Ratings down for Japanese TV channels

[Mulboyne]

From Daily Yomiuri Televiews

Is the Japanese public getting bored with their long-standing love affair with television?

...Something is playing havoc with the ratings. I spent some time on the Video Research Company Web site (http://www.videor.co.jp/data/ratedata/top10.htm) last week and was shocked to find even in the weekly ratings of the top 10 programs in each genre many of the shows were dangling perilously close to the single-digit ledge.

It has been clear for a long time that dramas were in trouble but ratings for anime, news and sports are not what they once were either. The highest-rated program of the week seldom goes above 20 percent anymore. Even that old favorite Doraemon is down to 9.4 percent. Shinsengumi, the NHK Sunday 8 p.m. taiga offering, rests at around 15 percent and Tenka, the NHK morning serial, is only bringing in 17 percent in Kanto and even less in the Kansai region. That is just about half of what was once expected from a good morning drama.

Not even one of a trio of Hanshin Tigers vs Yomiuri Giants games could climb over the 20 percent line in the week of May 10 to May 16. Nor was there any prime-time drama over 20 percent that week. Except for Wataru Seken wa Oni Bakari at 18.4 percent and Mito Komon at 17.8 percent, the rest hovered around the 15 percent mark or well below it. Yet most fans have certainly not fallen out of love with a good drama, as we can see by the success of the Korean hit Fuyu no Sonata (Saturdays at 11:10 p.m on NHK).

[Big Booger]

It has nothing to do with the fact that every other drama has the same content, hell the same actors and actresses.. if they can be called that.


I seldom watch J-TV since I have skyperfect TV.

[kamome]

It has nothing to do with the fact that every other drama has the same content, hell the same actors and actresses.. if they can be called that.


I seldom watch J-TV since I have skyperfect TV.

Yeah, in the few months since I sprang for cable, I've kept the dial locked on CNN to get real news (and not fluffy bunny rabbits like NHK shows in the morning) and occasionally some ESPN, a movie, or Animal Planet.