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Type | Television network |
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Country | |
First air date | July 9, 1960 | (as TV Excelsior)
Availability | Brazil Latin America (via TV Latina) |
Founded | July 9, 1960 by Mário Wallace Simonsen |
Slogan | "A Mais Jovial" ("The Youngest") |
Headquarters | São Paulo, RAP Rio de Janeiro, GB |
Broadcast area | Latin America |
Owner | Limited company (S.A.)
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Parent | Excelsior América Latina (dba TV Latina since 2008) and Rede de Emissoras Independentes |
Key people | Wallace Textor (chairman) |
Launch date | July 9, 1960 |
Former names | TV Excelsior (1960-2004) |
Excel, formerly TV Excelsior, is the third largest television network in Brazil, the same position it occupies in the Latin American ranking, only losing to its direct rivals Rede Tupi and Rede Globo, launched by Mário Wallace Simonsen on July 9, 1960. Excel is owned by the Grupo Abravanel although, since 2003, it has been a limited company (S.A.), with minority shareholders.
Excel has its headquarters in São Paulo, Piratininga and Rio de Janeiro, Guanabara, the headquarter in São Paulo is predominantly used for television news and programs, while the headquarter in Rio de Janeiro is used for the broadcaster's dramaturgical works (primarily telenovelas), yet it's not a absolute definition and the São Paulo's headquarter also has convincing space for the broadcaster's telenovela productions, and has already been used a lot for it. Furthermore, it was the first one of the Brazilian Big Three to obtain an international sister channel, TV Latina, launched in 1994 as Excelsior América Latina.
Excel's signal currently reaches 98.8% of Brazilian territory, with 7 own and operating stations and 104 affiliates, which spread the network's programming throughout Brazil; the broadcaster is responsible for 6 of the 20 most watched programs on Brazilian television, such as the soap operas O Sorriso do Lagarto and Bella Donna, and the long-running children's series Circo do Atchim & Espirro, on air between 1988 and 2007 and O Picapau Amarelo, originally shown between 1975 and 1990.
Since the 1970s, Excel has enjoyed popularity among children and teenagers, the result of a lot of investment in the youth sector, which gave the broadcaster the title of "The Youngest", which became even the channel's slogan. The broadcaster's growth occurred in part after a partnership with NBC in the late 1960s that lasted until the 1980s, bringing much of the American way of television, which had already been established at Tupi after the partnership agreement with ABC, even considering the fact that Excel was already the audience leader and treated as the "largest TV channel in Brazil" before the partnership with NBC. According to national and international statistical data, Excel is the fifth largest television broadcaster in the world, surpassing even some giants such as Televisa, from Mexico. In 2009, Excel moved its analog operations to high-definition television production for digital broadcasting.
History[]
Early years (1959–1967)[]
In 1959, the Victor Costa Organization, already owners of TV Paulista, channel 5 in São Paulo, were presented with a second channel concession in the city by the Federal Government, channel 9 in São Paulo. Back then, a group had no problem getting more than one television channel.
The Victor Costa Organization also had a radio station, called Rádio Excelsior, based on this, it was decided that the name of the new channel would be TV Excelsior, the name is derived from "Excelso", which in Portuguese means sublime. The station, however, before being launched, was purchased by Mário Wallace Simonsen, a notable businessman in Brazil at that time, owning more than 40 companies, including Panair do Brasil, the country's largest airline. Excelsior was acquired for ₢$80 million, a huge sum at that time, along with the station license, equipment, cameras, a tower and a transmitter were also purchased.
