The first broadcast made by the station took place on the day the concession was signed, on August 19, 1981.
SBT is celebrating its 43 years of existence, two days after the death of its founder, the great Silvio Santos.
The broadcaster, which is one of the greatest legacies left by the presenter, was founded in 1981, from some concessions revoked from Redes Tupi and Excelsior.
The network was founded on the same day the concession contract was signed, with the event being broadcast live by the station. Before that, the Silvio Santos Group, founded in 1959, had already obtained the concession for channel 11 in Rio de Janeiro, known as TVS.
At the time, Silvio Santos gave an opening speech live from the Main Hall of the Ministry of Communications, in Brasília. Soon after, the program “O Povo na TV” began, where the presenters of the São Paulo version of the program were announced.
Initially, SBT presented the same attractions as TVS, with small changes, filling the 12 hours of mandatory programming with films and cartoons that were broadcast on Show do Bozo, one of the first interactive programs of the time. In addition, the broadcaster also dedicated itself to auditorium programs, which became one of its trademarks.
Also in 1981, the famous Silvio Santos Program also became part of the channel’s schedule, taking up 10 hours of the Sunday schedule.
SBT’s popular bias began to emerge from programs such as Moacyr Franco Show, O Homem do Sapato Branco and Almoço com as Estrelas, directing its content and programming towards the lower social classes, defined as B2, C and D1 which, at the time, represented 61% of the population.
Over the years, the station gained ground and, in 1982, it already had 22 affiliated stations and more than two thousand employees.
The second phase of the broadcaster, which took place between 1983 and 1987, continued to be marked by popular programs and, this time, the news came in the hiring of talents such as Sérgio Chapellin (who left SBT a year after his hiring and was replaced by Murilo Nery), Jô Soares, Flávio Cavalcanti, Hebe Camargo, Gugu Liberato and Boris Casoy.
The period was also marked by the beginning of broadcasts of the series Chaves, which became one of the channel’s successes.
In the early 90s, Silvio Santos’ broadcaster was one of the companies affected by the Collor Plan, to the point that, in 1991, the presenter received a proposal to sell SBT for US$ 150 million — which was rejected.
Despite its success with the public, the station faced financial problems and it was only in 1992 that it managed to close its first four-month term without debt. The following year, Programa Silvio Santos entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-running program on Brazilian television, with 31 uninterrupted years.
Also in 1993, SBT premiered Bom Dia & Cia, hosted by Eliana and later presented by Jackeline Petkovic, Jéssica Esteves and Kauê Santin, Priscilla and Yudi Tamashiro, Maisa Silva, Ana Simerman and Matheys Ueta, Jean Paulo Campos and Silvia Abravanel, daughter of Silvio Santos.
In the 2000s, SBT became a partner of Disney and Warner Bros., with a package that included films such as The Matrix, City of Angels, 101 Dalmatians and series such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In addition, in 2001, SBT debuted the reality show “A Casa dos Artistas”, which was part of the schedule until 2004.
From 2010 to the present day, some things have changed at the broadcaster. In 2011, SBT lost the exclusive rights to broadcast Chaves and Chapolin to Cartoon Networking, for example.
Furthermore, in 2013 the company announced that its 2012 revenue had surpassed the R$1 billion mark. Also that year, SBT also hired Danilo Gentili and the team from his program on Band to present the program The Noite com Danilo Gentili, which premiered in 2014.
The year was also marked by the return of Otávio Mesquista to present the new version of the program Perfil. In 2015, SBT announced a new contract with The Walt Disney Company, which resulted in the change in the broadcast times of the programs Bom Dia & Companhia, Sábado Animado and Domingo Legal.
More recently, SBT has started to invest in media personalities in its programs, as is the case with the participation of digital influencers in Passa Ou Repassa, presented by Celso Portiolli, and the program “Sabadou com Virginia”, presented by influencer Virgínia Fonseca, who has more than 48 million followers on social media.
In addition to SBT, the Silvio Santos Group is also formed by other companies such as SBT Filmes, SBT Music, SBT Vídeos, SBT Licensing, Liderança Capitalização, Jequiti Cosméticos, Hotel Jequitimar and others.
