RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — The audiovisual industry in Brazil had last year a R$ 70.2 billion (US$ 13.1 billion) total impact on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and generated a total of 608,970 direct, indirect and induced jobs, according to a just-out Oxford Economics study “The Economic Contribution of Brazil’s Audiovisual Industry in 2024.”
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) in Brazil, which commissioned the study, released it during RioMarket, the business section of the Rio International Film Fest.
Brazil’s local audiovisual industry employees directly the same amount of people as the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector and over 50% more than automotive manufacturers in the country.
“It’s an industry with a notable multiplier effect over other industries: for instance, for every R$10 million of value created by the audiovisual industry, there was an additional contribution of R$12 million in other sectors of the Brazilian economy,” Andressa Pappas, general director of the MPA in Brazil, told Variety.
Free-to-air TV, led by the giant Globo group, is still the industry’s leading segment. It accounted for 47% of the industry’s GDP contribution and 44% of its direct employment contribution.
The video on demand segment was responsible for 27% of the industry’s GDP and 10% of jobs. Film exhibition repped 5% of the GDP contribution and 22% of jobs. Film and TV production and distribution account for 9% of GDP and 15% of the jobs. Pay TV accounted for 12% of the GDP and 7% of the jobs.
“These numbers show that the audiovisual industry in Brazil is powerful. It’s already a strong industry, but it will become much bigger, with proper planning,” said Walkiria Barbosa, Rio Fest’s executive director and int’l marketing and president of the Audiovisual Industry and Commerce Federation (FICA).
FICA, which gathers representatives of all segments of the Brazilian audiovisual industry and was officially launched during Rio Fest, aims to advance the consolidation of a state policy for the sector, planned transversally. The model is South Korea, which within a few decades managed to build domestically a strong production sector and then emerged from an unknown country to a film, series and music world power.
Can Brazil be the Next South Korea?
U.K.l consultant Amanda Groom, managing director of The Bridge, who worked for South Korean government agencies and helped to implement the successful policies that led to the rise of the Asian country’s film and TV industry, sees two potential new emerging audiovisual world powers: India and Brazil.
“There is significant business expansion that could be gained through working with nations such India and Brazil. These are growing markets with young populations that are hungry to view and work with the creative industries on the Global North,” Groom told Variety.
“India and Brazil are at a highly strategic moment in their development. Government and industry are aligned,” she added. “It is a very good time for the Global North industries, the creative industry of Europe, the U.S. and the U.K., to begin to take India and Brazil more seriously. We know this, because we noticed it in South Korea 15 years ago, when it was a small fish. We see the same level of support, enthusiasm, drive and professionalism coming from both India and Brazil.”
Amanda Groom
