2/20/2006

NHK might run commercials in overseas broadcasts
Kyodo
TOKYO —- Vice Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Shogo Hayashi said Monday the ministry will consider accepting advertisers’ sponsorships to fund programs that Japan Broadcasting Corp., or NHK, airs abroad.
Hayashi’s remark came in response to a view expressed earlier this month by Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who said it might be necessary to run commercials if the public broadcasting system is to increase its overseas programs in order to disseminate more information about Japan.

Dang. NHK is grasping at straws. The voluntary/required contributions to NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, are way down because on the continuous scandals and abuse of public funds. The problem is NHK programs are too boring (think of it very polite Japan Inc propaganda) to generate much ad revenue from commercials. This could be an opportunity to make more hard-hitting programs rather than pap—NHK has the resources to do better than the BBC or PBS. However, until now NHK has only been motivatied to run programs on cherry blossoms and food.