TV Programme Makers Suffering

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: In TV industry, the little guys get squeezed
The job of TV program director may conjure up images of a bigwig cozying up to the stars. But for one such director in his 30s, he more often than not was found curled up on his office floor. As the de facto director of an info-variety program at a major network, he was so swamped with work that he often napped at his workplace. "I kept going by telling myself that I want to create quality programs, but even those feelings were pushed to the limit," the man said. Despite his devotion, his annual income was about 3 million yen, one-fourth the amount a broadcasting company employee his age received and even lower per hour than that of a part-timer at a fast-food restaurant. "Struck with a feeling of emptiness," he quit his job last year after working for close to 10 years. His former company is one of an estimated 500 subcontractors across the country that produce about 80 percent of aired programs but are now struggling to survive...more...

This is a lengthy article so I'll out the rest in the next post.

[Mulboyne]

Continued...

Many broadcasters are trimming subcontracting budgets, citing sagging advertising income and rising costs for the introduction of digital broadcasting. But they are still demanding programs that will win high viewer ratings. Although the Internet has given subcontractors hope that they can enhance their standings in the business, TV broadcasters still dominate the resources, manpower and trust of advertisers, leaving little room for change. In fact, the gap between production companies and broadcasters seems to be widening. "With the income disparity and the slow but sure decline of television, it is becoming obvious to many students who are keenly watching. Therefore, even after joining, few graduates stay on," said Haruki Kito, an official of the Association of All Japan TV Program Production Companies (ATP). The Japan Visual Industry Guild, another trade organization of TV production companies, chose a slogan that reflects the urgency in drawing human resources: "Who will be creating TV 10 years from now?" The harsh conditions at production companies were identified as a possible factor behind Kansai Telecasting Corp.'s airing last year of a popular variety program featuring falsified weight-loss information on natto (fermented soybeans).

Despite the hoopla surrounding program content and potential labor shortages, the bleak situation surrounding production companies remains the same. Subcontracting since the 1970s The current situation stems from the 1970s, when many TV broadcasters began subcontracting work to reduce production costs, although they often retained copyrights to the program material created by production companies. Unlike their Japanese counterparts, many major U.S. production companies are backed by business conglomerates such as Walt Disney Co. and General Electric Co., which boast sales of trillions of yen. With generous financial backing, these production companies have been able to produce blockbusters such as "24" while reaping the profits from sales of broadcasting rights.

A fundamental difference between Japan and the United States lies in the fact that U.S. production companies and broadcasters are on an equal footing, as production and broadcasting are dealt with separately. "Unlike in the United States, where the Hollywood movie industry had a great influence on the development of television, the history of Japanese television took a different path," said Seiichiro Ujiie, representative director and executive chairman of Nippon Television Network Corp. (NTV). He said Japanese broadcasters should take the initiative in producing program material.

Not everybody is happy with the arrangement in Japan. About two years ago, Takaharu Sawada, director of the Japan Visual Industry Guild, started what he called a "rebellion" against TV broadcasters. He visited Softbank Corp.'s head office in Tokyo's Minato Ward hoping to strike a deal to create a new Web-based visual broadcasting service. "If you seriously consider cooperating with us, we're ready to stop working for television companies," Sawada told officials of the Internet investment giant. Even if the guild's 150 member companies were sold for 100 million yen each, the total sum of 15 billion yen would pale in comparison with the 100 billion yen that Internet company Rakuten Inc. spent in its takeover attempt of Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. (TBS).

But Softbank balked. "We don't have the rich know-how that television broadcasters have nurtured over a long period of time," said a senior Softbank official. "I don't think we can expect to win over advertisers." Web-based broadcasting, viewed as a way for production companies to sever their dependence on television, still has a way to go in Japan, primarily because of difficulties in sorting out rights to secondary broadcasting material on the Internet.

