Record Europa is a
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
pay television
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
channel owned by
Record, a
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
ian
television network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid- ...
. Its programming is mostly taken from the Brazilian network. It provides general entertainment, telenovelas, Brazilian reality TV shows, and news. The channel also produces a limited amount of local content. Similar to what happens in Brazil, Record's main competitor is
Globo.
Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG; pt, Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, IURD) is an evangelical charismatic Christian denomination with its headquarters at the Temple of Solomon in São Paulo, Brazil. The church was founded in ...
religious programming is transmitted at late nights.
Much like non-Brazilian stations using the RecordTV branding, the channel isn't directly owned by Grupo Record, but rather by Aion Future Holding, a figurehead company registered in Portugal set up by
Edir Macedo
Edir Macedo (born February 18, 1945) is a Brazilian evangelical bishop, writer, billionaire businessman, and the founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG). He is the owner and chairman of the third-largest television network ...
.
History
Rede Record has been operating in Portugal since at least 2000 through Record Internacional. On October 3, 2003, a separate company for Europe was set up (Rede Record de Televisão - Europa Ltda) with Edir's Rádio e Televisão Record controlling 99.98% of the shares. By February 2004, work for the Lisbon subsidiary was already underway, with the channel being available to subscription television operators in Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The aim of the company was to amp up distribution and advertising and subscriber revenue in European markets.
On October 19, 2005, Record Europa finally announced that the Lisbon offices were to open on November 1 with the blessing of UCKG bishop Aroldo Martins, who was appointed as the international chief of operations for the network. Lisbon was selected as the site of the European headquarters because of its linguistical inheritance, but also because the UCKG already had a solid presence in the city. With the Lisbon facilities, Record was now able to produce content from six studios, two of which with hi-tech standards for the time. For the launch of the new base, the channel held a special event with
Tom Cavalcante
Antônio José Rodrigues Cavalcante (born March 8, 1962) is a Brazilian actor and comedian, who is known professionally as Tom Cavalcante.
Early life
Cavalcante was born in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil on March 8, 1962, as Antônio José Rodrigue ...
(presenter of Show do Tom) as its biggest attraction. A number of Brazilian celebrities working for the network, including actress Bianca Rinaldi (who portrayed Isaura in
the network's adaptation of Isaura the Slave Girl, airing on
RTP1
RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mainst ...
at the time) were present. Before moving to the new building, the channel produced at least four programs.
In February 2006, Martins finished a round of negotiations with TV Cabo, enabling the channel to be available to a wider subscriber base. Up until then, the channel was only carried on Cabovisão and the local operators (
TVTel
TVTEL (TVTEL Comunicações, S.A.) was a Portuguese digital satellite and cable pay television service provider. The satellite service started on June 26, 2007, and it was on the Eurobird 9 satellite, broadcasting FTA and Conax-encrypted channel ...
, Bragatel and Pluricanal). These tactics emulated those of its parent network in Brazil, of aiming to surpass the larger networks, especially
Globo. Record's connections to the UCKG were often downplayed, claiming that, at the time, 21 hours of its schedule were secular and only the remaining three were religious. Aroldo Martins joked at the downplaying by saying that "we are about as religious as TVI". A second European production facility opened in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in February 2006. The four-floor facility consisted of two studios, an editing room and a news unit allowing live news links to Brazil. The month before, Record opened a channel in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
(
closed down in 2021) and was on the verge of opening channels in
Cape Verde and
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
. Martins claimed that Record was now among the ten most-watched cable channels in Portugal and that it was the only Portuguese-speaking channel available on the Sky platform in the UK.
The upsizing and agreement with TV Cabo practically implied the end of contract Globosat had with the provider since April 1998, as GNT, one of the most-viewed cable networks, was running the risk of shutting down on March 31, to be replaced by Record Europa. Negotiations have been running since the start of 2006 but were raised by heavy suspicions of the possible Record takeover. The suspicions were confirmed when Record announced near the end of March that it would take over GNT's former slot on all TV Cabo services (analog, digital, satellite)
References
{{Portuguese television stations
Television stations in Portugal
Television channels in the United Kingdom
Television channels and stations established in 2005
RecordTV affiliates