Grupo Globo S.A. is a shining Brazilian media titan whose tentacles reach viewers, listeners and readers from all walks of life in Brazil. Beginning in 1925 after its foundation by Irineu Marinho as a daily newspaper in Río de Janeiro known as “O Globo“, the privately-held company quickly fell in the hands of Roberto Marinho, Irineu’s son. Roberto expanded the business in 1944 by establishing a radio network nationwide. Nevertheless, it was in 1965 when the company won a broadcast TV license and then soon after in 1969, launching a TV network with a capacity to reach all corners of the country, that the company became a household name in Brazil with sales today of around $ 5 billion a year on average. In fact, the company has won praise for being a good fit for Brazilians since venturing in the radio business first in the 1940s by transmitting popular soccer matches as well as gathering and disseminating news successfully. Today, the company is the industry leader in Brazil as well as the biggest media company across the entire Portuguese-speaking world and Latin America.
Moreover, defending ground from astute competitors in Brazil, the company leads the industry there by a wide margin after having a market share of nearly half. The rest of the media industry in Brazil is shared among four competitors including Abril S.A., Grupo Record S.A., Grupo Folha S.A. and Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão S.A. By the same token, under the stewardship of executive Walter Clark throughout the last decades of the previous century and now under the direction of the Marinho brothers, Roberto’s three sons including Roberto Irineu, José Roberto and João Roberto, this family-owned company is well managed from top to bottom including partnerships with multinationals such as the one they have with Condé Nast, the American magazine publisher belonging to Advance Publications Corporation, publishing four Portuguese-language versions of magazine titles belonging to Condé Nast. Other strategic alliances include the joint venture they established in the past with the Mexican heavyweight Carlos Slim Helú, selling him a controlling economic interest in the current largest broadband internet and Cable TV operator in Latin America with more than 5 million subscribers known as NET. On the other hand, the company today is a true media giant having eight divisions including the main ones like a TV network possessing 113 broadcasting stations airing nationwide and a radio network covering the whole Brazilian territory. Other divisions include a newspaper publisher including the country’s second largest daily known as “O Globo“, a magazine publisher and distribution business including foreign titles and the country’s second largest weekly known as “Época“, a record label, an online business, a film studio and a chain of 30 Paid TV channels.
To conclude, the Marinho clan in Brazil has done an exceptional job retaining leadership in a country where competition is fierce and where the customer base is highly demanding with a taste for things that are popular in Brazil such as soccer and soap operas. Likewise, throughout the years after maintaining amicable relations with those in power, the Marinho family has steered robust growth spanning three generations altogether while making their company a true champion of Latin America’s media industry.