broadcast in the list.[5] Second, Montevideo Portal reported on 5 September 2025, citing Kantar IBOPE Media, that the Uruguay v Peru match of 4 September 2025 “tuvo un rating promedio de 39,8%, con más de 186 mil hogares uruguayos prendidos al canal del Estado”.[4] Those two figures are expressed on different bases — rating points and individual viewers in one, a percentage and households in the other — and this page does not reconcile them.[5][4]

Third, the service's own portal stated on 29 June 2026 that “cerca de 1.150.000 personas siguieron el partido Uruguay - España a través de la pantalla pública” on 26 June 2026, and that “según los datos de audiencia de IBOPE, el encuentro registró un promedio de 34,91 puntos de rating”.[6] El Observador, reporting the channel's own tournament accounts on 17 September 2026, gave “más de un millón de espectadores para los tres partidos de la selección uruguaya”, an estimate that “los contenidos mundialistas llegaron a un total de 2,4 millones de espectadores en todo el país”, and “más de 9 de cada 10 hogares en Montevideo siguieron el mundial en Canal 5”, measurement by Ibope contracted by the channel.[3] The last three are the broadcaster's own commissioned figures, reported as such.

Since when has Televisión Nacional Uruguay existed?

The channel's statutory basis is dated even where its own founding narrative could not be retrieved. Ley N° 19.307 was promulgated in 2014, and its article 150 created the decentralised public radio and television service.[2] The portal now operates under the name Servicio de Comunicación Audiovisual Nacional, which is the name it uses for itself.[1]

No date for the channel's first transmission could be retrieved from a source read for this page, and none is asserted. The dated evidence available is of its recent sports output: the qualifier of 4 September 2025,[4] the 2025 ranking published on 11 November 2025,[5] the match of 26 June 2026[6] and the tournament accounts published on 17 September 2026.[3]

Why does Televisión Nacional Uruguay matter in Uruguay's sport?

It matters because the largest measured Uruguayan sport audiences of the period covered here were recorded on it. The single most-watched programme on the Kantar Ibope list for the first ten months of 2025 was a football match on this channel,[5] and the channel's own reported figure for the match of 26 June 2026 was an average of 34.91 rating points.[6]

It also matters that the carriage was free to air. The service's portal described the transmission as “una señal pública, abierta y accesible”.[6] El Observador's report of the accounts puts numbers on what that cost and returned: “U$S 4.900.308 para poner el Mundial al aire”, advertising income of “U$S 4.906.177”, and a net balance of “U$S 5869”.[3] Those are the figures as published, in the separators the report uses, and this page does not adjust them.

On ownership, the service is a decentralised state body created by statute rather than a group holding, and the OBSERVACOM study reported on 10 December 2017 addresses “los tres grandes grupos mediáticos del país formados en torno a los canales de TV comerciales de Montevideo”, naming the Villar/De Feo, Romay and Cardoso/Scheck groups; the quoted passage concerns commercial channels and does not name this service.[7]

References

  1. Portal Medios Públicos — “Portal de contenidos del Servicio de Comunicación Audiovisual Nacional - SECAN - Uruguay”: Canal 5, Radio Uruguay, Radio Babel, Radio Clásica, Radio Cultura, Deportes section. Accessed 2026-09-23.
  2. Portal Medios Públicos — Normativa: Ley N° 19.307 of 2014 and its article 150 creating the Sistema Público de Radio y Televisión Nacional as a servicio descentralizado. Accessed 2026-09-23.
  3. El Observador — “Los números de Canal 5 en el Mundial 2026”, 17 September 2026: 32 of 104 matches, Ibope figures, expenditure and advertising revenue. Accessed 2026-09-23.
  4. Montevideo Portal — “Uruguay arrasó en la cancha y en la TV: Canal 5 marcó récord de audiencia”, 5 September 2025: Kantar IBOPE Media, 39,8% average rating, more than 186,000 households. Accessed 2026-09-23.
  5. El Observador — “Los 20 programas más vistos de la televisión uruguaya en 2025”, 11 November 2025: Kantar Ibope Media ranking. Accessed 2026-09-23.
  6. Portal Medios Públicos — “cerca de 1.150.000 personas siguieron el partido de Uruguay-España por Canal 5 y AntelTV”, 29 June 2026: IBOPE average of 34,91 rating points. Accessed 2026-09-23.
  7. Federación de Sindicatos de Periodistas — “Pervive la concentración de medios en Uruguay”, 10 December 2017, on OBSERVACOM's study “En pocas manos”. Accessed 2026-09-23.