Q&A: Globo's CEO on How the Latin American Media Giant Is Competing With Netflix

Carlos Schroder was as surprised as anyone when, five years ago, his billionaire boss, Roberto Marinho, a scion of the family that's the majority owner of Grupo Globo, tasked him with running the crown jewel of the company—Globo Network. “I had no experience of management as an executive of a company," said Schroder, who spent more than 25 years in Globo’s news division. "I was only a journalist.” From his corner office at Globo’s headquarters in Rio de Janeiro in August, Schroder spoke with Adweek about how he’s taking the iconic Brazilian media brand into the future, how he’s competing with Netflix and the legacy of the Olympics in Rio. “I would say that if today there were a new discussion, Brazil would never host the Olympic Games,” he said. How was the transition from news to this office? Carlos Schroder: The transition was a surprise. In 2012, the main shareholder [Marinho] talked about options for the future, and he said, 'We have other plans for you.' He said, 'You can do this business shift, looking to the future, looking at this natural movement of media, of multi screens, a stronger relevance of the content.' And that was the focus. What were the one or two big things that you wanted to accomplish quickly to transform the business for the future? The first is the relevance of content, without question. But we had to work on the image and had to bring with it the strength and the renewal. There was a deep transformation to the brand itself and the way that you could see the logo type of Globo, which used to be very outdated in terms of modernity. It needed to be renewed. You launched [OTT service] Globo Play in late 2015. How important has it been to the company? To keep loyalty with the viewers, it was important to have content that was taken to them at any time in whatever situation. We have approximately 14 million users on Globo Play and more than 500,000 subscribers in this first year or year and a half. Connected TV is becoming a huge platform for us. The time spent on connected TV is around 45 minutes, and mobile and desktop and tablets is 35 minutes, a huge amount of time on those devices. How do you see Netflix? Do you see it as a competitor or someone you can work with? Could you even provide content for Netflix? No. Netflix is clearly a competitor because in Brazil, we want to see our mission, the environment where Brazilians meet up and consume things to learn, they consume content to obtain information. And the production in Portuguese is a differentiation that we are the only ones doing this. So Netflix is obviously a successful product worldwide, but in Brazil, we understand that we have a closer relationship with our viewers through our products. Netflix has its own path, but we understand our territory. And we have space here to grow our own product. Who is your biggest international customer for your content? Today, we have Azteca in Mexico, Univision in the American Hispanic market [and] SIC in Portugal. We have more than 100 countries where we have content being sold. And at the same time, Globo has one channel for Brazilians who live abroad or who speak Portuguese abroad. There’s more than 500,000 who subscribe to this channel alone internationally. How important is Globo News to the company? Very important. First, because of the synergetic aspects. It’s vital, essential, especially the crisis that we’re going through so that people can keep up with what is happening. We have breaking news on Globo and continuing on 24-hour Globo News, and look what’s happening now with [digital platform] G1, all integrated as one journalistic environment. [kickout id="1"] You got your start as a print journalist at [newspaper] O Globo. What do you think is the future of the newspaper business in Brazil? I am so distant from this world currently. I left the print business 35 years ago. I’ve been at TV Globo 33 years. I know there’s this obvious question about the digital world, but I would know little about this to say what is the current situation nowadays. If we can talk a little bit about President Trump and how he plays into your news coverage. How important is U.S. politics to the Brazilian audience? Quite important. Our biggest international structure is American. We have a [bureau manager] in New York. We have correspondents in Washington. We give special attention to this. Of course Trump, with his being such a polemic figure, there’s even a higher tension because we want to monitor closely what’s happening and the effect that this causes worldwide, because obviously any decision, any speech or interview of the president has world repercussions. So we monitor this closely. What is it about the Brazilians’ dedication to the telenovela? Even though viewing habits have changed, 40 million to 50 million people a night will still sit down and watch the programs. The passion of Brazilians with the telenovela is through the construction of a story that repeats itself on a daily basis. I think the difference we have in relation to American series is that we’re building a relationship that brings this fantasy, or even reality, that creates a relationship inside families' homes. It’s the reality of Brazilians, as if [the characters] become a member of the family. We have been carrying out a study for many, many years. What is the idea for a 6 o’clock slot, 7 o’clock, 9 o’clock or 11 o’clock telenovelas. So we study who is home at these different hours. Who wants to watch what, and what is the relevance? And at any given time of day, half of the available audience is watching Globo. On average … near 100 million people on a daily basis watch us. It’s half the country. We have 200 million. So half the country goes on Globo on a daily basis. That’s why it needs to be relevant. This is why it is our mission to look for discussion themes and try to find things that draw the attention of the audience and help the audience to answer certain questions of culture, of society, to interact, to help clarify. What do you think the legacy of the Olympics will be on Rio? The collective games did well, during the disputes and the championships. But unfortunately, the legacy after the crisis and denunciations of corruption, many stadiums are abandoned, and there are unfortunately more denunciations than the legacy of good positive things. I would say that if today there were a new discussion, Brazil would never host the Olympic Games. The population would say no to this. How important are your summer reality shows as a balance to the scripted programming? It’s very important. We have a division throughout the year to try to maintain this kind of content permanently on the programming of January through March—Big Brother, we have The Voice, Pop Star, Dancing with the Stars—to maintain a balance and to have some sort of content that you vote interactive. You engage your viewers. Globo had a reputation for a long time as sort of being a kingmaker of politicians here in Brazil. Coming from the news division how did you see that? We just report. I’m sure about that. We come from a dictatorship [1964-1985] in Brazil so obviously during that transformation there was an accommodation, a natural accommodation of the press. Not only television but the press to adjust themselves to this new model of what is happening in the country. And I’m sure that Globo’s role was always to try and take the most information possible to people. I know there is a lot of criticism here and there. But if you look closely at everything that we air you will see that there is a balance the whole time. Of course with this kind of audience we have high responsibility. So any information needs to have this level of care and attention from the journalists. What’s the most challenging part of your job? Company culture. It’s always in motion, and it’s always looking to the differentiation. It’s always concerning about what kind of content, differentiated content, I’m going to present. My mission here is to make my whole team restless all the time, the whole time, to motivate, to look for something different. What’s the biggest challenge you see in the next year, or two years, with the business? It’s financial. It’s the commercial area. The business area needs to assess in what way this market will keep itself healthy financially speaking to keep the machine running the motor. So I normally say the commercial area is the energy that moves us. In the same way that we have Netflix and cable television, the free, over-the-air television has to remain strong so we can have the sponsorships to help maintain us in the long term. This story is one in a series of reports on the global impact of Brazilian media and marketing, and the legacy of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Q&A: Globo's CEO on How the Latin American Media Giant Is Competing With Netflix

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