PSN – a paixão no esporte: a falência de um canal internacional de televisão

Resumo (EN)

In this paper, we discussed the bankruptcy process of one of the largest segmented sport channels on cable and satellite TV in Latin America - Pan American Sports Network, seeking to analyze the reasons that led the broadcaster to shut down its operations, the reasons for having gone off the air, even it being the audience leader in the sports segment. The main objective is to understand the process of building an international television channel and to identify what leads to failure a winning project with a powerful business plan and a state-of-the-art physical and technological infrastructure. We do not see TV stations closing or opening activities all the time, whether in Brazil or abroad, so this paper is considered important and it is justified by the lack of material in the area of communication. This is a qualitative, memorialist research, with a case study, which was based on the experience of its author within the broadcaster and on bibliographic researches. The data collection pointed out that the reasons that led the studied company to closure have never been clarified. What we know until then are the hypotheses launched by the media, about mismanagement, lack of broadcast knowledge, global economic crisis and consequent delinquency in the Argentine market in 2000. All this led the company to lose clients and millions of dollars in channel subscriptions, including the fact that it was built to cease to exist in a short period of time in order to obtain tax benefits. We considered that this situation does not negate the importance of disclosing how important this channel was for television sports coverage.