Kazuo Nomura, Manager, Content Production Office, General Business Department Company
Fuji Television Network (Japan)

What is the biggest technology challenge you face in adding (or boosting) your online and/or streaming video elements?
"Distributed transcoding, in high speed. This will enable to procure large amount of content plus immediate online distribution of post-broadcast material."

Is there any one particular technology that has made a radical difference to the way you operate? What is it?
"Upgrade in speed of mobile network, thanks to LTE. The introduction and spread of LTE technology offered 800Kbps downstream, allowing clear and sustainable image quality for online content distribution via smartphones. This allows us to offer OTT service in multi-device environment such as TV, laptops, smartphones, and other mobile gadgets."

What do you wish broadcast/streaming tech vendors would do (or say or offer) for you that they aren’t doing now?
“Firstly, 4-channel audio encoding. Current technology is capable of 2-channel audio encoding so it becomes an effort to include SAP (supplementary audio programming). Secondly, subtitle-supported player. In Japan, standards for subtitles between broadcast and digital video distribution differ so the two currently cannot be easily diverted.”

What’s at the top of your tech wish list for 2019?
"One, expansion of live streaming. And two, to ensure compatibility between ad replacement (for a more thorough targeted advertisement) through SSAI (=Server Side Ad Insertion) and rewind function."

Is Fuji TV doing anything new for the Fuji TV On Demand (FOD) services?
“An AR [augmented reality] function was added to FOD VR, the smartphone app, in mid-October 2019. This is Fuji TV’s first attempt to integrate AR content with terrestrial TV dramas. Users download the app and the AR content to their smartphones beforehand, so that they can enjoy AR experience for free while watching a drama. Fuji TV will expand more media-mix projects in order to make terrestrial broadcasting more fun.”

Published in ContentAsia Issue Six 2019, 4 November 2019