Fuji Television

Fuji Television was established in 1957 and started broadcasting in 1959. The general entertainment schedule includes news and sports, and targets primarily younger viewers. From April to July 2016, Fuji TV ranked fourth among commercial broadcasters with an average 5.7% TVR for all day viewing (source Video Research, April-July 2016, Kanto region, weekly basis). Fuji TV continues to expand its international agenda, including drama co-production/development in mainland China.

NHK

Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) was founded in 1926 and became a public broadcaster in June 1950. NHK operates two terrestrial TV channels (General TV, Educational TV), two satellite TV channels (BS 1, BS Premium) and three radio channels (Radio 1, Radio 2, FM). Funded by receiving fees from Japanese households, NHK also offers international TV stations (NHK World TV, NHK World Premium) and radio services (NHK World Radio Japan) under the NHK World brand. The network has 54 domestic broadcasting stations and 30 overseas offices. NHK is supported by a licence fee for both terrestrial and satellite broad- casts and had 40 million paying homes in July 2016.

Nippon TV

Established in October 1952, Nippon TV began broadcasting in August 1953 as Japan’s first commercial terrestrial broadcaster. The general entertainment station won the “triple crown” top ratings across three time categories (all day 6am-midnight, prime time 7pm-11pm and golden time 7pm-10pm) for full year 2016. This is the third consecutive year Nippon TV has won all three categories. At the same time, the 2016 ratings show a small dip from the year before. All day ratings were 8.4% (down from 8.6% in 2015), prime time was 12% (down from 12.5% in 2015), and golden time was 12.3% (down from 2015’s 12.6%), according to Video Research data for the Kanto region provided by NTV. Producing about 89% of its content in-house, Nippon TV broadcasts news, documentaries, sports, drama, entertainment and animation content. Its best-known title internationally is, perhaps, Dragons’ Den, which has been remade in 29 countries and sold as a finished programme in 184 countries (October 2016). The company also has interests in international content/format sales, TV shopping, media apps and events. Nippon TV’s international expansion includes GEM, a joint venture with Singapore-based regional network, Sony Pictures Television Networks Asia.

TBS

Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) was established in 1951, and broadcasts news, information, entertainment and variety. The station ranked fourth among Japan’s six terrestrial broadcasters with 6% TVR for all day (6am- 12am), 10.1% TVR for golden time (7pm-10pm) and 10% TVR for prime time (7pm-11pm) from April-July 2016 (source: Video Research, Kanto region). TBS is also involved in satellite/cable TV (BS-TBS, TBS News Bird), VOD (TBS On Demand, geo-blocked), programme distribution (including original formats Sasuke and Takeshi’s Castle) and radio.

TV Asahi

TV Asahi Corporation was founded in November 1957 as Nippon Educational Television (NET) and launched in February 1959. The terrestrial station shifted from educational to general entertainment in November 1973, offering content spanning news, infotainment, animation and entertainment. About 10 hours of news/information content airs live on weekdays. TV Asahi generally ranks second place with an average TVR of 7.2% among six terrestrial broadcasters (source: Video Research, all day 6am-12am, Kanto region, April-July 2016). The group also operates BS and CS broadcasting, The Asahi Shimbum (newspaper) and Toei, a producer and distributor of movies, TV dramas and animation. Internationally, TV Asahi is best known for manga series Doraemon, Crayon Shin-chan, Masked Rider Wizard and Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters.

TV Tokyo

Established in April 1964, TV Tokyo provides terrestrial, BS and CS broadcasting as well as online (TV Tokyo Play) and mobile content services. TV Tokyo transmits via six stations in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Okayama, Sapporo and Fukuoka, and claims reach of about 70% across Japan. The daily line-up is mass market general entertainment content, including news, documentary, animation, travelogue/food, variety, drama, movies, sports and music.

Published on ContentAsia's Issue One 2017