Many talent agencies remain cool to the idea of their personalities appearing in Web-based programs. "The response has been much worse than we expected," said Yutaka Takamura, who heads Creators Inc., a company formed in 2006 by more than 20 independent production companies to create broadcast material for the Web and cellular phone networks. "In order for us, who have been creating programs for television, to gain respect on the Web, it will require a change in mentality," Takamura added. However, attempts to redraw the broadcasting map are slowly taking shape. A production company and a toy company recently tied up with a cellular phone dealer to create a limited liability corporation that is currently tasked with creating a police drama for TV Tokyo Corp. By creating program content and dispersing the risks, the corporation hopes to profit through sales of related merchandise, such as cellphones and toys.

Asia Contents Center Inc. (ACC), a company formed last year by 10 corporate entities, including music label Avex Group Holdings and satellite broadcaster Wowow Inc., is currently producing and distributing a five-minute program for Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) satellite broadcast. The program features popular personalities reading verses from the "Manyoshu" (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves), the oldest collection of Japanese poetry, and giving their interpretations. "If we create a long-lived program that can be played on satellite and cable and reproduced on DVD, we can expect continuous new profits," said Takashi Inoue, a director at ACC. The company, which has set up representative offices in China and India with an eye on creating programs based on Japanese comics, hopes to build "one of the largest funds in this country to promote production of television programs."

Trade organizations with production companies as members are all looking into the possible creation of a "content trade market," which would register companies holding rights to programs and promote broadcasts on the Web and pay-per-view TV as well as DVD reproduction. The project has already caught the attention of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which has allocated 100 million yen for support. Despite all of these moves, the power structure between production companies and broadcasters is not expected to change soon.

The ACC's dream project to create a fund has been given a lukewarm response from financial companies, many of whom view investing in broadcasting material as a risky gamble. Telecommunications companies, which would likely benefit the most from increased transmissions over the Web, are reluctant to commit themselves to the creation of a market, insiders say. And broadcasters, who own most of the broadcast material, have kept their distance, too. "The government talks about widening the market for broadcast content, but the rest of the world is pretty cool to the idea," ACC's Inoue said.

[Ptyx]

It's really interesting. The copyright is the heart of the problem. If, as a production company, you give your copyright away you're basically left with nothing. You're back to square one once you've sold your content.

What the article suggests seems very odd to me though. Basically they're saying that japanese production companies are selling their content integrally for an unlimited period of time and that's insane.
Everywhere it's the same, national broadcasting is a pretty concentrated industry with very few players. So it's normal that they impose "unfair" conditions on their content providers, but, usually you never sell your copyright completely. Usually a broadcaster pays for exclusivity for a given amount of time, then the copyright reverts back to the producer who can resell it elsewhere if he wants.
It's probably different in the case of a true co-production but still, if you're a content producer in this day and age you better make sure that at some point you're going to get your content back, or some of the rights of you content back in one way or another.
If you sell all of your rights, for an indefinite amount of time to your distributor, you might as well be an empolyee of your distributor instead of being a contractor.

[Mulboyne]

It's really interesting. The copyright is the heart of the problem. If, as a production company, you give your copyright away you're basically left with nothing. You're back to square one once you've sold your content.

The irony is that the content has a bigger market now overseas. One of the reasons some foreign TV production companies have become so wealthy is that they have sold their programmes and formats globally. Here's a Variety article on recent developments:

Variety: Japanese TV increases global sales

The global TV world is seeing more Japanese content -- and not just the toons that have long been the country's biggest smallscreen export. "Sales of everything are exploding, from formats to original programs," says Makito Sugiyama, head of program sales for Tokyo Broadcasting System. Sellers can point to a long and growing list of overseas broadcasters who have reaped large rewards from Japanese programming, an achievement that helped inspire Mip to name Japan its country of honor this year. Japan has already established itself as the second-biggest TV market in the world in terms of ad spend, with nearly \2 trillion ($19.2 billion) in 2007, or 28.5% of the worldwide total. The nation's five commercial networks and pubcaster NHK still dominate this market, though cable, satellite and now Internet broadcasters are making inroads. But in addition, the nets source nearly all content locally for their main terrestrial channels (though NHK acquires foreign programming in quantity, especially for its two broadcast satellite strands). The webs and NHK will be presenting programming at Mip in all genres, from dramas to reality shows.

