RBS TV


RBS TV is a Southern Brazilian television network owned by Grupo RBS, and one of the oldest affiliates to Rede Globo. The acronym originally stands for Rede Brasil Sul de Televisão, but currently the network never uses its full name on-air.
RBS TV owns 12 television stations in Rio Grande do Sul. RBS TV Porto Alegre is the headquarters for the network.
RBS TV stations produce an average amount of local and regional programming, composed mainly of news, but also drama series, documentaries, sports, variety and youth programming.

History

TV Gaúcha was created in 1962 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, and would later become RBS TV Porto Alegre. The following year, TV Gaúcha affiliated itself with Rede Excelsior. Rede Globo was launched in Rio de Janeiro two years later, but TV Gaúcha would only become its affiliate in 1967.
In 1979, it started to operate in Florianópolis, the capital city of Santa Catarina. This new purchase obliged the network to change its name to something less Rio Grande do Sul-related, and it was rebranded RBS TV that same year.

Broadcasters members

Rio Grande do Sul

Santa Catarina (formerly)

The RBS Group is being investigated by the practice of oligopoly / monopoly. In 2008, the Federal Prosecutor of Santa Catarina has filed a public civil action against the company oligopoly Rede Brasil Sul in southern Brazil. The MPF requires the company, among other measures, to reducing its number of TV and radion stations in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, so that to be in according to the Brazilian law; and the cancellation of the purchase of the newspaper A Notícia from Joinville, consummated in 2006 - which resulted in a virtual monopoly over the relevant newspapers in the state of Santa Catarina.
In 2009, the Federal Prosecutor in Canoas, Pedro Antonio Roso, asked the chairman of the RBS Group, Nelson Pacheco Sirotsky, among other informations, the number of TV and radio stations that the company owns in Rio Grande do Sul, "as well as its affiliates, stations and repeaters." The request is part of an administrative proceeding brought by federal prosecutors "to determine possible occurrence of monopolistic practices and irregularities in granting Radio and Television to the RBS Group in Rio Grande do Sul".