ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a short economic history of Brazil's television (TV) industry with an emphasis on the observed industry-related technological and regulatory changes. It presents the evolution and transformation of the broadcasting TV market from 1950s until the end of the century. The chapter discusses the emergence of Pay TV in 1990s and its operation until the present day. At the time of live programming, TV program consumption was restricted to middle and high-income families that had the resources and capacity to obtain the credit required to purchase the receptors. Videotape equipment arrived in Brazil in 1961. Until then, each station would produce all their programs live with their own casts, and the programs would only be broadcasted in the city in which they were recorded. Globo was the first company with a corporate organization capable of meeting the needs of its domestic market. The price of advertising time on TV Globo became much higher than that of its competitors.