TBS has long been a leader in program sales, starting with "Fun TV With Kato-chan and Ken-chan" -- a 1980s variety show whose segment on funny vid clips submitted by viewers morphed in 1989 into "America's Funniest Home Videos," which has become ABC's longest-running primetime entertainment show. TBS also is the distrib of "Takeshi's Castle," an iconic 1980s show that might be described as a free-spirited variant on "King of the Mountain," played by grown-ups who never quite grew up. It has sold widely abroad for both rebroadcast and remaking. These and other Japanese international successes, such as Fuji TV's "Iron Chef" cooking competition show (which became a cult hit Stateside on Food Network and has sold to 15 territories worldwide), have broken down barriers against Japanese live-action programs, previously considered "too Japanese" -- that is, too strange -- for the sensibilities of Western viewers. Now, however, the Japaneseness of a show can be a selling point, as TBS has discovered with its "Ninja Warrior" obstacle-race show, which launched in Japan in 1997 under the title "Sasuke." A spinoff of the popular "Muscle Ranking" show, "Sasuke" attracted huge audiences for its three-hour specials, in which contestants tackled fiendishly difficult obstacle courses with a samurai-like determination -- and disregard for pain. TBS partner Comcast Entertainment has edited "Ninja Warrior" for broadcast on its G4 strand but kept the show's Japanese flavor, even subtitling rather than dubbing the contestants. Comcast also produced its own one-hour special, "American Ninja Challenge," to select an American champion to compete on "Ninja Warrior." At Mip, TBS will present "Women of Ninja Warrior," a new female version of "Ninja Warrior" that G4 is broadcasting in four episodes and "is different from the usual American gameshow," according to Sugiyama. "U.S. viewers had never seen anything like it," Sugiyama comments.

TBS archrival Fuji TV has also found that wackiness, Japanese-style, translates into foreign sales. One recent example is "Hole in the Wall," a Fuji gameshow in which pairs of contestants must contort themselves to fit through a gap in a moving barrier. If they fail, they are unceremoniously shoved into a pool of water. Fuji has licensed the format to FremantleMedia, which developed localized versions of the show for Russia, Indonesia, Spain, Italy and France. Additionally, Fox in the U.S., the BBC in the U.K. and Nine in Australia are gearing up to make "Hole in the Wall"-inspired pilots.

Fuji will also be repping at Mip "Love Crossroads," a new "love reality" show in which couples test their love by each partner trying to meet at date spots significant to their relationship. The format has already been licensed to Italy. Meanwhile, Nippon Television Network will be showcasing "Quiz Stadium," a quizshow in which teams of celebrity contestants work together on challenges in a variety of categories, from completing ad jingle lyrics to reciting tongue twisters. Each team consists of three players and a "manager" who picks the player to answer a given question. The managers can also trade players with each other in the final round of play. "Japanese quizshows differ (from ones in the West) in that often everybody is trying to achieve the same goal," Sugiyama says. "There's less competition between individuals." There is much, more where these and other hit shows come from, he adds. "Japanese TV is a treasure box of ideas," he explains. "We have a wealth of scripts and stories that are unknown to the outside world. We have many shows here that were big hits but were never licensed and so never got exposure abroad." Mip will shed light on some of these ideas with conferences April 8 on the Japanese market, animation and formats. Also, Japanese broadcasters will have their programming treasures on full display in the Palais. The buried ones, though, will still take some digging.

In the US, ABC announced it's summer schedule a few days ago:

...In June, ABC launches two Japanese-inspired game shows in a Tuesday night block. The first is "Wipeout," which takes the extreme obstacle courses of such programs as Spike's "MXC" and G4's import "Ninja Warrior" to another level. Contestants compete for $50,000]"I Survived a Japanese Game Show" at 9 p.m. Originally titled "Big in Japan," "Game Show" takes 10 Americans oversees to compete in the ultimate Japanese competitions series[/B]...

