Early history The roots of TV Globo can be traced to the beginning of the 20th century. What eventually became the Globo empire began in 1925 with the creation of the newspaper
O Globo in Rio de Janeiro. In 1944,
Rádio Globo went on the air and has become a school of radio broadcast news. It was the first radio network in Brazil to follow a 24-hour all news format. It had 26 wholly owned and affiliated stations. In 1957,
Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek approved a request by
Rádio Globo to establish a television channel. TV Globo began broadcasting on 26 April 1965 in Rio de Janeiro on channel 4. That same day, at about 10:45 a.m., Rubens Amaral formally introduced Rede Globo to viewers in Rio de Janeiro, and all over
Guanabara State, with the song "
Moon River" by
Henry Mancini at the start of the children's show,
Uni Duni Tê, an adaptation of
Romper Room. It was the beginning of the Globo television network and vital component in the growth and expansion of the Globo organizations. By May of that same year, the live telecast of the
Holy Mass, which later became its longest running and oldest program, was seen for the first time. The following year, Globo purchased another television station,
São Paulo-based
TV Paulista and transforming it into the TV Globo São Paulo, expanding its operations and beginning to dominate national television ratings. In January 1966, Globo broadcast its first major news coverage on flooding in Rio de Janeiro.
Jornal da Globo, another trademark show for the network, was the successor to
Tele Globo (1965–66), the network's first news program that ran until 1966. It featured a broadcast time of 30 minutes and was hosted by Hilton Gomez and, later, Luis Jatoba. In 1967, Globo began to build its national network with the affiliation of
Porto Alegre-based TV Gaúcha (now
RBS TV). It is one of
Globos oldest affiliates, active since 1962, three years before
Globo was launched.
Uberlândia's TV Triângulo (now
Rede Integração) and
Goiânia's
TV Anhanguera (now
Rede Anhanguera) soon followed in 1967 and 1968. The now extinct TV Guajará (now
Boas Novas Belém), based in
Belém, was launched in 1967, and was followed by
TV Verdes Mares later in 1970. 1968 was also the year in which Globo's owned and operated station in
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, TV Globo Minas, was launched. On 1 September 1969, the country and national television broadcasting changed with the premiere of
Jornal Nacional (
National News), the nation's first live newscast anchored by Cid Moreira and Hilton Gomes. Its theme music, "The Fuzz" by
Frank DeVol, became one of the show's trademarks, together with the program logo and the "Boa Noite" ("Good night") closing established by the hosts. TV Globo broadcast its first
FIFA World Cup in 1970, the same year in which the
Rede Excelsior network closed down, absorbed by
Globo. The network's famous
Plim-Plim interval sound also debuted that year. Jornal Nacional's success was followed by the launch of
Jornal Hoje (''Today's News'') on April 21st, 1971, the same day in which its
Brasília station (TV Globo Brasília, Channel 10) was inaugurated. TV Globo Nordeste (Channel 13 in
Recife, Pernambuco) would launch the next year. Brazil had its first color television broadcast on February 19th, 1972, when Globo, along with many other TV stations in the country, broadcast the Festa da Uva (Grape Festival) in Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, in the southern region of the country. Globo's coverage was narrated by Cid Moreira. Globo also broadcast the
1972 Summer Olympics in
Munich that same year, being the first time the network broadcast the Olympics. In 1973, "Globo Repórter" premiered, and it still airs today. That same year, the Sunday program "Fantástico" went on the air, which also remains on the air. On June 4th, 1976, the station was hit by a fire that resulted in the
loss of the archived footage of many early programs broadcast by the network. Despite the fire, the station only went off the air for a few minutes. The last black-and-white programs transitioned to color broadcast in 1977. Color broadcasting arrived on the channel in 1976 or 1977.
1980s to 1990s era 1986 was the key year when
Xuxa Meneghel's own show,
Xou da Xuxa (''Xuxa's Show
) debuted on Rede Globo. Xuxa, who left the similarly formatted program Clube da Criança
on Rede Manchete, joined the network and thus, her show replaced the successful Balão Mágico'' as a result. It was a hit among children in all the country, airing all week (from Mondays to Saturdays) for seven years until 1992. That year was also the 20th anniversary of Os Trapalhões, which lasted until 1987. The network's other big program was its coverage of the
1986 Copa Ouro, plus the first telecast of the
Criança Esperança children's charity show, which Renato Aragão (of Os Trapalhões) hosted. The logo was renovated several times in the years that followed. 1987 saw yet more improved programming debut in all areas. Jô Soares defected the network and moved to SBT. TV Globo turned 30 on 26 April 1995. The highlights of the year included the opening of the brand new Projac (now
Estúdios Globo) studios and the launch of a new youth oriented program:
Malhação, plus its Festival 30 Anos (30 Years Festival) commemorative series. It was the year that Os Trapalhões ended a long successful run on the network, and the Plim Plim interval idents were updated by various cartoonists for the anniversary.
Globo suffered a year of audience losses but in 1996 audience share began to increase until they were the nation's number one network, aided by brand new programs (among them were the telenovela
O Rei do Gado and the very popular sitcom
Sai de Baixo) and its coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, coupled with changes in the newsrooms.
