Sales 2023: BRL 15.134 billion (€ 2.8 billion)

Overview

Globo Communicação e Participações SA is by far the leading media group in Latin America. Irineu Marinho laid the foundations of this success story in 1925 with the founding of the newspaper O Globo; the radio station of the same name was later added. The rise of the empire began under the Brazilian military dictatorship and is now Brazil's leading provider of free and pay TV services (Globo TV, for example, has a virtually 100 percent reach) and has established itself as the second-largest publisher of books and magazines in the print market.

An updated company profile will be published shortly.

General Information

Headquarters
Rua Lopez Quintas 303 (Administration)
Botanical Garden
Rio de Janeiro 2460-010
Brazil
Telephone: 0055 21 2540 2000
Internet: http://redeglobo.globo.com

Branches of trade:: Free and pay TV production and marketing, broadcasting stations, satellite and cable TV, international rights management, newspapers and magazines, book publishers, radio, cable and satellite providers, internet portals
Legal form: Partnership (Empresa de capital fechado)
Financial year: 01.01.-31.12.
Founding year: 1965

Basic economic data (in million BRL)

	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
Revenue	15.134	15.119	14.171	12.523	14.091	14.679
Profit (Loss)	839	1.254	(174)	168	753	1.205

Executives and Directors

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Management/Board:

• Roberto Irineu Marinho, President
• Joao Roberto Marinho, Vice President
• Jose Roberto Marinho, Vice President
• Jorge Nobrega, Councel, Executive Vice President
• Pedro Carvalho, Councel
• Antonio Claudio Netto, Judicial Director
• Claudia Falcao, Director, Human Resources
• Cristiane Delecrode, Director, Corporate
• Paulo Tonet Camargo, Vice President, Government Affairs
• Renata Frota Pessoa, Director, Digital
• Sergio Marques, Director, Finance

History and Profile

The success story of Organizações Globo is inextricably linked to the Marinho family dynasty—especially with the founder's son, Roberto Marinho. In 1925, his father, Irineu, founded the newspaper "O Globo." Just three weeks after its founding, Irineu died, and responsibility for the newspaper passed to a family friend for the next five years. In 1931, Irineu's eldest son took over the business, which he continued until his death in 2003.

In the midst of World War II, when radio had grown significantly in importance due to war reporting, Roberto Marinho founded the company's first radio station, Rádio Globo, in 1944. In 1957, the company also received a television broadcasting license. It was presented to the company by then-President Juscelino Kubitschek. Malicious tongues claim that Kubitschek used the license to thank the Globo media group for its only moderate opposition during his election campaign. This, in any case, marked the beginning of the family business's rise to become South America's largest media group. Two factors played into Marinho's hands: the military dictatorship and the support of the US-based Time-Life Company.

On July 24, 1962, Time-Life and Globo signed a joint venture agreement. The contract required Globo to pay 30 percent of its profits to Time-Life, beginning with its broadcast in 1965. In return, the broadcaster received a loan equivalent to approximately €20 million and extensive technical support. The deal violated the Brazilian constitution, which prohibited foreign direct investment in media companies. However, the government turned a blind eye. The agreement also contradicted the business policy of founder Irineu, who had campaigned vigorously against foreign capital participation in Brazilian companies.

On April 26, 1965, the first Globo station, Canal 4, went on air. With the loan in hand, Marinho was able to realize his expansion plans. Just one year later, he inaugurated TV Globo São Paulo, a station he had purchased from a competitor. The shopping spree continued in the following years: in 1968, he purchased and inaugurated TV Globo Belo Horizonte, and in the early 1970s, the same happened with TV Globo Recife and TV Globo Brasília. Under pressure from the opposition, Globo was forced to terminate its contract with Time-Life in 1968. The station was nationalized, and the joint venture partner was paid off. Nevertheless, Roberto succeeded in establishing the first national broadcasting network within just seven years.

The expansion of the chain was made possible by the military dictatorship, which generously granted the necessary broadcasting licenses to create a national awareness of a common Brazilian culture through television and with the help of Roberto Marinho. The aspiring Marinho seemed ideal for the military's purposes: He owned the leading daily newspaper and the national radio station, he supported the military, and he ran his company according to new economic standards.

Until the end of the 1960s, only prime time, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., was of interest to the advertising industry. Marinho pioneered a new advertising system: Anyone who wanted to broadcast during prime time also had to buy advertising minutes during unpopular times – the competition clung to the old concept. TV Globo was the first broadcaster in Brazil to adapt to the daily routines and habits of its viewers. This was rewarded by a close relationship with consumers, who felt understood because their wishes were taken into account. A concept that still works at Globo today – for example, with the newspaper Extra.

