Information via the internet is destroying television news.
A world leader in time spent online, Brazilians are losing the habit of getting their news from TV; according to an Ibope survey, Globo's Jornal Nacional saw its audience plummet by 12% this year, up to August 31st; the same happened with Band and SBT's programming; the worst result was for "RedeTV! News," which saw almost half of its audience disappear in 2013: -41%; the power of the internet to transmit information in real time and impartially is rapidly changing the balance of power in the media.
247 – Brazil ranks third in the number of active internet users – access reached 83,4 million people in the second quarter of this year, 7% more than in the same period of 2011. But when it comes to the time spent browsing the web, Brazilian internet users are the champions.
According to Net Insight, a study by IBOPE Media, the average Brazilian internet user spends more than 43 hours and 57 minutes online per month. Next come the French (39 hours and 23 minutes) and the Germans (37 hours and 23 minutes).
The internet is now the main source of information for millions of Brazilians, which has decimated TV viewership.
According to a recent Ibope survey, published in Ricardo Feltrin's Ooops! column, virtually all Brazilian television news programs have experienced a significant drop in viewership this year compared to 2012.
The leading news program, Jornal Nacional, on Globo, lost 12% of its audience share this year, up to August 31st. The same happened with the other news programs on the network.
The performances of Band and SBT followed the trend, as shown in the table below. But the worst result was for "RedeTV! News," which saw almost half of its audience disappear this year - 41%.
Jornal da Record was the only news program that grew, but it registered an increase of only 2%.
The reflection of this evolution in the digital world is the crisis affecting large media groups.
RedeTV! is facing its worst crisis, with a series of layoffs resulting from the mismanagement carried out by partners Amilcare Dallevo and Marcelo Carvalho in recent years. Journalist Kennedy Alencar resigned from the station, where he had presented the program "É Notícia" since 2008.
The financial health of Record, owned by Bishop Edir Macedo, head of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, was already being questioned by the market last year. The group ended the year with a loss of R$ 200 million in its results.
As for Globo, the biggest loss is in credibility. Roberto Marinho's network was one of the targets of the June protests, which even involved throwing feces at the TV station's headquarters. Among the causes of the protests was a R$ 713 million tax evasion bill from the federal tax authorities, due to suspicious changes in the corporate structure of the group's companies.
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