Senor Abravanel was born on the 12th December 1930 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is a businessman, entrepreneur and television host who, as Silvio Santos, is widely recognized for being the founder and the owner of Brazil’s second largest broadcast company – Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT) – as well as Grupo Silvio Santos, but is best known through hosting “Programa Silvio Santos”, his own TV show which has been airing for almost 55 years now.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this veteran entrepreneur has accumulated so far? How rich Silvio Santos is? According to sources, it is estimated that the total of Silvio Santos’ net worth, as of mid-2017, exceeds the sum of $1.3 billion – Yes! Billion! – acquired through his career in the broadcasting business which has been active since 1981.
Silvio Santos Net Worth $1.3 billion
Silvio was born to Rebecca and Alberto Abravanel, and apart from Brazilian, is also of Greek, Turkish and Jewish ancestry. He began his career as a 14-year-old kid, working as a street vendor. His ability to sell almost everything didn’t go unnoticed, and soon he was approached by a radio scout who offered him an assignment at a local radio station. Despite being deeply interested in circus, art and television in general, because he was earning greater revenue on the street, after a month Silvio abandoned his radio station job, and relocated to São Paulo where he began working several odd jobs which provided the basis for his, currently quite impressive, net worth.
In the mid-1960s with the expansion of television networks in Brazil, Silvio dived into the broadcasting business and became a TV host. The rise of his empire began when his own Silvio Santos Group, which he founded in 1958, acquired the Baú da Felicidade company. In the course of the next decade, Silvio bought several other companies, such as Banco Panamericano – São Paulo SP, TV Corcovado and Mega Studios. However, the real breakthrough in Silvio’s business career occurred in 1981, when he founded his own broadcasting company Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT), which is currently Brazil’s second largest television network. Today, Silvio Santos Group covers not only television, but agribusiness as well as real estate and bank investments, and envelops 38 other companies including, apart from those already mentioned above, SBT Music and SBT Filmes. An estimated value of Silvio’s media conglomerate Silvio Santos Group revolves around the sum of $2.3 billion. It is certain that all these successful business endeavors helped Silvio Santos to add a significant amount of money to the total of his wealth.
As one of the most respected names in the Brazilian television business, Silvio has also produced Brazilian versions of several internationally popular reality television shows and programs, such as “Celebrity Big Brother, “Candid Camera”, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” as well as “American Idol”, “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” and “Wheel of Fortune.” He is also hosting a popular game show -“Show de Milhao” – as well as his own variety show, SBT’s flag ship program “Programa Silvio Santos”, which has been airing since 1963. This program was included in the Guinness World Records as the Oldest Program of Brazilian TV. Doubtlessly, the latter involvement has helped Silvio Santos not only to preserve his fame but to further boost his enormous net worth.
Apart from the television business and those already mentioned above, Silvio has also put some effort towards politics in the past few decades – in 1989 he ran for president in Brazilian presidential elections, but due to irregularities his candidature was dismissed.
When it comes to his personal life, Silvio Santos has married twice, in 1962 to Maria Aparecida Vieira with whom he welcomed two daughters before 39-year-old Maria passed away due to stomach cancer. Since 1978, Silvio has been married to Iris with whom he four more daughters. With his family, Silvio currently resides in São Paulo, Brazil.