When I first saw the news on "I Survived a Japanese Game Show", I thought it must be an April Fool's joke but it appears it is actually going to happen.

[Mulboyne]

Bloomberg: U.K. Fremantle Finds Japan Partner to Sell `Pop Idol,' FT Says

Bertelsmann AG's Fremantle, creator of "Pop Idol" television programs, will partner with TV Man Union Inc. to sell the rights to create a Japanese version of the show, the Financial Times reported. Japan's TV Man Union will help sell "Idol" and other formats to local networks under the agreement, the FT said, citing U.K.-based Fremantle's Chief Executive Officer Tony Cohen. The "Pop Idol" format has been produced in more than 40 countries, the report said. Fremantle also aims to sell Japanese television programs abroad, the FT said.

This is a brand new move for a Japanese TV production company. Fremantle had tried to get the broadcasters interested but to no avail. Several overseas production companies have considered deals with TV producers but were always deterred by the fact that they generally didn't hold the rights to their programming and the potentially difficulty of getting decent distribution in Japan. Fremantle probably believes that if no terrestrial channel wants to play ball showing "Japan Idol", they might yet be able to go with a cable channel and find some kind of audience. TV Man Union is about as big as they come in the splintered world of Japanese TV production.

[Mulboyne]

Variety: Festival sets Japanese TV mart

The second Intl. Drama Festival will unspool on Oct. 20 and 21 at Spiral Hall in Tokyo and will bow the first Japanese TV drama mart, organizers announced on Tuesday. The fest, held under the aegis of the National Assn. of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (Minporen), with support from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO), will inaugurate a market for Japanese TV drama programming, to be held concurrently with content mart Tiffcom (Oct. 20-23). The market will feature drama programming from Minporen members as well as pubcaster NHK. Aim for the 2009 edition is to expand to a wider range of TV content, including variety shows, docus and toons. The All Nippon Producers Assn. is managing the market office. The Japanese TV biz spends nearly 2 trillion yen ($20 billion) annually on TV production; foreign sales of all genres amounts to $100 million, with TV dramas accounting for only $30 million. Compared with Korea and China, industry and government support for TV drama sales is weak in Japan, fest organizers contend -- a situation they intend to change with their first Japanese drama market.

[Ptyx]

They'll probably have a hard time selling the dramas in the west but they could sell remake rights.
The problem with japanese dramas is the fact that they shoot it in video and not on film. It makes sense actually but in the west we're used to film when watching fiction. That said their big market is not the west, in that case, it's asia.

[james]

TV Programme Makers Suffering

so are the tv programme watchers

[Mulboyne]

When I first saw the news on "I Survived a Japanese Game Show", I thought it must be an April Fool's joke but it appears it is actually going to happen.

RealityTV: I Survived a Japanese Game Show Premieres in June…

They’ve begun shooting one of the zaniest reality TV shows yet made. I Survived a Japanese Game Show has taken 10 Americans, many of whom have never traveled outside the country before, to Japan for filming of some crazy and hilarious stunts, game show-style. Some of the challenges viewers can expect to see are:

Why is This Food So Hard to Eat? In this challenge, one teammate will be running fast in place on a treadmill with a plate of food strapped to his/her head. The other teammate will be leaning over a platform, stretching to try and reach the moving food and eat it.

Crazy Crane Finds Fluffy Bear: This challenge will have one blindfolded teammate operating a crane, which is dangling another teammate over a pile of stuffed bears. The dangling teammate must grab up as many of the toys as he/she can.

Chicken Butt Scramble: Yeah, it’s what it sounds like. Contestants will have to don chicken suits and then smash oversize eggs filled with goo… with their butts only.

Host/Interpreter Tony Sano, an American actor fluent in Japanese will be guiding the players through their stay in Japan. House mother Mamasan will be on hand to stir the pot. And the witty game show host Rome Kanda will lead the contestants through all of the zany challenges. The winner will receive $250,000 (But do they get to keep the chicken suit?).

