21 August 2012 Last updated at 11:15 ET

Brazil profile

News stand in Brazil

South America's biggest media market is home to thousands of radio stations and hundreds of TV channels. TV has long been the most influential medium.

Media ownership is highly concentrated. Domestic conglomerates such as Globo, Brazil's most-successful broadcaster, dominate the market and run TV and radio networks, newspapers and pay-TV operations.

Brazilian-made dramas and soaps - known as telenovelas - are aired around the world. Game shows and reality TV attract huge audiences.

The constitution guarantees a free press and there is vigorous debate in the media about political and social matters.

However, US-based Freedom House warned in 2011 that court injunctions were hampering reporting of key criminal cases. Journalists, particularly those in provincial areas, are vulnerable to physical attack.

Prolific bloggers

Many homes subscribe to pay TV. Brazil is rolling out digital TV and aims to switch off analogue signals from 2016.

By December 2011, more than 79 million Brazilians were online (Internetworldstats.com), many of them via internet cafes.

Brazilians are among the world's top users of blogs and social networks. Internet access is not generally restricted. However, the judiciary has grown "increasingly aggressive" in its attempts to regulate content, says Freedom House.

Leading sites include UOL and Globo's G1. Google's Orkut and Facebook are the main social network rivals.

The press

Television

Radio

News agencies/internet

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