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. 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 (which was eventually renamed Paulo Machado de Carvalho 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 (among which, with celebrities such as
Nat King Cole,
Charles Aznavour,
Ella Fitzgerald and
Marlene Dietrich), 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 (then channel 13 in Rio de Janeiro), originating the Rede Unidas de Televisão (or Rede das Emissoras Unidas) 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 (alluding to Record's channel 7 and Rio's channel 13), 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 was co-manager of the network in the 1970s.
The founding of REI and the participation of Silvio Santos Due to disagreements between the directors of TV Rio and Record (because the Rio de Janeiro channel had acquired productions from Tupi, which was then a rival of the Machado de Carvalho family station), 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 (since the entertainer had lost space on other television channels). 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 (channel 11) 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.
Concessions and the departure of Santos Silvio Santos won some concessions from the former broadcaster from the federal government and founded his own television network,
SBT, in 1981, on part of the former Rede Tupi stations and studios. The businessman and entertainer, together with Paulo Machado, starts managing channel 9 in Rio de Janeiro (which had also won the bidding process), which was transformed into TV Record Rio de Janeiro in 1982, becoming the channel's fourth TV station (since the other two stations in the countryside of the state already existed, besides the headquarters in São Paulo). Both stations belonged to the now relapsed Rede de Emissoras Independentes, which until then had a very low audience. It was the channel's next attempt to go national. After SBT was founded, in 1981, TV Record São Paulo became a second plan for Silvio Santos, but the Machado de Carvalho family, co-owners of the channel, insisted on investing in the small station. In 1983, the program
Especial Sertanejo premiered hosted by Marcelo Costa promoting Brazilian country music while journalism remained the station's flagship with the premiere of Jornal da Noite, which scored a victory for the network with a 2-hour broadcast nationwide - more than the competition. In 1985, SBT was nationally consolidated when it debuted its national network programming via satellite for all of Brazil, through Brasilsat,
Embratel's exclusive channel. In 1986, Record broadcast
its second World Cup in a pool with SBT directly from Mexico. In 1987, at the same time that
Programa Silvio Santos stopped being shown on Record (and started being shown only by SBT), Silvio Santos stopped injecting 70% to 80% of his participation in TV Record of São Paulo, and thus forced the Machados, thru Paulo, to give up channel 9, which later rebranded to
TV Copacabana with a tourism approach.
The end of REI and ostracism In 1989, the then-Rede de Emissoras Independentes that still continued to be led by TV Record de São Paulo succumbs to its crisis and is extinguished. With this, the channel fell into ostracism and Record became a local station again, leaving only the station in São Paulo and the other two in the interior of the state, since channel 9 in Rio de Janeiro had become TV Corcovado, which would later be owned by
CNT to become
CNT Rio de Janeiro.
Sale to Edir Macedo With Record already suffering a serious crisis and on the verge of bankruptcy, Silvio Santos convinces Paulo Machado de Carvalho to put the station up for sale. Until that time, besides the very low audience, the channel had annual revenues of $2.5 million, but had debts that exceeded $20 million. Beginning in 1988, interest for a potential buyer emerged. One of the first candidates was print conglomerate
Grupo Abril, who tried bidding for a network during the auction of the Tupi licenses. In May of that year, the group offered US$14 million to try acquiring the assets that were owned by the Machado de Carvalho family. Soon after learning about the sale of the channel, the leader of the
UCKG,
Edir Macedo, became interested in buying Rede Record. At the time, he was in the United States and learned about the sale of the station from his lawyer Paulo Roberto Guimarães. Macedo appointed pastor Laprovita Vieira to be the intermediary of the purchase of Record. Laprovita had a meeting with Demerval Gonçalves, representative of Silvio Santos and Paulo Machado de Carvalho, at the station's old headquarters in the Moema district of São Paulo; the negotiation was quick. Besides TV Record, Edir Macedo also acquired Rádio Record, which, like the television channel, was in bad shape and also belonged to Machado de Carvalho's family and to
Grupo Silvio Santos. A meeting was held with lawyers from both parties, which was attended by Laprovita, Edir, Silvio Santos and his partner Paulo Machado de Carvalho. The requested amount was accepted by both parties, both Edir Macedo and Silvio Santos' representative. Days later, Silvio Santos regretted the sale, but he was aware of Record's precarious situation and had no other way out, since both he and Paulo Machado de Carvalho were still unable to pay Record's debts. Some creditors threatened to file for bankruptcy for the chaotic situation the channel was in. After the sale, it was rumored that Record would become a channel with completely religious programming which would be used by UCKG, founded by Edir Macedo. However, this did not actually happen, but until today, the station shows some evangelical programs, especially in the early morning hours. The new directors of the station after the purchase, together with Macedo, decided to continue the station's commercial activities. The deal led to the creation of Central Record de Comunicação (now
Grupo Record) in 1989, which became the main media conglomerate controlled by Macedo himself, which today includes, besides Record and
Rádio Record, the portal
R7, Record Entretenimento, and later
Record News.
