Brazilian media magnate Silvio Santos has passed away at the age of 93, according to SBT TV

According to SBT, Silvio Santos, a Brazilian media mogul who transitioned from a street vendor to the proprietor of a business enterprise that included one of the country’s main TV channels, passed away at the age of 93.

“Today heaven is happy with the arrival of our beloved Silvio Santos,” SBT stated during X. “Rest in Peace, you will always be eternal in our hearts.”
After being hospitalized in Sao Paulo with a case of H1N1 flu since the beginning of August, Silvio Santos passed away on Saturday morning due to bronchopneumonia, as indicated by his medical report.

On Saturday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed his heartfelt condolences on X, describing Silvio Santos as “the greatest personality in the history of Brazilian television and one of the country’s great communicators.”

Silvio Santos, the stage moniker that Senor Abravanel acquired for his media career, established the SBT TV channel in the 1980s. This channel is one of the three most watched TV stations in Brazil and was for years the sole genuine competitor for audience share with TV Globo, one of the largest media conglomerates in the Americas.

Silvio Santos, in contrast to other media moguls, was also a showman, who hosted his own television programs until approximately 2022.

He was effective in hosting game programs that were extraordinarily popular among families with lower incomes. An example of his gimmick was to toss paper aircraft constructed from money bills into the audience, which they would then compete to retrieve.

In the Lapa district of Rio de Janeiro, Abravanel, the son of Sephardic Jewish immigrants from the former Ottoman Empire, began peddling plastic card protectors on the streets as an adolescent.

A radio station caught his attention, and he was subsequently employed as a radio announcer. He subsequently transitioned to television and conducted programs on local channels, such as TV Globo, during the 1960s and 1970s. Subsequently, he established SBT TV in 1981.

In 2016, Forbes estimated that his business enterprise, which encompassed a cosmetics company, a financial firm, and real estate assets, was worth more than $1 billion.

He gained national attention in 2001 when he was abducted for seven hours by an abductor who had previously taken his daughter captive a few days prior. Local TV stations broadcasted the kidnapping live.

There were six daughters in Abravanel’s life: two from his first marriage, one of whom was adopted, and four from his second marriage to Iris Passaro Abravanel.