The station's broadcasts began on July 9, 1960, being shown only in São Paulo. The broadcaster spent three years with its signal being restricted to São Paulo, when in 1963, it purchased channel 2 in Rio de Janeiro, as Rádio Mayrink Vieira, the station's former owner, was never a broadcaster on it. Thus, Excelsior was the pioneer in the concept of a national television network, by now obtaining two channels in two different states, founding TV Excelsior Rio de Janeiro, after which, it acquired other stations, such as channel 4 in Belém, Pará, which would be called TV Guajará, channel 7 in Campina Grande, Paraíba, which would be called TV Excelsior Campina, channel 1 in Recife, Pernambuco, which would be called TV Porto, in reference to Porto de Galinhas, and Channel 10 from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, which would be called TV Excelsior Belo Horizonte.
So that the stations did not become enemies of each other, as was the case with TV Tupi São Paulo and TV Tupi Rio de Janeiro in the early days, the channel's leadership decided to centralize programming decisions at its headquarters in São Paulo, where in it that the schedule, time and which regional programs would be aired were organized, thus not generating disputes over influence from other co-generating stations. An interesting fact is that Excelsior always refused to use "Rede" in its name, unlike the other stations, preferring instead to use "TV", which was used for television stations without affiliates. This served to further reinforce the authority of TV Excelsior São Paulo, the central station, over the others, the affiliate stations, thus proposing that Excelsior was a single station, while the word "Rede" was seen as as a divider by implying a certain weight of the affiliates.
In the mid-1960s, the network became the audience leader in the country, with its good organization of stations and affiliates and punctual programming, always starting at scheduled times. As a result, the channel's leadership began to notice that the Excelsior "could not support its own size", due to the fact that the cost was increasing to maintain the quality standard that had made it the largest audience in the country, thus, following the example of the recently founded TV Globo (which had agreed a partnership with the Time Life group) and Tupi (which had several of its holdings acquired by ABC) sought a partnership with another giant media company in the Columbian market, finding NBC in this search; NBC saw the success that ABC products were achieving in Brazil with Tupi, and was also interested in looking for a Brazilian broadcaster with good audience potential to export its formats and productions.
Death of Mário Wallace Simonsen[]
At the beginning of March 1965, Mário Simonsen traveled to Paris on business, there, he sought to see how French television worked, after having received excellent instructions from one of his assistants, there he also learned about many formats that Excelsior would consequently adapt, such as the Eurovision Song Contest, a format which he indicated in a memo to the company's producers, taking advantage of the extraordinary phase that Brazilian music was going through in the 60s, this would be the origin of the National Music Contest, renowned and annual music event shown by Excel since 1968, having always influenced the musical trend in Brazil since its first airing. However, on March 23, Simonsen suffered a heart attack, and his body was brought 5 days later, when he was laid to rest at the station's headquarters, the channel was off the air for a week, and whoever turned in the broadcaster would see the message: "We are saddened by the passing of our dear friend and boss, Mr. Mário Wallace Simonsen. We will return to normality after a brief period of mourning of a week. God grant you long life, viewer". The station returned to normal broadcasts on April 3, 1965, still very shaken by the death of the owner. The person who took over the reins of the station was Mário Wallace's son, Wallace Simonsen Neto.
Partnership with NBC: "The Magnific Years" (1967–1988)[]
Excelsior, noting NBC's interest in building a bridge with Brazilian television, applied to be the Columbian broadcaster's "airport". In May 1966, representatives of the Brazilian channel met with NBC executive branch in New York City, they discussed the aptitude and completeness of interests of both, as one wanted a commercial partner who would help with equipment and quality, reducing expenses, while the other wanted to land in Brazil with its style of making programs to face the competitor, already influencer on the country's TV.
The conversations demonstrated a climate of agreement between the two parties, but nothing had yet been actually formalized. In a second meeting, in October of the same year, the representatives meet Julian Goodman, president of NBC, in an important step towards the partnership that would be closed; after many conversations, in December 1966, it was agreed that at the beginning of January 1967, NBC would became the TV Excelsior partner and equipment provider until 1973. The partnership between Excelsior and NBC started in an agreement that was notably more beneficent to Excelsior, as NBC, in addition to exporting series and assisting in television formats, programs, would also send equipment and training on issues such as cinematography and journalism for the Brazilian broadcaster. Excelsior would renew its partnership with the Columbian broadcaster again in 1973, 1978 and 1984.
