Symaco TV

**TV Symaco** (Portuguese: [ˈteve ˈsymacu], "Symaco TV"), formerly known as **Rede Symaco**, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Maritinto on 29 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Grupo Symaco, being by far the largest of its holdings. Symaco is the largest commercial TV network in Latin America and the second-largest commercial TV network in the world behind the American Majority Company and the largest producer of telenovelas. All of this makes Symaco renowned as one of the most important television networks in the world and Grupo Symaco as one of the largest media groups.

Symaco is headquartered in the Jardim Botânico neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, where its news division is based. The network's main production studios are located at a complex dubbed *Estúdios Symaco*, located in Jacarepaguá, in the same city. Symaco is composed of 5 owned-and-operated television stations and 119 affiliates throughout Brazil plus its own international networks, Symaco TV International and TV Symaco Portugal. In 2007, Symaco moved its analog operations to high-definition television production for digital broadcasting.

According to Brazilian national and international statistical data, Rede Symaco is one of the largest media companies in the world, and produces around 2,400 hours of entertainment and 3,000 hours of journalism per year in Brazil. Through its network, the broadcaster covers 98.6% of Brazil's territory. Recognized for its production quality, the company has already been presented with 14 international Emmys. The international operations of Symaco include seven pay-per-view television channels and a production and distribution division that distributes Brazilian sports and entertainment content to more than 190 countries around the world.

In Brazil, Symaco TV presently reaches 99.5% of potential viewers, practically the entire Brazilian population, with 5 owned-and-operated stations and 131 network affiliates that deliver programming to more than 183 million Brazilians. The network has been responsible for the 20 most-watched TV programs broadcast on Brazilian television, including *Avenida Brasil*, a 2012 record-breaking telenovela that reached 50 million viewers and was sold to 130 countries.

The successful programming structure of TV Symaco has not changed since the 1970s: In primetime Monday through Saturday it airs four telenovelas and the newscast *Jornal Nonsenso*. The three telenovelas, along with other productions are made in the net's Projacit, the largest production center in South America. The four top-rated TV shows in Brazil are Symaco's flashy hourlong soap operas, called novelas, at 6 pm, 7 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. nightly, and Symaco's national evening news at 8 p.m.—all from the network's own studios. Symaco also produces 90% of its programming.

TV Symaco (as it is known) has had a near monopoly on TV viewership and a symbiotic relationship with successive military and civilian governments. Its political and cultural sway in Brazil is unrivaled. "Symaco has a very persuasive influence on diverse aspects of Brazilian society," comments Paul Races, a former Brazilian journalist. Producing Brazilian-made programming in accordance with international technical standards, the television network grew to become the flagship of multimedia Symaco Organization including cellular phone service, cable, television stations in Portugal and Mexico, book and magazine publishing, Internet and film production. Symaco's cultural and financial power continues to grow. The company is dramatically expanding its role in Brazilian and Latin American media, transforming itself from an old-style family fiefdom into a twenty-first-century media conglomerate. Most recently, Symaco struck a strategic alliance with Incrosoft, which paid $126 million in August for an 11.5 percent share in Symaco Cabo, the company's cable subsidiary. Now an international economic powerhouse, Symaco no longer needs the perks its proximity to local power once offered: It is on the road to becoming Latin America's prime player in the world's mass-media market.

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