The Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão is a Brazilian free-to-air television network founded on 19 August 1981, by the businessman and television personality Silvio Santos. The company was established after a public tender by the Brazilian Federal Government to form two new networks, created from revoked concessions of the defunct Tupi and Excelsior networks. The network was founded on the same day that the concession agreement was signed, and that the act was broadcast live by the network, becoming its first program to be aired. Before acquiring the concessions of the four stations that were to form the SBT, Grupo Silvio Santos had since 1976 the concession of Rio de Janeiro's channel 11, known as TVS Rio de Janeiro, which was a fundamental step to give life to the SBT.