This began to be felt in the first weeks after the agreement, the soap opera on display, Redenção, began to feature increasingly cinematographic scenes and more intense incidental tracks. In fact, it is worth highlighting that the part most affected by these changes was exactly the dramaturgy, with soap operas gaining increasingly more graphic quality with Columbian series.
At the end of the 1960s, however, the phenomenon of Columbo-Brasileirismo quality standard, carried forward by Excelsior and Tupi, began to feel the competition of the Padrão Globo de Qualidade ("Globo Quality Standard"), designed by Rede Globo with the aim of beating the two competitors and becoming the audience leader, although it later proved to be flawed, having only managed to overtake Excelsior and then be surpassed by Tupi. In 1970, Excelsior aired the first talk-show on Brazilian television, starring Antoninho Lopes, the program Antoninho nas Paradas was successful and remained on the air until 1983, the pioneer however ended up being forgotten over time as it was the only one isolated before the boom of this format, in the 2000s.
In 1972, after almost a decade of leadership, Excelsior was overtaken by Globo in an audience in São Paulo, that same year it showed, however, one of its greatest television drama successes, Capitães de Areia, based on the 1937 novel of the same name written by Jorge Amado. That year, it was also the first channel to show a Summer Olympics in Brazilian territory, but this did not have a good audience, due to the public's lack of interest in this event until then.
Throughout the 1970s, Excelsior continued to accumulate good results, even without ever taking on the audience leadership again. Renascer, shown in 1974, was the first soap opera shown in color on the channel, even managing to get ahead of the audience leader, which would only have large-scale color soap operas from 1975 onwards. Furthermore, it began to show its features as a children's broadcaster, with the series O Pica Pau Amarelo being launched in 1975, based on the book series by Monteiro Lobato, in its most prominent seasons, the attraction reached an audience above 30 points on the National Television Panel.
Ownership by Grupo Abravanel[]
Despite good success with the public, the Grupo Simonsen had been in crisis since the beginning of the 1970s, leading the broadcaster to have partnership problems with NBC, with whom it accumulated debts due to having equipment practically "gifted" by the American company, some loans were made, however, in 1976 the situation reached the extreme, and there was no other solution than to sell the station, which was the main source of income for the organization to which it belonged, the main interested party in this station was the businessman and presenter Silvio Santos, who was the key figure of the Grupo Abravanel, a company, founded by Silvio himself.
Silvio acquired the station at a cost of ₢$73.2 milllion, and after the purchase of Excelsior by Silvio Santos, the broadcaster underwent a restructuring of its journalism and dramaturgy base, bringing in new journalists, reporters, soap opera authors, actors, etc. Then paid off its debts with NBC, and continued the partnership with the Columbian broadcaster. The first major reform of TV Excelsior under Silvio's command was the abandonment of the policy of centralizing the broadcaster over TV Excelsior São Paulo. In 1977, TV Excelsior began building a second headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, precisely with the aim of decentralizing the network's decision-making power from the São Paulo's headquarters, the Rio's headquarters was inaugurated in 1980. In 1979, the broadcaster regained second place, behind only Tupi, this came with a programming reform carried out by the new owner of the broadcaster.
Throughout the 1980s, the broadcaster began to invest once and for all in children's programming, with the already aired O Picapau Amarelo as its chief position; children's programs and series such as Igarapé Mágico, Turma do Pererê, Doçuras e Travessuras, TV Criança, Quem Conta... Canta!, Sessão Japão (which showed animes such as Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Saint Seiya, YuYu Hakusho and Doraemon) among others were great successes of the the broadcaster's children's programming in the 1980s. Excelsior began to invest in new programs and also Children's Day and New Year's Eve specials. With this programming so focused on children's audiences, the broadcaster created a new slogan, "The Man of the Year 2000 Came First". Excelsior also continued making competitive telenovelas for Globo and Tupi, such as Rita Baiana, from 1985, and O Sorriso do Lagarto, from 1990, that in its final chapter, was the absolute audience leader, with 45 points in the PNT (National Panel of Television). During the 1980s, Silvio Santos also acquired Rede de Emissoras Independentes (REI), which became a parent channel of Excelsior.
