TV Brasil originated from a
decree which created Empresa Brasil de Comunicação, the network's maintainer, published on 24 December 2007 in the
Diário Oficial da União, Brazil's
official gazette. It was generated from the fusion of
Empresa Brasileira de Comunicação - Radiobrás and Associação de Comunicação Educativa Roquette Pinto, responsible for the maintenance of the now defunct
TVE Brasil - which was replaced by TV Brasil in several cities. The lack of equipment restricted TV Brasil's launching to only three cities (
Rio de Janeiro,
Brasília and
São Luís). Its programming, however, is also available through its official website and
cable and
satellite television. In 2019, following the election of
Jair Bolsonaro as president,
TV NBR was shut down and merged into TV Brasil as TV Brasil 2. During the
presidency, after initial threats to privatize the EBC, TV Brasil and other government-owned media outlets largely became
propaganda organs for Bolsonaro's government. News programmes avoided giving airtime to political opponents, and programmes were faced with censorship to conform with the
party line, especially within topics such as
violence against women,
Indigenous peoples, and
LGBT rights. Live coverage of media appearances by Bolsonaro frequently interrupted TV Brasil's regularly scheduled programmes, with an estimated 193 hours of such coverage airing between August 2021 and July 2022. After the election of
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to a
second presidency in 2022, the incoming
Secretary of Social Communication Paulo Pimenta stated that there were plans to return TV Brasil to a public service format with a focus on education and cultural programmes, and for government-related programmes to be split back out into a second broadcaster. Lula stated that he wanted TV Brasil to be comparable to other public service broadcasters such as the
BBC, and target a younger audience. On 24 July 2023, the reorganization was completed with the launch of the new government media platform
Canal Gov. ==Programming==