Record (TV network)
Record, formerly known as Rede Record and RecordTV, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network. It is the second largest commercial TV station in Brazil, and the 28th largest in the world rankings as of 2012. In 2010, it was elected by the advertising market as the fifth largest station in the world in revenues and the eighth largest network in physical structure. In June 2021, it ranked second among the most watched channels in the country in the National Television Panel, only behind TV Globo.
As the main member of the media company Grupo Record, the network is headquartered in São Paulo, where most of its programming is also generated at the Dermeval Gonçalves Theater, and has a branch in Rio de Janeiro, where its telenovelas and other formats are produced at the Casablanca Estúdios complex. Its national coverage is achieved by retransmission from 111 stations, 15 of which are owned by the company and 96 of which are affiliate stations.
The station was inaugurated in the city of São Paulo on 27 September 1953, by businessman Paulo Machado de Carvalho, owner until then of a radio conglomerate, through a concession obtained in November 1950, the year television was launched in Brazil. TV Record was the fourth station to operate in the country after TV Tupi São Paulo, TV Tupi Rio de Janeiro and TV Paulista.
During the 1960s, the channel became popular, even leading in audience with the exhibition of music festivals including MPB and Jovem Guarda. In this period, Record headed the Rede de Emissoras Independentes, a chain that integrated stations from various locations in Brazil. In the 1970s, the businessman and TV host Silvio Santos acquired half of the channel's shares through a partnership with Machado de Carvalho. In 1989, Record, after being under unfavorable financial situation in the second half of that decade, was sold to Bishop Edir Macedo, founder and leader of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.
The new acquisition spurred major investments in the structure of the station, which in the 1990s formed its national network with purchases of channels and affiliations, resulting in its positioning, from 2007 to 2015, as the country's second largest network in audience and revenues until it was overtaken by SBT until May 2024. As of 2012, both stations began to intensely dispute point tenths and take turns in the IBOPE ranking.
History
Background
Only two months after the arrival of television in Brazil, businessman and communicator Paulo Machado de Carvalho got a permit to operate a new TV channel in the city of São Paulo on 22 November 1950, being granted channel 7 as its frequency. At the time, Paulo and his family already owned a large conglomerate of radio stations and took advantage of the name of his then Rádio Sociedade Record to baptize his first television channel; it was decided that the new station would be called TV Record.Setting up the station, modern equipment was provided from the United States and installed in its studios on Miruna Avenue, in the Moema neighborhood, South Zone of São Paulo. Before going on the air, the channel made some experimental broadcasts months before its inauguration, showing the choir of the Escola Normal Caetano de Campos and the orchestra of the São Paulo Public Force.
It was initially set to start on 7 September 1953, Brazil's Independence Day, coinciding with the VHF frequency, channel 7, and also the last number of Paulo Machado de Carvalho's banknotes worth Cr$5 to Cr$1,000, all ending in 7, which he never used for transactions. This was Paulo Machado's lucky number, which was also the last number of the license plates of the vehicles of the other assets he owned. However, some of the imported equipment would only arrive after the initial planned date, forcing the station to wait an extra twenty days to formalize its launch, which had to include the number 7 in the date.
Test broadcasts started on the morning of 27 September 1953, at 9am, with the station airing a soccer match between Corinthians and Guarani at the Pacaembu stadium. The transmitter was assembled by Emissoras Unidas, Paulo Machado's media conglomerate, most of its launch day at the studios was used to rehearse and set up the stage for the inaugural musical special, which would formally open the station.
Launch and first years
The channel went on air on 27 September 1953, at 8:53 pm. In the first image to be shown by the station, the artist couple Blota Júnior and Sônia Ribeiro descended a staircase and announced the launch of TV Record. After Blota made a speech, a show started with Dorival Caymmi, Inezita Barroso, Adoniran Barbosa, Isaura Garcia, Pagano Sobrinho, Randal Juliano, Enrico Simonetti's orchestra and several dancers. This musical attraction was presented by Sandra Amaral and Hélio Ansaldo.In its early operations, the station aired musical, sports, theater, humorous and informative programs. In 1954, the first serial produced in Brazil, Capitão 7, starring Ayres Campos and Idalina de Oliveira, went on the air, remaining until 1966. In 1954, the program Mesa Redonda was created, hosted by Geraldo José de Almeida and Raul Tabajara. In 1955, Grande Gincana Kibon went on the air, being shown for sixteen years.
