Bandeirantes’ João Carlos Saad

October 2007

Since its inception in radio in 1937, Grupo Bandeirantes de Comunicação has played a key role in driving the Brazilian media market.

Jorge Saad is credited with taking the company into the television arena, with the launch of TV Bandeirantes in São Paulo in 1967. Considered a visionary, João Jorge Saad ran the company until his death in 1999, when his son João Carlos Saad took over as president. João Carlos Saad has continued his father’s expansion strategies for the company, which operates two terrestrial networks, Band and Play TV; three pay-TV channels, BandNews, BandSports and Terraviva; the cable TV platform Cidade—which is taking advantage of the development of converging technologies to offer broadband access and IP telephony services—five radio stations; the specialized journal Primeira mão and the Brazilian version of the international daily Metro; and the music label Band Music. In this exclusive interview, Saad shares his views on Bandeirantes’ role in the Brazilian landscape, as the company celebrates its 70th anniversary.

WS: As one of the oldest media companies in Brazil, how is Bandeirantes positioned in the market?

SAAD: As a multimedia group, we are now sharing third place with SBT, and Record is in second place. [With TV Globo in the number-one spot.]

WS: Silvio Santos [the owner of SBT] tells us he is still in second place.

SAAD: I have my doubts about that.

WS: What are you doing to expand your brand recognition in Brazil?

SAAD: We started in radio 70 years ago. We work in cable, we produce for pay-TV channels, we produce for the Internet, we have six different television platforms and five different radio platforms, so we are focused on being a multimedia group.

WS: How do you program your various channels?

SAAD: In television, we have Bandeirantes, which is our main terrestrial channel; Play TV, which is our second terrestrial channel; Terra Viva, a channel for the agricultural sector, Band Sports and Band News. We also have a stake in in Channel 50, which is a local channel.

WS: What are you doing to increase your presence in Brazil’s multichannel universe?

SAAD: Pay TV’s penetration consists of the highest socio-economic class in this country. Now, with the telephone companies entering the market, there will be more affordable packages, which in turn will make the services more popular. However, by and large, the option for the great majority of the population continues to be the terrestrial channels.

And that’s the problem we have in Brazil—if you have a new channel, you cannot distribute it in this country. We are fighting in Congress to end this monopoly of distribution. Every development in television has happened in pay TV; nothing has happened in the terrestrial arena. ANATEL lacks the will to enforce the law. One cause of confusion here is the fact that we have the government and we have ANATEL telling us what to do, and as a saying in Brazil goes, “a dog with two owners dies of hunger.”

WS: How is the advertising market for Bandeirantes, and for Brazilian media companies in general?

SAAD: Bandeirantes is in a good position, with 10 to 12 percent share of the market. Our take is actually higher than our market share because of the demographics of our viewers. In general, advertising has been growing in Brazil, but at a modest pace.

WS: How do you differentiate your programming from that of your competition?

SAAD: Besides sports and several other popular programming genres, Bandeirantes is inching into second place in late afternoon slots. In addition, we have a qualified audience watching our news programs. Bandeirantes has a long tradition in journalism, and a lot of credibility. These shows have been growing in audience every year.

WS: What kinds of investments are you making to increase the quality of your content?

SAAD: We are investing heavily in high definition. We are changing most of our technological infrastructure, and we are already producing our latest novela—Dance, Dance, Dance—in high definition. It’s the story of a country girl who climbs her way up in life through the use of dance.

WS: What are your plans for growth internationally?

SAAD: We are entering the United States with two channels—Band International and Band News—and the idea is to learn how to work there and to begin producing locally. Our intention is to maintain the channels relevance with local productions, as the Brazilians living in the U.S. have different needs.

We are becoming more global, selling quite a lot of product abroad. We also have a major project in the works for the production of Spanish-language content.

WS: Where do you see the company in five years time?

SAAD: I see it diversified and more international than it is today. But I also see a huge development in one specific area: I believe the production model will be very different. Portable cameras are creating a profound change in the way we produce programming. We will no longer be concentrating our production activities to one specific location.

In view of that, we are not interested in the construction of a Projac [Globo’s sprawling studio complex]. We are interested in a much lighter and mobile production infrastructure. Brazil is set to have a great cycle of growth, and we will be part of it.