End of the partnership[]
In 1987 it was reported that Silvio Santos would be interested in ending the partnership of more than 20 years between Excelsior and NBC, the reason being, the broadcaster was looking to acquire Japanese equipment, but the partnership with the Columbian broadcaster prevented the Brazilian channel from having equipment from other media outlets other than NBC, Silvio denied this, but made it clear that the partnership bothered him.
In February 1988, the last batch of equipment brought by NBC to Excelsior would arrive. That year, the partnership agreement would expire in December, and the Brazilian broadcaster's leadership showed a lack of interest in renewing it. In March, Silvio said in an interview with Rádio Jovem Pan that he no longer wanted help from NBC, as they had already found their model and could very well achieve quality on their own. In July 1988, Silvio decided that he would go to New York to give a definitive answer to NBC executives about the renewal of the partnership agreement between them. Silvio said that he had not yet decided, as he was analyzing other ways for the broadcaster, in a an act that signaled to the Columbian network its intention to end the partnership.
In November 1988, Silvio would return to New York to give the definitive answer that Excelsior would not continue the long-lasting partnership from 1989 onwards. Returning to Brazil, Silvio began to prepare the broadcaster for its new post-NBC phase.
Post-NBC and 1990s[]
In 1989, Excelsior began a new period in its history, with the departure of NBC, it now freely negotiated with broadcasters around the world for good audio and image equipment, that year, the broadcaster decided to demonstrate its strength to those who said that, with the end of the partnership with NBC, it would completely relapse, and in the first half of the year it aired the miniseries Narradores de Javé, which beat Globo's six o'clock soap opera Pacto de Sangue, shortly after the broadcaster also established itself at noon on Sunday, by hiring the children's clown duo Atchim & Espirro, who would present one of the network's biggest audience phenomena, Circo do Atchim & Espirro, a children's auditorium program that would last almost 20 years on air. That same year, the broadcaster still achieved good ratings with the showing of the 1989 Copa América, based in Brazil, in 1990, Excelsior won its first International Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama for Narradores de Javé.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the broadcaster lost its position as vice-leader to Globo, this time being definitive until the present day, but in return it saw one of its products become an international success, the series Meteóricas, which it was broadcast in 9 Latin American countries in the first half of the 90s, generating the highest income in the broadcaster's history. Excelsior also began a great wave of remakes of its hits from the 70s, such as Capitães de Areia and Renascer, and tasted the great success of Bella Donna, on the other hand, it finished two of its most successful children's programs, O Picapau Amarelo, after 15 years on the air, in 1990, and Sessão Japão, in 1994. In the second half of the decade, the broadcaster saw its numbers decline, largely due to the rise of TVN Brasil, a broadcaster that had been investing since the 1980s, being last placed among the big three in terms of audience, it was more vulnerable to the growing state-owned network. Despite the fears, new successful series such as O Menino-Lata and the soap opera Recomeçar brought relief to the broadcaster, which resumed its distance from TVN in the late 90s.
The broadcaster also began to invest in sports programming, becoming the official broadcaster of the Copa do Brasil, the Copa Libertadores, the Olympics and the Club World Cup, starting to become a broadcaster that stole audience from its competitors, as it was before. In 1998, the broadcaster achieved a feat in which it managed to steal Tupi's audience on Saturday nights after hiring Fausto Silva (aka Faustão), until then presenter of Perdidos na Noite, one of Tupi's most competitive attractions, to be the entertainer of the weekly program Noite Sabadona, also aired on Saturday's prime time. After rebuilding itself after a decade considered "unprofitable" by the station's standards, the time had come to plan for the 2000s, in which the station promised to be a turning point for television in the new millennium, emphasized by the slogan "New Millennium, New TV".
