Brazil goes BBC? – Guest blog by Fernando Duarte

TV in Brazil is just over half a century old. It serves the fifth largest population who make up the 10th biggest economy in the world. Popularly known for micro bikinis, samba and football, Brazil is a booming country with a cultural leadership role in Latin America and increasingly, globally. We think they watch melodramatic soap-operas or tele-novellas, but what is the reality of Brazilian TV? Polis intern and journalist Fernando Duarte reports on how the Brazilian government tried to emulate British public service broadcasting with mixed results.