TV networks affected by MP 1394/2026
Brazilian television is not just a medium that sells betting advertising. Globo is a partner of BetMGM, SBT has a stake in Bet do Milhão, and Band directly operates BandBet. This corporate structure explains why the online gambling ban hits them from two sides simultaneously: they lose the advertiser and they lose their own business.
The information came to light while the networks were trying to prevent the measure from being published. According to Coluna Canal D, from the newspaper O Dia, broadcasters had been making contacts in Brasília, including owners of affiliates who hold mandates in Congress, to stop the signing of the provisional measure. This effort failed: the MP was issued on September 25 and has been in effect since then.
The argument they used is the same one repeated by the regulated sector. For the channels, the ban generates financial losses and does not prevent the health problems invoked by the Government, because all it does is strengthen the clandestine market. An executive from one of the broadcasters illustrated this to the same column by saying that prohibiting iGaming platforms is equivalent to wanting to ban knives because a minority uses them to stab people.
The scope of the operation also changed its destination. When these efforts began, the Government had not yet defined whether the veto would cover all modalities or only some online casino games, such as the slot Fortune Tiger, the popular Tigrinho. The measure that was finally published revoked the articles of Law 14.790/2023 that enabled online casino and set an shutdown date of October 6 for authorized platforms.
Now the lobby that aimed to prevent publication faces a different scenario. The MP must be analyzed by Congress within 60 days, extendable for another 60, and those same parliamentary contacts that the networks were activating will now play a role in the vote. Deputies and senators can maintain the text, modify it, or reject it.
The extent of media exposure is not minor. Sportsbooks are regular sponsors of programming, give their names to competitions whose rights are broadcast by these same channels, and, in the three cases mentioned, share a corporate structure with them. Added to this is the fact that a good part of the operators' revenue came from online casino and not from sports betting, so the cut precisely affects the segment that financed the advertising.
Television is thus in an uncomfortable position to cover the issue. It is, at the same time, the medium through which the public debate on the ban circulates and one of the parties economically affected by it, something worth keeping in mind when reading how each channel narrates what is happening in the sector.
Tags: Globo and BetMGM, SBT and Bet do Milhão, Band and BandBet, Brazilian broadcasters' lobby