Brazil Reframed

This book focuses on these changes through the creation, production, distribution, and consumption of a selection of television and Internet fiction, exploring the new mediascape that has taken root in Brazil since 2011. The objective is not to predict what that mediascape will be in the coming decades but to shed light on the emergence and the consequences of the post-2011 mediascape as a particular conjuncture. Ultimately, I argue that the ongoing transition from the nearly five-decade, TV Globo–dominated Network Era (1968–2011) to the increasingly competitive and fragmented post-2011 mediascape has given way to fundamental changes to the economic models, modes of production, producers, distribution windows, and consumption that have largely defined the Brazilian mediascape since the late 1960s. Such changes, I contend, also have major implications for the symbolic construction of the national social imaginary.

The New Frontier

This chapter explores the expansion of Internet access in Brazil since 2011 and analyzes three critically acclaimed web series: Septo (Septum, YouTube), Marcos: Uma websérie quase original (Marcos: An Almost Original Web series, Instagram and YouTube), and 3% (YouTube and Netflix). The former two were made exclusively for Internet distribution and are the products of recently formed production companies in cities far from the Rio–São Paulo axis of production: Natal and Caxias do Sul. While they differ in genre, tone, length, and themes, both Septo and Marcos stand out for representing regions of Brazil not often portrayed on the small screen during the period leading up to 2011. For its part, 3% eschews regional and national differences, focusing instead on a post-apocalyptic world. Unlike Septo and Marcos, both of which emerged within the context of the new Brazilian mediascape, the production of 3% spans the pre- and post-2011 mediascapes.

Pay-Television Welcomes Brazil

This chapter focuses on the pay-television sector. Though it first arrived to Brazil in 1990, for the better part of two decades Brazilian pay-television was largely characterized by slow growth, access limited to the country’s most affluent classes, and a programming-grid chock-full of content imported from the United States. The Pay-TV Law’s establishment of quotas for locally produced content, however, has helped to carve out a space for the production and distribution of Brazilian content. With this in mind, the chapter analyzes 1 contra todos (1 Against All, Fox Brasil) and Lama dos dias (Mud of the Days, Canal Brasil). In addition to satisfying the content quotas outlined in the Pay-TV Law, both series benefited from government financing mechanisms, were directed by celebrated Brazilian filmmakers, and explicitly, albeit in distinct ways, contemplate the nation and Brazilianness.

Conclusion

Although more changes will certainly arise as the transformations to the Brazilian mediascape continue to take hold, it is clear that the confluence of legislative, technological, economic, and creative factors during the post-2011 context have given way to the most competitive mediascape in the history of Brazil. This particular moment represents a snapshot of Brazil, where the increasingly diverse field of television and Internet fiction is altering the relationships between distributor and producer and producer and viewer, and where a hegemonic force like Globo struggles to maintain and reproduce its audiences in the face of a number of subnational, transnational, and global movements, organizations, and technologies. In short, in the new Brazilian mediascape, while Globo competes with national and international pay-television channels, YouTube, and Netflix and while telenovelas compete with series, both local and foreign, more Brazilians in more parts of Brazil are faced with more symbolic portrayals of the nation than ever before. The result is a Brazil reframed by the small screens.

Globo Plays Series

This chapter focuses on TV Globo’s efforts to reposition itself within the increasingly complex and competitive new Brazilian mediascape, particularly as those efforts pertain to strengthening its streaming service, Globo Play. With the growth of Netflix Brasil in recent years and the streaming platform’s emergence as one of Globo’s biggest threats, chapter six considers some of the tactics employed by Globo to remain competitive. Namely, such tactics center on the media conglomerate’s experimentation with its over-the-air and over-the-top businesses and an increased production in series. To illustrate Globo’s efforts in this arena, the chapter analyzes the production and rollout of two Globo original series, Supermax and Assédio.

Entering Television through the Porta dos Fundos

The present chapter begins by delving deeper into the Brazilian mediascape during the period between 1990 and 2011, revealing the early appearance of developments that challenged TV Globo’s audience shares over the two decades. This first part of the chapter sets the stage for the subsequent emergence of Porta dos Fundos, a recently formed independent production company and YouTube sensation. The remainder of the chapter explores the Pay-TV Law and the post-2011 mediascape through an analysis of Porta dos Fundos’s formation, founders, partnerships, and multimedia production.

Blackness in the Post-2011 Mediascape

This chapter expands on the structural analyses of earlier chapters by emphasizing the interrelatedness of developments occurring within the post-2011 mediascape and a broader theme: blackness in two contemporary Brazilian serial comedies: Mister Brau (Mr. Brown) and O Grande Gonzalez (The Great Gonzalez). The analysis of the two series’ distinct portrayals of blackness embodies an argument in favor of studies of representation that include fictional works of television outside of or in addition to TV Globo’s telenovelas. More specifically, it is a call for scholars to consider the varied matters of representation within the context of the structural shifts occurring during the post-2011 mediascape, accounting for how such shifts have played (or perhaps not) a central role in expanding production beyond the hegemonic confines of TV Globo’s vertical production model, resulting in the emergence of new voices and the possibility for more critical contemplations of race and other pressing social issues.