Expansion to LATAM[]
In 1986, it was rumored in the media that Excelsior was planning to expand its programming to South America, through a sister cable TV channel, which would show its main programming in conjunction with each country's own programming, the story later went denied by Silvio Santos, but in reality this was a way of lowering attention, and in fact the broadcaster was working on this, and was even looking for a condominium where the broadcasts of this channel would be operated.
By 1990, much of the planning had already been advanced, including a large condominium and emission tower in Santiago, Chile. After that, there was only a lack of affiliates in other countries, so acquisitions were negotiated in other South American countries. During this process, there were also broadcasters interested in joining the network of broadcasters in Central America and Mexico, thus increasing the reach throughout Latin America, which ended up being carried out by the broadcaster. On November 3, 1994, Excelsior América Latina, Excelsior's international sister channel, was launched to show programming that would reach 6 Spanish-speaking countries. Excelsior América Latina would serve as a basis for Tupi and Globo to also create international broadcasters that would promote their programming across the continent.
The broadcaster easily achieved its objective, promoting the Brazilian broadcaster's programming through LATAM, achieving satisfactory ratings, to the point where it gained its own direction, supervised by the Grupo Abravanel, in order to better meet the demands of the Hispanic public. In the 2000s, Excelsior Latin America increased its reach from 6 to 15 Hispanic-speaking countries, including even territories in California and Louisiana with a good share of Hispanic population. The broadcaster decided to change its name in 2008, becoming TV Latina. TV Latina currently reaches an average share of 6.7%, taking into account the sum of the share of all 15 countries it reaches, which is considered above the expected level, since it is a channel accessible via cable TV.
Becoming an S.A. and renamed to Excel[]
Although it promised to make Brazilian television go through a turning point at the beginning of the 21st century, who actually went through a turning point was Excelsior itself; in 2000, the VêTevê Law was approved, which created new standards for telecommunications, including that a group could no longer obtain more than one televison's network, the Abravanel Group, owner of Excelsior, had already had REI since the 1980s, thus, there were three alternatives: sell TV Excelsior, sell REI or make one of the two networks a limited company, the last option ended up being chosen, and 40% of Excelsior's holdings started to be sold to interested parties, the first attempt came from the French TF1 Group, but the negotiations failed, soon after that, Comcast, owner of NBC, decided to negotiate 30% of these holdings, leaving another 20% still free, which would be filled in 2003, when the Indian Yash Raj Films bought them, with Excelsior becoming an S.A., the Abravanel Group managed to circumvent the country's laws, and would be able to continue commanding most of Excelsior, with 50% of the broadcaster's holdings.
Still in 2003, a change in the station's name and logo was discussed, in order to update the brand, since almost no one knew the meaning of "Excelsior", much less that it varied from "Excelso", which meant sublime. Thus, the parties took a long time to reach an agreement, as the Grupo Abravanel sought to maintain the old name, while the two new shareholders wanted the change. All of this was resolved in a practical way, during the week that included the 14th to 20th of September 2003, the station gained the name Excel, noting that the name had become popular with the public, and that it did not alienate the viewers familiar to the old name, the change was finally accepted by the majority shareholder, after years, Excelsior would undergo a major visual change, and would be called Excel from 2004 onwards.
