Featured MEdia
Supply Chains

Greetings Vitrina Community,

Welcome to an insightful conversation with Roberto Grosman, the Chief Transformation Officer at SBT Group, joining us from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Roberto’s impressive background includes being the CEO of Fbiz and experience with Amazon and Google. He also holds an MBA from MIT Sloan.

Roberto Grosman: SBT, founded by Silvio Santos, is a major broadcaster in Brazil, reaching over 100 million people monthly through free TV. I joined SBT a year and a half ago to spearhead their streaming initiative and digital transformation. Over the past year, Brazil’s media landscape has seen significant shifts. Free TV remains dominant due to its broad reach and economic factors, capturing 60% of advertising spend. However, digital media is growing rapidly and is expected to surpass free TV in the near future. The pay TV sector has declined, and social networks and streaming services like Netflix and Disney are gaining traction. Our focus is on enhancing our free TV offerings while driving growth in the digital space.

Roberto Grosman: SBT is well-known for its talk shows, telenovelas, news, and sports. Telenovelas, particularly those aimed at younger audiences, are very popular and often featured on Netflix. We produce one or two telenovelas in-house annually and import another two or three, mainly from Mexico, dubbing them into Portuguese. This approach ensures a diverse and appealing content lineup for our viewers.

Roberto Grosman: We’re developing a free streaming service with both FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) and VOD (Video On Demand) options. The service will feature a curated VOD library, including our extensive 40-year content catalog and licensed international content. Our aim is to offer a valuable alternative for viewers who may only afford one paid streaming service. For international markets, while much of our content is tailored for Brazil, we are preparing select telenovelas and formats for global licensing, focusing on easily translatable content.

Roberto Grosman: The drop in global content production is likely to increase demand for archival content. AI advancements in dubbing are making localization more affordable, which provides opportunities for us to utilize our extensive content library both locally and internationally. This trend helps us meet the growing need for diverse content efficiently.

Roberto Grosman: YouTube is incredibly popular in Brazil, likely more influential than Netflix in terms of video consumption. It’s a key part of our strategy, and SBT is the largest Latin American broadcaster on the platform. For international partnerships, we focus on both licensing content to Brazil and exporting our content. We participate in major markets like Cannes and seek revenue share partnerships. We have existing collaborations with Netflix, Max, and Amazon Prime Video, and are interested in co-productions, particularly in telenovelas, reality shows, and sports.

Roberto Grosman: 2024 is shaping up to be a transformative year. We’ve implemented significant programming changes that are already showing positive results. We’re also excited about launching our new streaming service, which is currently in closed beta and is set to be fully operational by the end of the year.