National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan Online Digital Strategy 2019

 ■National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan Online Digital Strategy 2019

I will serve as the chairperson for the Online Digital Research Society for the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan.

The report for this fiscal year has been put together, and I wrote the foreword.

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For last year’s foreword, I wrote, “The fishy wind of politics is blowing.” This was to cast doubt on the principles of the administration to review broadcasting regulations and the radio wave system. The discussions subsequently normalized, and once things had settled down, a revision was enacted to the Broadcast Act that would clear the path for regular simultaneous online transmission by NHK. A new chapter begins.

Although there was some concern directed toward NHK, there have been 12 years of solid experience with digital online support outside of Japan, as simultaneous transmission for the BBC began in 2008. During this time, a legal system to bring together communication and broadcasting was prepared in Japan, and preparations for terrestrial digital broadcasting were completed, but communication has led digital online elements.

While smartphone-first is becoming the norm, Netflix and Amazon are taking video transmission seriously, following in the footsteps of the efforts of Google and Apple toward smart-TV. As soon as the curtains open, the next wind blows in. The report by committee member Takashi Uchiyama drills down on this situation and the business of advertising and VoD.

What should be done? The members of this project decided to research the United Kingdom. What we saw was the BBC and commercial broadcasting cooperating to fend off the United States. They created BritBox, the common platform, and formed a community so that broadcast stations can use viewer data.

Furthermore, the BBC and commercial broadcasting have both outsourced hardware (transmission through radio waves and cables) to Red Bee Media, which manages the content from all broadcast stations on an IP based system, which involves the use of software on a cloud environment. This was shocking.

Content is sent to the cloud and then delivered to TVs, smartphones, computers, and various other devices through radio waves, cables, and various other devices. This is likely the future state of the fusion of communication and broadcasting. There was also a rumor that the BBC will give up ground waves in 17 years.

Having been invited to the Diet as a witness regarding the revised Broadcast Act, I tried raising a question with these conditions in mind.

Could Japan be like the United Kingdom and institute a strategy involving the preparation of a foundation that connects the NHK and commercial broadcasting? A simultaneous transmission platform, like radiko for TV, should be created. A connected foundation to promote IP cloud support and the use of data should be build out.

By forming a shared platform across broadcast stations, promotion can be improved. By preparing an IP cloud base, content can be deployed to various devices through various transmission paths while significantly reducing costs. Big data on viewing histories can be used to lead viewing behavior through AI. Can a foundation like this be created?

During last year’s foreword, I concluded that “proactively presenting a vision that determines the future” was necessary as we enter fusion 2.0. However, now that we have already entered a new stage, I am rethinking this statement, as individual actions at each site may be what is required instead of a vision.