Grupo Objetivo - Grupo Mix de Comunicação

Grupo Mix de Comunicação is part of Grupo Objetivo, one of the largest private education groups in Brazil, with a 9 billion real estimated market value. The group owns the Colégio Objetivo and Objetivo Jr. school franchises, Universidade Paulista – UNIP and the printing companies that produce and print the courseware used in their schools and universities.

Currently the group owns a network of affiliate schools in over 450 municipalities in Brazil and abroad (Japan), amounting a total of 430 thousand students. UNIP university has 65 units in 23 campi located in different cities in São Paulo state, in Brasília (DF), Goiânia (GO) and Manaus (AM), with an estimated 500 thousand students enrolled. The university offers 38 technological upper education courses, 55 undergraduate courses, 35 non-presential undergraduate courses, 5 masters and doctorate programs and lato sensu graduate courses. The dean is João Carlos di Genio, the group’s owner.

Di Gênio is also the biggest property owner in São Paulo and owns farms inherited from his father. The businessman connects these two business branches to his main sector, education: the campi and schools are built on his property and he uses the farms for the development of partnership projects with his university, such as the reproduction of Nelore cattle embryos.

In the communications sector, the group owns Mix FM radio, TV channels Mega TV and RBI TV on terrestrial television, cable TV channel Multishop and varieties website Vírgula.

Mega TV has it’s whole programming based on sales and publicity. That is a controversial practice since the limits between advertisement and an interesting programming for a public concession are not clear. In 2014, the TV channel was convicted for having over 25% of it’s broadcasting time dedicated to advertisement, which is forbidden by Brazilian legislation. However, the channel retains it’s sales profile.

RBI TV – Rede Brasileira de Informação, which has this name since 2004 - has broadcasted programs for different churches over time and also TV UNIP, a project from the group’s university. The broadcasting of programs produced by other entities, often made through time leasing – a practice also known as “arrendamento” (tenancy) – is also controversial. “Arrendamento” is considered irregular by the Ministério Público Federal (Public Prosecutor’s Office), which has opened several investigations around this kind of activity. RBI has leased programming time for evangelical churches such as Plenitude do Trono de Deus and Igreja Mundial do Poder de Deus, and currently shows a more diverse programming.

Mix FM with 22 affiliates in different Brazilian states is connected to other regional media groups. This setup is characteristic for Brazilian TV networks and radio stations. It strenghtens national networks on the one hand, and regional conglomerates on the other.

In Rio de Janeiro for example, Mix FM Rio (hosted on UOL wel portal, owned by Grupo Folha) belongs to Grupo Dial Brasil, which also owns Sulamérica Paradiso and FM Hall radio stations. In Aracajú (SE), Mix is part of the Sistema Atalaia de Comunicação, a Brazilian media conglomerate founded by politician and enterpreneur Augusto Franco, currently directed by his son, Walter Franco. TV Atalaia group (an affiliate of Rede Record) is composed of Rádio Atalaia, Mix FM Aracajú, A8 website and Jornal da Cidade; in Maringá, it belongs to Grupo Maringá de Comunicação, which also owns CBN Maringá, Maringá FM and A Grande Região de Maringá portal.