With each round of a big championship, a habit repeats itself between fans: running to Google and typing “where to watch”. With the broadcast rights spread between open TV, closed and various streaming platforms, the search for each match has become one of the most frequent on event days.
This behavior has become common for international championships, such as Champions League and other European leagues, was soon necessary compared to the state and, from this year, will also be driven by the Brazilian Championship, which will have its games aired by Globo, Record, Cazétv (YouTube), SporTV, Prime Video and Premiere.
For the first time in over 30 years, the event will have its rights of transmission sprayed on several players, as the communication market often refers to broadcasters and platforms. This has not happened since 1992, when Group Globo began to monopolize the transmissions, except for times when it shared matches with Record and Band, but always sub-licensing rights.
Prior to the domain of the Rio de Janeiro broadcaster, the negotiation of the rights of the National went through different phases. In the 1970s, they were negotiated in groups and divided between the extinct TV Tupi and TV Cultura. Over the decade, the channels received the TV company Gazeta, TVE Brasil, Band, Record and Globo in the broadcasts, which often occurred in VT (Video Tape, Reprise), hours after the event.
In the following decade, a group was initially formed by the 13 teams leading the ranking of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), with the objective of gaining strength in negotiations with the broadcasters. Other teams came together later, but the block became known as Club of 13. It was at this time that the rights of transmission gave their first jump in market value and became mostly acquired by Grupo Globo.
With the popularization of pay TV in the 1990s, the Marinho family company adopted new models of display, with the broadcast of a round game on SporTV, as well as the creation of its Pay-Per-View service, Premiere.
Until 2016, Globo’s hegemony was practically, absolute, except for its subliceming agreements with Record and Band. That year, however, the Turner group channels arrived in Brazil, entering the fight for the rights of the Brazilian. The American conglomerate has managed to convince a significant part of Serie A clubs to make a valid agreement by the 2019 to 2024 cycle.
The contract, however, was broken before the full period. In 2021, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Turner announced that it would no longer display the tournament from 2022. In addition to the departure of the conglomerate, the year 2021 was marked by another change that would affect the negotiation of transmission rights.
That year came the law of the principal, which was popular with this name precisely for giving the principal clubs the right to negotiate the display of their games, individually or joining a block. Previously, contracts needed agreements with the two teams involved in the match.
Even with the possibility of negotiating directly with the broadcasters, the clubs understood that negotiating in groups could be more profitable. To maximize revenues for the 2025-2029 cycle, they tried to form a unique league to negotiate together, but political disputes caused a crack that caused the emergence of Libra and LFU.
Libra was the first to sell the broadcast rights of its block to the cycle that starts with this year’s edition. In 2024, he signed an exclusive contract with the Globo Group for transmissions on TV Open (Globo), closed (SporTV) and the Pay-Per-View (Premiere) system for R $ 1.1 billion.
The LFU, in turn, understood that dividing its rights into packages could be more profitable for the teams. In the end, closing contracts with Record, Cazétv, Amazon and Globo itself, the group got an average value for each club similar to Libra, with $ 1.7 billion in total.
Despite the entry of new players, Grupo Globo still managed to ensure the exclusivity of 80% of the games.
Of the ten duels of each round, eight will be displayed only on the company’s platforms: TV Open (Globo), closed (SporTV) and Pay-Per-View (Premiere).
Amazon also secured an exclusive round match, while Record and Cazétv (on YouTube) will share the broadcast of a game – which will also be displayed on Premiere.
The LFU team matches will be defined by a priority rotation. For example, if in the first round the order of choice has Globo, Record and Amazon, in the next round the Rio broadcaster will be the last to choose its open TV game, while the São Paulo canal or the streaming platform will be entitled to the first choice – Cazétv shares the Record game.
The contract signed between LFU and companies have some locks to limit that the same team is always the first choice to ensure that everyone can have visibility.
Each of the open TV stations will have exclusivity at their schedules, with double rounds on Wednesday (19h30 on Record and 21h30 at Globo) and on Sundays (16h at Globo and 18h30 at Record).
SporTV will broadcast two games per round. Already Premiere will pass nine: the two of Globo, the two of SporTV, four exclusive of the Pay-Per-View system and Record/Cazétv.
See where to watch the first round games of the Brazilian Championship
Saturday (29)
18h30 Sao Paulo x Sport, Premiere
18h30 Cruise x Mirassol, Prime Video
18h30 Grêmio x Atlético-MG, Premiere
18h30 Fortaleza x Fluminense, Premiere
18h30 Youth x Vitória, Premiere
21h00 Flamengo x International, SporTV, SporTV4 and Premiere
DOMINGO (30)
16h00 Palmeiras x Botafogo, Globo and Premiere
18h30 Vasco x Santos, Record, PlayPlus, R7.com, Cazétv and Premiere
20h Bahia x Corinthians, SporTV and Premiere
Monday (31)
20h Red Bull Bragantino x Ceará, Premiere
