SBT RS

SBT RS is a Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão-owned-and-operated television station based in Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Its studios are located in the Santa Tereza neighborhood, and its transmission tower is at the top of Morro da Polícia.

History

Prior to the appearance of TVS Porto Alegre, TV Piratini existed on channel 5, founded on December 20, 1959 by Diários Associados as a Rede Tupi O&O, the first television station in Porto Alegre and in Rio Grande do Sul. Like its network, its license was revoked on July 18, 1980, due to its financial crisis.
TV Piratini's license was one of the three that were acquired by Silvio Santos in March 1981.
The license started broadcasting on August 26, 1981, one week after the main station in São Paulo, as TVS Porto Alegre.
In May 2015, Anonymus Gourmet left the RBS TV affiliate compound and moved to the station. SBT Rio Grande added a second edition on August 3, 2015, airing at 7:20pm, before SBT Brasil.
In May 2016, the station saw an audience increase of 7% in its all-day average, achieving higher ratings than Record RS in the mornings. Local programs Masbah! had the largest growth, while SBT Rio Grande surpassed Record's schedule in its two editions.
On the morning of April 16, 2018, sports journalist Ricardo Vidarte, of the local edition of SBT Esportes, died of a heart attack.

Technical information

On August 25, 2014, as part of a measure involving five SBT O&Os, the station started producing local content in high definition; until then, SBT RS only aired high definition programming from the network.
The station shut down its analog signal on March 14, 2018, date of the closure of analog TV in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area, according to the ANATEL roadmap.