1959–67: Emissoras Unidas
Early growth
With the rapid growth of his new media vehicle, Paulo Machado de Carvalho joined his brother-in-law João Batista do Amaral to establish a partnership between São Paulo's TV Record and Rio's TV Rio, originating the Rede Unidas de Televisão in 1955. With the creation of the new network, a link was built between the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo that allowed the connection via UHF signal between Record and TV Rio. It was through this link that TV Record broadcast the Brazilian Turf Grand Prix, directly from the Jockey Club in Rio de Janeiro; the link between the two stations also made it possible to exchange productions between them. With this, Emissoras Unidas would get affiliates and retransmissions throughout Brazil under the leadership of the headquarters of both TV Rio and TV Record.Regular programming and pioneering in Brazilian television
In 1958, the first regular program produced by Record and TV Rio was launched, Show 713, a program in which the slots were divided in half, with each side belonging to each station. The program featured interviews, news reports and musical numbers from the two stations' hometowns. Record ended the 1950s by inaugurating its Teatro Record on Rua da Consolação, which would later be used for musical presentations and program recordings.The station entered the 1960s by pioneering the inauguration of the new federal capital Brasilia, becoming the only TV station outside the new city to broadcast the event, which included interviews with several Brazilian politicians at the time, including then-president Juscelino Kubitschek.
Fires and prestiged programs
The station's headquarters in Moema would come to suffer a fire in May 1960, causing Rede Unidas to air more programs from the co-generator TV Rio while Record recovered. It was the first of a series of six fires that Machado de Carvalho family's channel would face, the most serious being in July 1966, where several reels of archival tapes were lost. Despite these bad times, the station managed to achieve great prestige by showing several programs during the 1960s, especially music programs such as O Fino da Bossa and the classic MPB Festivals where several renowned artists such as Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Elis Regina, among others, performed amidst the strong military dictatorship in the country.Competition
With the emergence of TV Globo and the growth of its rival TV Tupi, Record's audience gradually decreased. However, the station was able to launch a few more audience hits, such as Família Trapo with Ronald Golias and Jô Soares, and the news program Repórter Esso. The Teatro Record in Consolação suffers a fire that forces Record to transfer the São Paulo headquarters to Augusta Street, closer to downtown São Paulo.1969–89: Decline and Silvio Santos phase
The founding of REI and the participation of Silvio Santos
Due to disagreements between the directors of TV Rio and Record, the Emissoras Unidas was extinguished in 1967. Later, however, the two stations reconnected and founded the Rede de Emissoras Independentes, which became known by the acronym REI. Immediately after this, businessman Silvio Santos acquires half of Record and uses it to show some of his programs. Despite initially not agreeing, the former owners of Record end up accepting the agreement for Silvio to co-operate the station.By this time, TV Record had considerably lost its audience to TV Tupi, Rede Globo, and the recently established Rede Bandeirantes, owned by João Saad. Shortly afterwards, TV Rio was disconnected from the Emissoras Independentes, leaving REI with only Record as its sole channel. REI would later broadcast the 1970 FIFA World Cup directly from Mexico, marking the first World Cup to be transmitted by Record. The channel also brings its casts of artists, particularly the famous comedian and entertainer, Chacrinha.
However, due to the decline that was gradually affecting Record, the channel decided to sell its theater in Rua Augusta in downtown São Paulo. Meanwhile, Silvio Santos inaugurates a new TV channel in Rio de Janeiro called TVS and starts to exchange productions of this station with Record, ending with the joint simulcast premiere of Programa Silvio Santos on TVS and Tupi in 1976, ending a 10-year stint with Globo. In 1978, Paulo Machado de Carvalho acquired concessions to operate two more television channels for TV Record: channel 4 in Franca and channel 7 in São José do Rio Preto, making it a statewide network. Two years later, with Tupi's shutdown, Programa Silvio Santos, by now produced in São Paulo, moved to Record.