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The government decided that the NTSC system was flawed and under guidance of German scientists, chose the PAL system.
It was really a government imposed decision. One must remember that from 1964 to 1985 Brazil lived under a military dictatorship. By 1971 the TV stations, and I think also TV set makers, told the government that they were not yet ready for color TV, as it was too huge an investment, they told the government, If I remember correctly, that maybe they could be ready for color in 1974 or even by the early 1980's only! The Minister of Communications angrily told them that they better be ready for 1972 or there "would be consequences"... so it started in 1972 as the dictatorship really wanted color TV to show how good they were at "modernizing" the country. The color sets were so expensive that those of higher prices cost the same as a brand new car. It would take many years for the number of color TVs to surpass the number of B&W sets.
The first color transmission was the "Grape Fest" on the state of Rio Grande do Sul, on March, 31, 1972 ( anniversary of the military coup of 1964 ) and apparently they chose the "Grape Fest" because the daughter of the Minister of Communications was one of the Princesses of the Fest...
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