Brazil (population 175,000,000)

Portuguese is spoken by 175 million Brazilians, 10 million Portuguese, 10 million people in Angola and 19 million in Mozambique, plus a few million in Guinneau Bassau and Cape Verde. Despite polarisation of household incomes and living standards in Brazil, Globo and Record in particular are successful exporters of telenovelas and other content, worldwide.

Lusophone TV spans some very different cultures and socio-political infrastructures, but the telenovelas it exports are derivative of Cuban, Argentinian and Mexican products. Brazil’s substantial commercial TV networks are run by family concerns, and churches. TV Globo dominates, with TV Cultura of São Paolo the only public channel worthy of note. TV Globo has been  around since 1964, and during the military dictatorships of 1966-68, was privileged and used extensively as a state propaganda tool. Brazil provides much of Portugal’s televisual diet, but has not displayed any reciprocal interest in importing Portuguese home-grown productions.