In 1995, Marinho created the largest TV and film production center in Latin America with the inauguration of Projac (Projeto Jacarepaguá). Ten studios, seven production units, and the latest digital technology are available on 1.6 million square meters. Intended to polish the poor image from the years of military dictatorship, however, the exact opposite happened. Accusations arose that the construction was illegal because it was supported by government subsidies.

In the years before his death, Roberto Marinho increasingly lived in the past. Officially, he remained president of the Globo empire, but in interviews and conversations, he increasingly spoke exclusively about O Globo, the newspaper his father had founded. When the company's patriarch died in 2003, his son, Roberto Irineu, took over the reins. He pushed the company's focus on digital business areas. 

However, all of this cannot disguise the fact that, from the consumer perspective, Organizações Globo is still tainted by the stigma of having colluded with the military dictatorship and engaged in biased journalism. People also still remember that in the early 1980s, as Brazil's re-democratization process accelerated, the Globo group remained unwavering in its political stance and continued to support the dictatorship. Slogans like "The people are not stupid, down with Rede Globo" (O povo não é bobo, abaixo a Rede Globo) have found their way from the 1980s into the new millennium – even though the company officially apologized for its support of the dictatorship for the first time in 2013. A 2009 study shows that Brazilians remain critical of Globo. Both the scandal surrounding the Time-Life deal and the clear preference given to Globo during the military dictatorship have led consumers to suspect that Globo's products change their tune with the political wind whenever it seems favorable. Evidence for this theory is also provided by the daily newspaper O Globo. The paper decisively opposed then-presidential candidate Inacio Lula da Silva during his first candidacy in 1989, instead supporting his rival, Fernando Collor. Globo's management viewed Lula as "too limited to fulfill important executive functions." Collor won. Lula didn't win the election until 2002. After two legislative periods, however, Lula and Globo became close partners and friends.

management

Like his father and grandfather, Roberto Irineu Marinho, the new head of the empire, learned the trade with diligence, perseverance, and from every angle. He started with the company in 1963 as a typesetter's apprentice, later becoming a reporter, and in 1971, when his father deemed the time was right, he was promoted to director. Unlike his two predecessors, however, he studied business administration at the renowned Fundação Getúlio Vargas before taking over the family legacy. This was followed by a position as vice president of Globo TV, before becoming vice president of the entire organization. He has been a member of the management team since 1998 and increasingly held the reins during the final years of his father's life. However, he only officially assumed the position of president after his father's death in 2003. In the press release announcing the takeover, the new president, who is supported by his two brothers at the helm, sets out a number of goals: "Our commitment is to expand the work of Robert Marinho and to inform, entertain, and educate the Brazilian people. We do this because it is important for our entire society, but also because in this way we keep him alive."

Business segments

Television and film
The public television network of Organizações Globo operates under the name Rede Globo and, according to its own statements, is both the largest broadcaster in Latin America and the fourth-largest broadcasting group in the world. Founded in 1964 and on air since 1965, the group celebrated its 50th anniversary with great fanfare in 2015 and proudly points out that 120 million viewers watch Rede Globo's programs every day. The network has 122 owned or affiliated stations throughout Brazil, and the Portuguese-speaking community abroad is served by the programs of TV Globo Internacional. At its gigantic Projac studio complex, Globo produces 2,500 hours of entertainment formats annually, which are exported to more than 100 countries.

Rede Globo's business is primarily driven by three segments: news, telenovelas, and sports. The evening Jornal Nacional is something like the German Heute-Journal in Brazil, only considerably more sensationalist. For approximately 25 years, Rede Globo has held a subscription to the broadcasting rights for most major Brazilian soccer events. For the 2016 domestic matches, especially for broadcasting rights to the US, the broadcaster NBC is Globo's privileged partner.

The extremely popular telenovelas are also particularly important. Five one-hour telenovelas are broadcast every weekday during prime time. Especially at 9:15 p.m., up to 50 million Brazilians tune in – around a quarter of the population. Rede Globo now also collaborates with marketing institutes for the production of its telenovelas, as the tights or handbag of one of the leading actresses, for example, sometimes triggers a veritable buying frenzy. The massive success of the telenovelas is probably also due to the fact that many Brazilian viewers – despite the great cultural differences in this vast country – can easily identify with the main characters and the love, suffering, hatred, and reconciliation of their characters.

TV Globo Internacional (TVGI) is aimed at Brazilian exiles and Portuguese-speaking audiences outside of Brazil. Until now, viewers in Mozambique and Angola have been provided with the same content as viewers in Portugal. This is set to change, not least because of the significant influence of advertising revenue—the foreign network generates 20% of its income from this segment. Africa will receive a program tailored primarily to Angola's needs, with specially produced content and the new format "A Revista África." In October 2011, Globo opened its branch in Lisbon, where it primarily handles international co-productions. Furthermore, Portugal will be upgraded to Globo's production headquarters for Europe and Africa.