Globo was the first Brazilian network to have its own news channel,
Globo News, which started in the same year. Now based in both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the latter the main headquarters, it broadcast replays of
Globo news programs, and had its own news programs and commentaries. The network ratings were threatened by the top rated programming from SBT and Record, but in 1998 the network recovered its top place with its
1998 FIFA World Cup live coverage, although violent images became an issue when its 9 P.M. telenovela Torre de Babel was pulled off the air. Holiday programming was boosted by its New Year's Eve premiere of
Show da Virada, Aloysio Legey's creation and Brazil's response to international New Year television celebrations worldwide. That year was also the start of its ground breaking Brazil 500 project aimed at preparing the nation for its 500th anniversary of European discovery. The first clock was installed in
Porto Seguro on 31 December 1997.
Globo has since expanded to become the largest TV Network in Brazil, with over $2 billion in revenue in 1992.
21st century era 2001 started well for Globo, despite a
fire at the Xuxa Park set in January that caused the show to be cancelled. The network had low audience ratings in several programs, two dramas were national hits, and the second version of
Sítio do Picapau Amarelo children's program debuted. In the news departments the network covered the
9/11 attacks in the
United States, and continued its coverage in the long aftermath. On 1 October 2001,
O Clone debuted and enjoyed both critical and popular success. It was written by
Glória Perez and featured a large cast of stars. The telenovela was exported to 91 countries and has also become an international success. For Globo, 2004 was the beginning of the long decline of viewership support for its legendary telenovelas, but the year was one of the strongest for television drama as telenovelas
Da Cor do Pecado and
Senhora do Destino made high ratings one after the other. The year saw its
2004 Athens Olympics Coverage as well and debuted
Brazil TV in the afternoon bringing national news stories for satellite viewers. 2004–2005 was the year that changed the network's viewers as it marked its 40th anniversary years with mixed feelings, due to the improving situation of
Rede Record, to which some
Globo talent began decamping. The year ended in a high note for the network:
Alma Gêmea and
Belíssima The
IBOPE ratings of São Paulo metropolitan area shows that Globo telenovelas has lost, between 2004 and 2008, 26.2% of viewership, although Globo is still the leader network. Its previous 9 p.m. telenovela,
Viver a Vida, had an average rating of 37 points, an all-time low for Globo. But eventually overtaken by
Passione (2010–11) and
Insesato Coração (2011), who obtained an average of 35 points. These indices showed improvement in the ratings of the telenovelas
Fina Estampa (2011–12) and
Avenida Brasil (2012). On 8 January 2019, Globo announced that
Vídeo Show would be cancelled after 35 years due to declining ratings. On 12 March 2020, Globo announced plans to suspend production of all of its existing telenovelas and the vast majority of its series in order to comply with global restrictions that were put in place for the
COVID-19 pandemic, with
Big Brother Brasil continuing to be filmed without an audience for the remainder of its twentieth season. On 26 October 2020, Globo announced GExperience, an interactive experience in which visitors will be able to go behind the scenes of a live TV show and see memorabilia from Globo's most famous novelas. Building work began in November 2020 and the experience is expected to open in April 2021 at the Market Place shopping centre in
São Paulo. On 25 January,
Fausto Silva announced that he would retire from his variety show
Domingão do Faustão at the end of the year. His timeslot was filled by a new version of
Domingão hosted by
Luciano Huck, while
Marcos Mion took over Huck's previous show
Caldeirão. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in early March 2021 Globo decided to remove actors over the age of eighty from the recordings of soap operas. Less than two weeks later, actors over 69 were also removed. On 23 March, the broadcaster stopped recording soap operas and series until 19 April, due to the worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 1 April, Globo sold its record label
Som Livre to
Sony Music for an undisclosed amount. On 28 April, Grupo Globo replaced the chairmanship of the Board of Directors, which had been occupied by Roberto Irineu Marinho since August 2003, when his father and founder of the conglomerate Roberto Marinho died. With the unanimous approval of the Board, his brother João Roberto Marinho assumed the presidency, and Roberto Irineu became vice-president of the group, along with the younger brother of the three, José Roberto Marinho. On 27 May, the station acquired the broadcasting rights to all matches in the
2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Until then, the channel held the rights only to matches played by the Brazil and Argentina national teams' home games. The acquisition of the games came to be seen as a counterattack, as the broadcaster lost the broadcasting rights of the
UEFA Champions League, as well as losing the
Copa Libertadores and the
2021 Copa América to
SBT. Globo's general audience in June was the worst for that month in the network's entire history. With 11.3 points, it was the third consecutive month with decreasing audiences. On 28 September, it was announced the end of
Malhação, after 27 seasons. The last season to air was "Toda Forma de Amar" (Every way of loving), which had an early finale due to measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, only reruns such as (Viva a Diferença/live the difference) and (Sonhos/Dreams) have been shown, leading to the cancellation of productions for the seasons "Transformação" (Transformation) and "Eu Quero é Ser Feliz" (I want to be happy). The station's planning is for a new schedule to replace the teen soap opera time. On 25 October 2021, Globo and
CONMEBOL reached an agreement and opted to terminate the arbitration in
Switzerland, due to the termination of the contract in August 2020 for the broadcasting rights of the
Copa Libertadores between 2019 and 2022. The network then won back the broadcasting rights of the Copa Libertadores from 2023 to 2026. == Controversies ==