Page 49 - AIB | The Chanel | Issue 1 2013

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NHK WORLD is the international
broadcasting service of NHK,
Japan's public broadcaster. The
service is aimed at the overseas
market and delivered via satellite
and cable operators worldwide. NHK
WORLD provides four services: NHK
WORLD Radio Japan, NHK WORLD
TV, NHK WORLD Premium, and NHK
WORLD Internet Service.
NHK WORLD TV started as Japan's
first 24-hour all-English news
channel in 2009. JIB (Japan
International Broadcasting) is a
subsidiary of NHK established in
April 2008 for the purpose of
expanding the global distribution of
NHK WORLD.
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▼NHK reporter
in the field after
the tsunami
placing increasing emphasis on the
internet as an effective distribution
platform ‐ actually we have made
the live streaming of NHK World
TV available since 2009. Currently
you can enjoy NHK World TVʹs
live streaming on your PC, iPhone,
iPad and the major Android
smartphones. Naturally we will
continue to explore ways to get on
other emerging platforms such as
ConnectedTV.
Where do you see opportunities
outside Asia-Pacific?
In terms of distribution, we have a
long way to go. Our channel was
turned into a 24 hour English
channel in February 2009, so in that
sense we are one of the late starters.
The latest figure we have for the
number of potential households
which can tune into our service is
over 160m in about 130 countries
and regions. So I think we have
done fairly well so far but there are
some areas where we still cannot
make a full entry into, such as the
United States. That is certainly one
of the target areas in the coming
couple of years. The main barrier is
cost, really. Satellite is one option
but expensive so we are now
looking also at other options how
best to reach that market. Right
now people can watch NHK World
TV 24/7 in certain cities such as
New York, Washington DC,
Philadelphia and Minneapolis.
What are your editorial priorities?
Whatʹs happening here in Japan
and the rest of Asia are our top
priorities, and of course we cover
major events anywhere else in the
world – such as the US presidential
election ‐ but with a Japanese
perspective. Thatʹs important for
us, otherwise people can watch
CNN. Itʹs about making the content
relevant to the viewers who expect
a different take from Japan.
The market place for international
channels is crowded and very
competitive. Each station is
pursuing different strategies that
reflect their assets. KBS World have
drama and other entertainment
content – very strong in the world,
thatʹs one of their sales points. In
our case, news is very important for
us, and the Japanese perspective.
You know we had a great
disaster in 2011 and we hope to
share the lessons we learnt with our
viewers across the world on an on‐
going basis. Actually disaster
coverage is one of the strong points
of NHK so we are ready for any on‐
the‐spot reporting when
earthquakes or tsunamis strike. Our
coverage and footage of the 2011
mega quake and tsunami were
aired by nearly 2,000 TV stations
across the world and also won us a
number of international awards.
How do you interact with the
audience?
In terms of emerging media, we are
not making full use of it because of
the constraints imposed by the legal
framework here in Japan.
Broadcasting and telecom‐
munications are not identical, so
whenever we want to take
advantage of a technological
innovation on the telecom side we
need to have in‐depth discussions
with the regulators, and that takes
some effort.
What we have in place to get
feedback from our audience is a
system of about 110 assigned
monitors across the world who
send us comments about the
programmes they watch every
week – that helps us greatly to
improve the quality of our content.
What are you offering for
audiences in Africa?
We run NHK World TV in single
programming and cover the entire
globe. In Africa the programming is
the same as for other areas. We are
offering our content to Africa using
a couple of satellite operators, and
will continue to take up African
issues through our base in Cairo.
On the radio side, NHK WORLD
Radio Japan broadcasts to Africa in
Swahili, French, English, Persian
and Arabic on short wave, MW,
FM, satellite and the internet. Radio
is still very effective – when we
began airing our Swahili
programmes on FM in Tanzania in
March 2012 we won an additional
30m potential listeners.
What is the outlook?
NHK has developed Super Hi‐
Vision, the next generation HDTV
with 16 times the resolution of
conventional HDTV. We organized
a viewing of London Olympic
images in Super Hi‐Vision and got
a great reaction. The general
position of NHK is that we believe
picture quality is still quite
important, whatever platform is
being used. So we will continue to
explore ways for this new
technology to become widely used
– it may take a while though to
come to NHK World TV.
Takahisa Furukawa, thank you.
NEWS CHANNELS | THE CHANNEL
We believe
picture
quality is
still quite
important,
whatever
platform is
being used
“
”
NHK’s Super
Hi-Vision at the
2012 Olympics
Takahisa
Furukawa