Film production
Since 1998, the Globo Group, through its subsidiary Globo Filmes, has also been active in the film production market. The company's primary purpose is "the production of high-quality, artistically sophisticated films" that "promote national culture, strengthen Brazil's audiovisual industry, attract new talent, and increase synergies between cinema and television." To date, Globo Filmes has produced more than 90 films, attracting 90 million viewers to cinemas.

Cable TV and pay TV
The Globo-owned provider NET is the largest provider of broadband connections in the country. It provides subscribers with cable television, broadband internet access, and telephone services via a single cable. With approximately four million cable television subscribers, NET has a market share of approximately 50 percent; for broadband internet, the share is just under 40 percent. Latin America's most popular and largest pay-TV channel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Organisações Globo. Founded in 1991, Globosat began its triumphant march, first in Brazil and later throughout the Latin American market. Today, the broadcaster consists of 27 channels, broadcasting shows such as Big Brother, Playboy TV, and sports programs.

radio
In general, radio is far less important in Latin America than television, newspapers, and magazines. Under the name Sistema Globo de Rádio (SGR), Organisações Globo nevertheless operates eight of its own radio stations and numerous other nationwide subsidiaries. The most important broadcasters are the founding station Rádio Globo, based in Rio de Janeiro, and CBN, based in Sao Paulo. Both stations are received in more than 30 cities across the country.

Newspapers and print
The group subsumes its activities in the Brazilian newspaper market under Infoglobo. Although cited by many sources as the group's first product, the evening newspaper A Noite was never owned by the group. Rather, founding father Irineu Marinho briefly held a stake in the paper before launching O Globo, the group's print flagship, in 1925. This includes the daily newspaper of the same name, the tabloids "Extra" and "Expresso," and the business newspaper "Valor Econômico."„. All of the company's magazine titles also run under the name Editoria Globo: Auto Esporte, Casa e Jardim, Crescer, Criativa, Época, Época Negócios, Galileu, Globo Rural, Marie Claire, Pequenas Empresas e Grandes Negócios, Quem, Casa e Comida, Revista do Globo, Monet. Within Editoria Globo, the company takes care of the book business under the title Globo Livros.

Music
The Som Livre studios were founded in 1969 with the goal of developing, recording, and marketing the theme songs for telenovelas. However, even with the rapid production speed of soap operas, the studios were unable to cope with this task. Thus, recordings and entire collections, primarily by national artists, and later by international bands and singers, were gradually released. Currently, the Som Livre studios are a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Globo and serve as a channel for the marketing of DVDs and CDs, including online, as well as the electronic distribution of music and cell phone ringtones. With a production capacity of 80 new releases annually, the studio works exclusively for the Globo Group.

Current developments

The debate about Globo's virtually limitless power of public opinion has flared up again in the wake of the impeachment proceedings against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The Brazilian left views the proceedings as an illegal coup against a democratically elected head of state, evoking memories of the 1964 military coup. In a recent op-ed for the Guardian, Brazilian journalist David Miranda (The Intercept) described Globo as the "leading propaganda arm of the Brazilian oligarchy." Globo and other media outlets are accused of artificially inflating the allegations against Rousseff in their reporting, while at the same time systematically ignoring the corrupt involvement of the politicians who ousted the president from office. Globo is also said to have been a driving force behind the mass demonstrations against Rousseff in spring 2016. For example, Globo ignored the so-called "Odebrecht List," which listed government officials who received dubious payments from industry. Furthermore, the broadcaster portrayed the protests as representative of Brazilian society, even though the majority consisted of well-off white people. Joao Roberto Marinho denied all allegations (in the comments section of the Guardian article). For Miranda, this is an indication that Globo's dominant position in Brazil is slowly being eroded, step by step, by the internet.

Telenovelas, which increasingly address topics such as HIV, racism, and corruption, have become so popular that even during the Olympic Games in Rio, they could not be pushed out of the evening schedule by sports coverage. Because Globo was contractually obliged to broadcast nine hours of the Olympics every day, the company shifted the majority of its coverage to daytime programming instead of prime time. If there is anything resembling a competitor to Globo in the TV market, it is Record. The channel even overtook Globo in terms of ratings with its telenovela "The Ten Commandments." However, younger viewers are increasingly turning away from linear television. Globo series nevertheless remain highly attractive for advertisers. Around 60 percent of all advertising expenditure in Brazil continues to go to Globo channels.

Author(s): Contributor: Nina Spranz