The agreement reached by SBT for the final game of the Carioca Championship between Flamengo and Fluminense next Wednesday (15) was not closed at the last minute. Silvio Santos' network had been discussing the broadcast of Flamengo's matches in the state one week ago. The club was the one who made the big effort mainly from last Thursday (9) - when the team was overcome in the final of the Rio Cup for Fluminense and lost the chance to win the title in advance.
According to the UOL Esporte report, Flamengo took advantage of the fact that they already had an idea and a contact on SBT and reaffirmed that they would like Silvio Santos' network to broadcast the game. With the demand of the club, the negotiations became firmer.
The demand for the club was the result of pressure from its sponsors, who asked the Rio board to seek a way to show the State final on open TV to increase the exposure of their brands. Even with the records for web broadcasts, sponsors argued that the reach is still quite low compared to what a national TV can achieve.
In this round of negotiations, Flamengo discarded Record network because, when it tried to broadcast Rio Cup’s game Flamengo x Boavista weeks ago, it obtained the information that the station linked to Edir Macedo did not want to invest in sports at the moment. SBT entered the stage on July 3, in two different stories.
Sought by Loterj intermediaries, the SBT commercial department in Rio de Janeiro received a proposal to broadcast Flamengo x Volta Redonda in the Rio Cup semifinal. The broadcaster showed interest in the occasion, but the short time to change the schedule and attract advertisers weighed against. Sought by the report, Loterj president Ivan Fogli Gerstner denied that the company sought SBT at the time.
The official statement from Loterj on its official Instagram account says:
Loterj (Rio de Janeiro State Lottery) denies participation in the broadcast agreement for the final of the Rio Cup with SBT. The information initially conveyed by the news portal UOL Esportes is unfounded, since Loterį did not mediate the broadcast agreement between SBT and Ferj (Rio de Janeiro State Football Federation), in addition to not being a sponsor of the championship state. According to Loterj President Ivan Fogli Gerstner, there has never been any conversation, or agreement, with any of the companies mentioned here.
With the final of Rio Cup already scheduled and with more time, the idea of broadcasting on open TV was taken up by Flamengo and got a happy ending. The report found that SBT should not pay a fixed amount to air Flamengo, but share profits from advertisers who are interested in the match, scheduled for Wednesday (15), at 9.30 pm.
Source: UOL Esporte
