Make that goal?

Notes on the coverage of the World Cup on TV newscasts in Brazil

Abstract

The paper addresses 2018 FIFA World Cup’s coverage by primetime TVs newscasts of four Brazilian commercial/open broadcasters (Globo, SBT, Record e Band); these broadcasters occupied, respectively, the first four television audience ratings when that edition of the football tournament was held. Empirical data of the TV newscasts, collected in “flow” (between 2018’s January and July), enabled identifying significant variations regarding such coverage (suggesting that some of the TV newscasts even had variations in their editorials). It is argued not only that these variations can be noticed before the beginning of the tournament itself and in the days of the Brazilian squad matches, but also that they reach the advertisers during the commercial breaks of the TV newscasts. The whole scenario is presented as enabling indexes to infer the targeted audiences of the TV broadcasters in the so called country of football.