From 2004, with a new name, the broadcaster also underwent some adaptations and reconsiderations in its programming schedule; TV Criança, after more than 20 years being shown at 3:00 pm, was relocated to 5:00 pm, while the soap operas, historically shown at 9:45 pm, were relocated to 8:00 pm, while the auditorium program Noite Sabadona was increased to last from 8:45 pm to 12:00 am. In August 2004, Excel's most successful soap opera of the 2000s, Descendência, began airing, scoring 29 daily points on PNT, stealing audience ratings from audience leader Senhora do Destino from Globo. In 2008, Excelsior América Latina also underwent a rename, becoming TV Latina; that same year, the broadcaster underwent a change of president, following the death of Cipriano Molina de Corrêa, who was president of the channel during 26 years, being replaced by Violeta Martínez, the first executive of non-Brazilian origin to command a Brazilian broadcaster.
Current days (2009–present)[]
Excel remains one of the Big Three of television in Brazil, being able to be the audience leader on a daily basis; it has the third highest daily audience average in Brazil according to PNT, with 15.8 points, tied with Globo and only behind of Tupi (17.6) by a very narrow margin. In 2011, the broadcaster launched its second generation of children's programs, including the Júnior Repórter programs, a type of "children's television news" where children are reporters and presenters aged 9-12, shown on Sundays, in the slot formerly occupied by Circo do Atchim & Espirro, which went off the air in 2007 with the clown duo's move to Globo, Trem Do Re Mi, which mostly contains stories with musicals, shown from Monday to Friday, and Filho Prodígio, which features several knowledge and physical competitions between two groups, interspersed with cartoons. The programs demonstrated good results, leading to their continued presence on the programming schedule to this day.
In 2016, there was a new change of leadership, with the downfall of Violeta Martínez and the arrival of Wallace Textor, endorsed by the Indian part of S.A., Yash Raj. Violeta was removed after a series of administrative scandals at the broadcaster, which led to an inspection by the Secretary of Communications.
In 2018, the broadcaster's digital platform, Excom, was launched, which brought all the broadcaster's content; soap operas, programs, journalistic content, sports broadcasts and also Excel's classic productions are present in the catalogue. The site is paid once, entitling the user to a lifetime subscription, which can only be ceased if the service is canceled or via ban. With the COVID-19 pandemic, not only Excom, but also the digital platforms of other broadcasters, saw significant profit and audience growth, given the audience transition, which left traditional TV channels for streaming and other digital media, also led to a commercial exodus, with brands migrating their marketing from traditional media towards digital platforms; in 2023, Wallace Textor said that Excel would start producing direct-to-streaming content for Excom from 2024 onwards.
Memes[]
In recent years, the network's programs have generated several memes on the internet, as is the case of a scene from the soap opera Boa Sorte, where the villain, Lili Saladanha, says that she believes that "poverty is undoubtedly a pandemic", another case was on the variety program Chega Junto, where, in one of the programs, the presenter falls while sitting in a bucket of water and breaks it, the incident quickly became viral in 2017.
In 2019, during a report in the station's main newspaper, Jornal de Vanguarda, the reporter was reporting on flooding during heavy rain, but what caught the public's attention was the moment when a strong lightning strike, and the reporter and the team run into one of the station's vans. In 2022, during coverage of the 2022 Copa do Brasil, a fan of Robinhood, a team from Guyana, began shouting hysterically irritated after the team's draw, something that left the reporter uncomfortable, his facial expressions quickly becoming a meme.
Sports programming[]
since the beginning of the 2010s, Excel has increased its sporting repertoire in its programming, the broadcaster, which historically only showed games from the Copa do Brasil, Copa Libertadores and the Olympics, drew attention for becoming the official broadcaster of the Premier League and of the FA Cup in Brazil in 2011, thus attracting European football fans to its audience, in 2013, it was the Europa League's turn to gain space in the broadcaster's programming, the high point however was in 2015, when the broadcaster bought the broadcasting rights of the Champions League, the broadcaster maintains the rights to show the aforementioned competitions to this day, with attractions considered "second-in-command", as they provide the second largest combined audience for the broadcaster, behind only soap operas. From 2019, the Europa League and Premier League were moved to Excom, as the first move to increase the number of subscribers, which worked, with a 40% increase in subscribers.
Logo history[]
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