1990–2007: Growth and investment and Edir Macedo at the opening ceremony of
Record News Restructuring After its sale, TV Record went through drastic changes: a new visual identity was presented in July 1990 and a reformulation in its programs that managed to recover its lost audience. The station started its national expansion when it began transmitting its signal via the
BrasilSat A2 satellite, also distributing its programming to satellite dishes. Contacts were made with
TV Rio and
TV Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro,
TV Capital in Brasília,
TV Guaíba in Porto Alegre,
TV Minas in Belo Horizonte and a group of four stations in the state of Paraná owned by the same businessman. The channel became Rede Record and began to acquire its own stations, affiliates and retransmitters for renewed expansion. In 1992, Record finally resumed broadcasts to Rio de Janeiro for the first time since 1986-87, using the license used by
the second TV Rio, coincidentally an affiliate of Record under Unidas. In 1995, the station moved to its current headquarters in Barra Funda by acquiring the CBI studios, which was very modern for its time. The acquisition also included its technical equipment, including come Betacam cameras, editing units and OB vans. Despite the acquisition, Record did not finish its move to Barra Funda in July 1998, when it definitively left its former headquarters in the Miruna building in the Moema neighborhood after 45 years. During this period, the company hired several artists to fill its programming line-up, with several artists such as Eliana, Raul Gil, Gilberto Barros,
Ratinho (until 1998, now with SBT), Milton Neves and others becoming famous. Record was able to reach third place in the national audience, surpassing Band and the struggling
Rede Manchete. In October 2000, the network appointed Giusti-Loducca as its public relations agency and hired
Adriane Galisteu (formerly of
RedeTV!) to front
É Show, a variety show that premiered on 30 October. In addition, there was also a raft of new titles, mostly from Sony Pictures Entertainment's catalog, as well as the film
Lolita, which was an erotic drama with sex scenes. Its new telenovela,
Vidas Cruzadas, was set to premiere in November, and had scenes shot in
Recife. With these moves, Record attempted to distance itself from its public image as "the bishop's network", by airing certain programs that were seen as being incompatible with the UCKG's norms, giving the notion that Record is a commercial network. The network also planned a new slogan, which was part of the advertising contract.
New slogan and further expansion In 2004, the network decided to bet on a new phase aiming for more ratings. With the slogan
On the way to leadership, Record begins to expand its offer by producing renowned programs, new IDs, and telenovelas that became popular. Among the successes of this new phase, the productions
A Escrava Isaura,
Prova de Amor,
Vidas Opostas and
Caminhos do Coração (which was divided into three seasons due to its huge audience) stood out. On 27 September 2007,
Record News, the first free-to-air news channel on Brazilian television, was inaugurated, occupying the signal of the former Rede Mulher, though it was already owned by Grupo Record 13 years prior. On the day of the foundation of Record News, the governor of the state of São Paulo
José Serra, the mayor of the city of São Paulo
Gilberto Kassab, the then president of Record Alexandre Raposo, the owner Edir Macedo and the president of the Republic
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were present. The inauguration ceremony of the new channel was broadcast by Rede Record inside
Jornal da Record, as well as Record News itself.
Competition with Globo and SBT In 2007, Rede Record was able to overtake SBT to become the second largest Brazilian television station, only remaining behind Rede Globo. However, in some programs, it was able to overtake Globo. In cities such as Goiânia, Belém, and Fortaleza, its news magazine,
Domingo Espectacular, surpassed Rede Globo's
Fantástico, and Record's morning news program,
Fala Brasil, was able to surpass
Bom Dia Brasil in São Paulo. On 11 December 2009, Record managed to top first place in Rio during the broadcast of
The Elite Squad.
2010–15: Redesign Helicopter crash and rescue In early 2010, a Record helicopter crashed inside the
Jockey Club in São Paulo after suffering a breakdown. The aircraft was in that region to cover a robbery that had occurred in the Morumbi neighborhood, South Zone of São Paulo. The pilot of the helicopter, Rafael Delgado Sobrinho, died on the spot and cameraman Alexandre Silva de Moura "Borracha" was taken in serious condition to hospital; the two occupants were rescued by Globocop from TV Globo. Rede Record lamented the incident at the time and closed that night's
Jornal da Record quietly with a
moment of silence in honor of their deceased colleagues.
Olympic broadcast In 2012, Record exclusively broadcast the
2012 Olympic Games in London and the unprecedented
2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It was the first time that its rival Rede Globo was left out of the Olympics, though them and Rede Record, along with Rede Bandeirantes, would broadcast the
Summer Olympics in 2016.
Reformulation and loss to SBT In 2013, Record underwent a reformulation, which eventually resulted in the change of the network's top command. Alexandre Raposo was eventually fired and in his place Luiz Cláudio Costa came from
TV Record Brasília to the position of president. Another important change in command was that of Honorilton Gonçalves, by Marcelo Silva in the position of vice president of Record. After spending 2012 without much profitability, the company hired a consulting service to reformulate its market strategies. In 2014, SBT (which always held the second place position in Brazilian television until 2007) was able to take back second place, which shrunk Rede Record's position down to third place for the first time since 2007. However, Rede Record managed to keep its position as one of the top three Brazilian television networks. In December 2015, it signed a new nine-year agreement with Universal Studios.
2016–present: Rebranding On 24 November 2016, Rede Record shortened its name to "RecordTV", introduced the new slogan "Reinventar é a nossa marca" ("Reinvention is our brand"), and introduced an updated logo—which replaced its historic red, green, and blue colors with silver and
cool gray, and removed the map of
South America from its inner
globe. Grupo Record stated that the new logo was intended to symbolize its positioning as an "avant-garde", multi-platform broadcaster with an international presence. On the morning of 8 October 2022, Record was the subject of a
ransomware attack affecting many of the broadcaster's systems. The attack led to a disruption of programming, with its Saturday morning program
Fala Brasil replaced by reruns of
Everybody Hates Chris until operations were restored. SBT and
TV Cultura had also faced ransomware attacks the same day. On 6 November 2023, as part of the network's 70th anniversary, RecordTV underwent another rebranding; it introduced a refined version of the 2016 logo (which has a metallic texture, more greyscale colors, and reshaped "fins" designed to make it resemble a
play button in its
negative space), and shortened its name to simply "Record". ==Programming==