Executive chairman, João Camargo, has made changes since he took over, such as closing the soft news grid; broadcaster reached breakeven
Cable, streaming, satellite and open network. The plan of João Camargo, executive chairman of CNN Brasil since October last year, when he accepted the invitation of businessman Rubens Menin, franchisee of the American audiovisual media brand in the country, is to be present on all platforms accessible to viewers.
At the moment, the company is involved in M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) for the possible acquisition of an open television network. The deadline for the execution of the clauses of the confidential protocol.
Camargo advocates responsibility for generating revenue capable of sustaining profitable growth in the operation. It celebrates the station’s return to breakeven after about a year operating with negative revenues. For this, it was necessary to consolidate changes in his first week on CNN which, in his words, had and still aims to turn the tide.
Measures such as extinguishing soft news programming to focus on hard news; reduce staff; reducing rental costs and promoting the renegotiation of contracts with suppliers, for example, were essential for the financial recovery and the prospect of a more auspicious future for the media brand in the Brazilian market.
We had to act immediately to harness the full potential that CNN has. Strategically, I imposed a more dynamic pace: we could not continue with soft news programming, which occupied about 70% of the schedule and has competition from more than 100 TV channels. With a focus on news, we regained the 2nd position in the ranking of news channels. The reflection is that our site grew 70%, with more than 90 million unique views. In December we surpassed Folha de S.Paulo and also Estado. CNN was the broadcaster that grew the most in the PNT (National Television Panel of Kantar Ibope Media), an average of 75% compared to January 2022 with the same month of 2023. In So Paulo, the performance reached more than 64% ; and in Rio de Janeiro, by more than 78%, details Camargo.
CNN’s philosophy for building viewers’ trust is simple: convey information impartially. We started to approach the subjects with two visions, pro and contra. Feeling the vision of two currents of thought, the recovery of Ibope was a consequence. We cannot complain about the decisions. CNN was the only network to perform well in January and February 2023, unlike the market. We want to keep that pace, puts Camargo.
Read the full interview in this week’s issue of PROPMARK
