# TV Fronteira Paulista

TV Fronteira Paulista (channel 31, also known as TV Fronteira) is a Brazilian television station headquartered in Presidente Prudente, serving as an affiliate of TV Globo for the western part of the state, broadcasting its programming to 56 municipalities. Owned and operated by locally-based Grupo Paulo Lima alongside radio stations 9,99 FM, CBN Prudente and Rádio Paulista as its sole television property, its studios are located in the Vila Charlote neighborhood, and its transmission antenna is at the top of the Alexandre Fernandes Building, in the center. The broadcaster also had a branch in the city of Dracena, the Alta Paulista region until 2022 when it was shuttered in the wake of cost-cutting moves at the station.

## History

The station was opened on June 1, 1994, by its shareholder, Paulo César de Oliveira Lima. With the highest audience ratings on regional over-the-air TV, it shows Rede Globo programming, as well as local programs that value the region, always with the standard of quality and diversification that TV Globo maintains.
Through constant investments, already in December 1997, it was the first entirely digital station in Brazil. Even though there was still no digital television in the country yet, it began to produce digital content, gaining significant quality in local productions and optimizing production time. The picture quality of the station was also improved.
On April 19, 2022, TV Fronteira Paulista announced the closure of its branch in the city of Dracena, leading to the dismissal of all employees. The information caught employees by surprise, who claimed there were no economic problems.
On October 25, 2024, it was announced that TV Fronteira would no longer affiliate with TV Globo beginning in January of 2025, after 30 years. Globo's coverage in the region will be done by TV TEM Bauru (which previously covered Presidente Prudente until 1994) from January 1, 2025, while TV Fronteira hasn't yet announced its future. The switch was later postponed to August 31, 2025, enabling a smoother transition period.

## Controversies

During the first electoral debate between the candidates for mayor of Presidente Prudente held by Band Paulista on August 8, 2024, the then candidate and owner of the station, Paulo Lima (PSB), poked competitors such as Record Interior SP and SBT Interior for allegedly not showing negative reports against the then mayor and candidate for re-election of the city, Ed Thomas (MDB), while promoting TV Fronteira for publicizing the scandals. Furthermore, the owner of the channel has also been accused by former employees of moral and sexual harassment and for selling content such as handouts to city halls in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, using ghost partners, in an act that is popularly nicknamed "oranges" and other practices reported to the Ministry of Communications.
Lima's statement in the Band debate ended up having negative repercussions behind the scenes at TV Globo, along with other controversies in which the owner was involved, one of which was in the first half of 2024, when he promoted the Agripino Lima Foundation during commercial breaks, while he was a pre-candidate for the PSB, he made attacks on the LGBTQIAP+ community, also associating it with supposed support for the abortionist movement, which led to Globo deciding not to renew the affiliation contract with TV Fronteira, making the decision official on October 25, 2024.

## Technical information

| Virtual channel | Digital channel | Aspect ratio | Content |
| 31.1 | UHF 31 | 1080i | TV Fronteira/Globo's main programming |
TV Fronteira Paulista started its digital broadcasts on December 6, 2010, on UHF channel 31 for Presidente Prudente and additional ten nearby cities. Its local programs started being produced in high definition on March 29, 2018, one day after the date initially foreseen in ANATEL's official schedule for the analog shutdown, which was postponed.

### Analog-to-digital conversion

Based on the federal decree transitioning Brazilian TV stations from analog to digital signals, TV Fronteira Paulista, as well as the other stations in Presidente Prudente, ceased broadcasting on VHF channel 13 on April 18, 2018, following the official ANATEL roadmap.