No Brazilian TV station owns the channel on which its programming is broadcast: all free-to-air channels belong to the State and are granted (hence the word “concession”) temporarily to broadcasters, through bidding processes. To compete for a concession, the company must have at least 70% of the capital in the hands of Brazilian shareholders and respect the control limit of up to ten stations across the country, a maximum of two per state and five on VHF (they do not enter the count the relays).
There, a commission from the Ministry of Communications analyzes your programming proposal and its technical and financial condition, giving points in different areas. Whoever has the best average points gets the concession, earning the right to explore a certain channel for a pre-defined period and, at the end of that period, undergoes a new analysis.
If the State, through the ministry, finds that a broadcaster has used the channel for purposes other than those expected of it, it may refuse to renew the concession. It was exactly the same as what happened in Venezuela in 2011: President Hugo Chávez accused the station RCTV of “not serving the people”, the Supreme Court of Justice accepted the president’s arguments and the station was taken off the air.
During the military regime in Brazil, there were cases of revoked concessions, but the alleged reason was always the indebtedness of companies, although there were political persecutions. The matter came up again in October 2019, when President Jair Bolsonaro threatened not to renew Globo’s concession in retaliation for the fact that Jornal Nacional associated his name with the murder of Marielle Franco.
Generators, affiliates and relays
The operation of a television network is based on the division of tasks between three types of station: generators, affiliates and relays. All need a concession from Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) to generate and transmit television programming, although, in general, only the first ones are owned by the major broadcasters (Globo, SBT, Bandeirantes, etc.).
Affiliates and retransmitters are independent companies that, after receiving the concession, associate with a broadcaster to take its programming to places where the signal from the generators does not reach. Some broadcasters have only one generator, where all national content is produced (soap operas and the main news programs, for example).
Others have more than one generator and divide the production of national programs between them. The regions that have generators receive the signal directly from them, but to reach further, the signal is sent to a satellite, which bounces it back to the affiliates. They take the national programming, add some of their own production, and broadcast this new signal to homes in their area and to broadcast stations, which do not produce any programs but carry the affiliates’ programming further.
To each his own
Three types of station make up a network. See what each role is.
generators
They are the main stations, which produce all the national content. Rede Globo owns five generators – in Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo – but the one in Rio is the one that centralizes the content produced by the others.
Affiliates
They are installed in capitals that do not have generators and in medium-sized cities. They pass on a broadcaster’s signal, but, by law, they need to fill a part of their programming with regional content. Globo has 116 affiliates, where local newspapers are produced, such as MSTV, RSTV, etc.
relays
Located in smaller cities. They only repeat the content transmitted by the affiliates so that the signal reaches all homes within the coverage area
plink plink
See how Rede Globo is able to bring news from Mato Grosso do Sul to Pará in less than 1 second. We use a joking example.
1. At 4 am – 5 am in Brasilia – there is a rumor that Osama bin Laden was seen fishing in the Pantanal, in the region of Corumbá (MS). People who work at the local relay hear the rumor and notify the newsroom of the nearest affiliate, TV Morena, in Campo Grande.
2. The man who allegedly rented the boat for Osama agrees to give an interview and TV Morena sends a reporter to Corumbá aboard a van equipped with a link for live transmission via satellite. At 10:40 am – 11:40 am, in Brasilia – the interview goes live on the local newspaper, MSTV
3. Informed about the news in the regional newspaper, Central Globo de Jornalismo, in Rio de Janeiro, contacts the Campo Grande team and arranges for the insertion of the material in the Jornal Nacional. The material, raw or edited, can be sent to the generator in Rio via the internet.
4. At 8:30 pm, straight from JN’s studio, in Rio, William Bonner announces unpublished images of the “terror fishing”. The television news signal is sent into space and arrives almost instantly at a satellite. From there it is “sprayed” to affiliated stations throughout Brazil.
5. The satellite signal is received by TV Liberal, the affiliate in Belém. It transmits the JN to residences in Belém and resends the signal, again by satellite, to some retransmitters in Pará. Other stations, however, receive the signal through the same terrestrial network – from antenna to antenna.
6. The JN arrives at the relay in Itaituba, a city in the interior of Pará. The people there find out about Osama’s vacation practically at the same time as the people in Belém and Rio: the signal takes less than 1 second to reach any Brazilian viewer. But, because of the time difference, there it is 7:30 pm, and in Rio, 8:30 pm.
arrive, arrive
The web formed by TV networks reaches far, but not to all cities in Brazil. In places where even the signal from the retransmitters does not reach, the solution is to install a satellite dish, which captures national programming directly from the satellite, without the regional commercials. So, at break time, the screen goes black.
confusing schedule
Affiliates have time zone strategies. O More you, by Globo, airs live at 8:05 am in São Paulo, but is recorded to air at 7:40 am in Campo Grande (MS) – 8:40 am in São Paulo. From then on, the schedule undergoes minor adjustments to keep the network synchronized at 11:25 am – 12:25 pm in São Paulo –, on Jornal Hoje.
let’s bill
If a company wants to advertise a product nationwide, it must negotiate directly with the broadcaster – which also sells regional ads. But the sale of advertising space is not exclusive to the broadcaster: affiliates also sell advertisements, but they can only air them within their coverage area.