CNN Portugal goes live this Monday

CNN Portugal will go on air this Monday, with broadcasts starting at 9 pm, the cable TV channel is the result of a partnership between Media Capital and CNN International Commercial (CNNIC). The president of CNNIC, Rani Raad, hopes to reinforce the “presence in one of the fastest growing European markets”, as well as to expand “further” to a Portuguese speaking universe. “The arrival of CNN Portugal also proves the importance of Portuguese media in the world”, says Mário Ferreira, Media Capital’s main shareholder.

We “found a partner that shares the same values”, said Rani Raad in a joint statement with Media Capital. With this partnership,  the president of CNNIC expects to reinforce the brand’s “presence in one of Europe’s fastest growing markets as well as expanding further into a language spoken by over 250 million people around the world.”

 

“Launching CNN Portugal puts our country on the path towards the best journalism in the world,” said Mário Ferreira.

“We are doing it now because we believe that it is also our role, as representatives from the private sector, to contribute to a strong, free, independent, rigorous and demanding social communication” and “the arrival of CNN Portugal also proves the importance of Portuguese media in the world and, we are certain, will contribute to increase the diversity of perspectives and, therefore, to broaden the democratization of information,” Mário Ferreira adds.

 

Tweet from @cnnportugal

“With this partnership, Grupo Media Capital is accelerating and transforming the journalistic universe in the Portuguese language,” concludes the major shareholder of the Portuguese media group.

Media Capital was the one who proposed a partnership

Mário Ferreira stressed that it was not CNN that contacted the Media Capital group, but the businessman himself. “It was not they who spoke to us, it was I who spoke to them, it was I who challenged them to accept this challenge of coming to Portugal,” he said, on a meeting with foreign press that took place last Friday in Lisbon, quoted by Lusa.

“I was the one who challenged them through my contacts in Washington”, through a “great friend” who had been US ambassador to Portugal who put them in touch with “important people from CNN who will arrive tomorrow [last Saturday] to spend the weekend here in Lisbon,” Mário Ferreira explained.

CNN Portugal is launched this Monday on television, digital and social networks, thus replacing the news channel TVI24, on channel 7.

“Marking Portugal’s biggest news launch for many years, CNN Portugal will be a 24 hour multi-platform Portuguese language news operation committed to impartial and agenda-setting journalism of a calibre that viewers expect of CNN,” the statement said, adding that the new channel “will be available in 4.3 million homes in Portugal via pay-TV as well on digital at CNNPortugal.pt and across all major social media platforms.”

“Ahead of the launch, CNN has worked closely with CNN Portugal to prepare infrastructure and provide training and consultancy in areas such as content production and newsroom standards and practices,” the two companies said in a joint statement.