Intervozes launches media ownership monitoring in Brazil.

Current Brazil Network - The main mass communication medium in Brazil, Brazilian television has more than 70% of its audience concentrated in just four major networks, with one of them, Rede Globo, holding more than half of the audience among these four largest – equivalent to 36,9% of the total. SBT occupies second place, with 14,9% of the total audience, followed by Record, with 14,7%. The data was released this Tuesday (31) by Intervozes, after four months of analysis of the 50 media outlets with the highest audience in Brazil and the 26 economic groups that control them.

Audience concentration is repeated in both print and digital media markets. According to the "Media Ownership Monitor" (MOM) study, the combined audience of the four main media outlets in both segments exceeds 50%. In the case of radio, although the audience is less concentrated and more linked to local dynamics, stations are also organized into national networks that retransmit some of the content from the "parent stations." Of the 12 major radio networks, three belong to the Bandeirantes group and two to the Globo group.

"MOM associates the names of owners with their media outlets, economic groups, and companies in other sectors, systematizes this information, and makes it accessible to the general public," says André Pasti, coordinator of the research at Intervozes.

The research presents the level of concentration of media ownership and shows that the Brazilian legal framework is insufficient to prevent a few groups from dominating the market. The study also points to the South and Southeast regions as centers of media power in the country (80% of the groups are located in these two regions), with three out of every four of these groups located in the city of São Paulo.

"The media is not like any other economic sector. It's important to know who controls it," says Olaf Steenfadt, director of MOM and a member of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Germany. "Citizens have the right to know the interests behind the media they consume. That's what the Media Ownership Monitor aims to provide," he states.

Among the 50 media outlets with the largest audience in Brazil, belonging to 26 economic groups, nine are from the Globo group, five from the Bandeirantes group, five from Edir Macedo (including Rede Record and the media outlets of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God), four from RBS, and three from the Folha group. The Estado group, Abril, and Editorial Sempre Editora/SADA each control two of the most-watched media outlets.

Using a methodology developed by the NGO Reporters Without Borders, the Media Ownership Monitor presents a series of indicators that measure, in each country, the risks to media plurality. Among the 11 countries surveyed so far, Brazil ranks last, with the exception of a single indicator.

Media and politics

Although the Federal Constitution prohibits politicians from controlling media companies, the study reveals that 32 federal deputies and eight senators control media outlets, even if they are not their formal owners. This is the case of Vittorio Medioli, former federal deputy and current mayor of Betim (MG). His wife and daughter are in charge of the media businesses of the Grupo Editorial Sempre Editora, responsible for publishing two of the largest newspapers in circulation in Brazil (Super Notícias and O Tempo), in addition to three other newspapers, an internet portal, a webTV channel and an FM radio station.

Another example is the Macedo family, which controls the Record group and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, as well as the Brazilian Republican Party (PRB), currently with a minister in Michel Temer's government, and a parliamentary group that includes one senator, 24 federal deputies, 37 state deputies, 1.619 city councilors, and 106 mayors.

According to Intervozes, in most cases the ties between politicians and media outlets "are forged through network structures and commercial agreements in which large national broadcasters sublicense their brand and content to companies at the state level." The research also indicates that these affiliates act as redistributors and are "a co-owned vehicle for powerful people in their states and municipalities."

In several states, affiliates of major networks are controlled by companies that directly represent politicians or families with a political tradition, often owning businesses in more than one media sector, a phenomenon known as "electronic cronyism."

Examples of this "electronic coronelism" abound in Brazil. In Bahia, TV Bahia (an affiliate of Rede Globo) and the newspaper Correio da Bahia are controlled by the Magalhães family, including the current mayor of Salvador, Antônio Carlos Magalhães Neto. The same occurs in Alagoas, with the Arnon de Mello group, belonging to the family of former president and senator Fernando Collor de Mello (PTC), which owns TV Gazeta Alagoas (an affiliate of Rede Globo), the newspaper Gazeta de Alagoas, and the radio station FM Gazeta 94. The situation is repeated in Pará, with the RBA de Comunicação group, linked to Senator Jader Barbalho (PMDB) and his family, owners of the newspaper Diário do Pará and TV Tapajós (a Globo affiliate in Pará).

Cross-ownership

Brazil lacks legislation preventing a single group from controlling radio stations, television channels, newspapers, and internet portals. The result is mass communication based on cross-ownership, consequently concentrating ownership in the hands of a small number of groups.

The only law that limits cross-ownership is the one that regulates the pay-TV market (Law 12.485/2011) and prohibits audiovisual content production companies, on the one hand, and radio and pay-TV companies, on the other, from controlling each other. It is this regulatory vacuum that allows the Globo group to play a central role in the TV, cable TV, internet, radio, and publishing markets.

Rede Globo is the leader in the free-to-air TV market, while its subsidiary GloboSat (which includes GloboNews and several other channels) stands out in pay TV; the Globo.com portal is the largest online news outlet in Brazil; and two of its radio networks, Globo AM/FM and CBN, are among the ten largest in the country in terms of audience.

The same logic applies to the Record and RBS groups. While the Record group operates TV Record and RecordNews on free-to-air television, its newspaper Correio do Povo, in Rio Grande do Sul, and the R7 portal are among the media outlets with the highest audience in Brazil. RBS, an affiliate of Rede Globo in Rio Grande do Sul, also owns the newspapers Zero Hora and Diário Gaúcho, the radio stations Gaúcha Sat and Atlântida, and the ClicRBS portal.