Filming has begun for I Survived a Japanese Game Show. The show is set to premiere Tuesday, June 24th at 9:00 PM (ET) on ABC.

This could end up needing its own thread.

[Ptyx]

I don't know if it's related but the dutch and the belgians are doing a similar show.
They were shootin' it last year, i don't know if it's aired yet.

[Charles]

[Mulboyne]

Let the zaniness ensue when Americans who have never traveled outside our beautiful country are sent to that wacky island known as Japan to compete in a local game show. In the "Why Is This Food So Hard to Eat" segment, patriots will be challenged to eat food attached to a teammate's head while running on a treadmill; while in "Chicken Butt Scramble," Americans will attempt to smash goo-filled oversize eggs with only their butts while wearing chicken suits.

From here

[Kuang_Grade]

It is really only a matter of time before "ow! my balls" becomes a reality
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http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138/post/1360025736.html

G4 is taking competitive eating competitions to the next level with a new series that combines speed-eating with intense physical challenges. In each episode, five brave contestants attempt to consume the largest quantity of food in a short amount of time and are then immediately subjected to a series of challenges designed to shake them up. The one to hold his or her food down the longest claims victory and walks away with a cash prize, the Iron Stomach Award, and more importantly, serious bragging rights. The half-hour series, "Hurl!" premieres summer 2008 on G4. The competition is made up of multiple stages, beginning with an intense eating contest. Contestants are challenged to consume a massive portion of some popular All-American favorite, as quickly as they can, with items ranging from chicken pot pies to New England chowder, fish sticks, hot dogs, blueberry pie, and more. Those who devour the largest quantity and keep everything down move on to the second stage where they must face nausea-inducing physical challenges, designed to shake them up – from carnival rides to belly flops off a high dive, to mechanical bull-riding. Each episode features two different cuisines and a new outrageous challenge.

[Mulboyne]

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[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

There's a whole host of articles about this trend - all part of the promotion, of course:

Boston: Will Americans fall for Japanese-style game shows?

Apparently, Americans have at least one major quality in common with the Japanese: a willingness to fall down dramatically on camera, preferably into muddy water. When the creators of "Fear Factor" started casting "Wipeout" - a new slapstick contest with a clear kinship to Tokyo game show fare - they had no trouble attracting contestants. Ditto the producers of "I Survived a Japanese Game Show"...Whether they're the best representation of Japanese culture is another question; there are faint rumblings in the blogosphere about whether "Japanese Game Show" will perpetuate Asian stereotypes. Smith says the show strives to be authentic, and used Japanese producers, directors, and hosts to create its course...more...

From Newsday:

I also spoke with "Game Show" producer Art Smith a couple of weeks ago, and he insists the whole affair's a spoof, and a funny one at that. I'm sold.

[Mulboyne]

EW.com: I survived (and laughed at) 'I Survived a Japanese Gameshow'

Perhaps I should admit right from the start that America's Funniest Home Videos still, after all these years, makes me laugh; that's just how I roll. Getting a chortle out of watching people doing ridiculous things is as natural as eating and sleeping. And no one does ridiculous better (or with more gusto) than contestants on Japanese gameshows. So it's with embarrassing anticipation that I've been looking forward to ABC's new I Survived a Japanese Gameshow, a reality TV/competition hybrid that's shipped a handful of all too stereotypical Americans (the Staten Island Diva, the country boy, the naive blond) to Tokyo, set them up in a house (complete with bossy Mama-san and remote control toilet), and cast them on a crazy gameshow called Majide, translated by turbo-charged host Romu Kandu as "You Got to Be Crazy." And everyone involved is, just a little bit: the contestants, the host, Judge Bob, and the Japanese audience members who enthusiastically throw gang signs and beat on drums and tambourines...more...

[Mulboyne]

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[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: TV shows cutting costs, big-name staff to stay afloat

In a desperate bid to cut production costs amid a sharp decline in advertising revenues, major private broadcasters have effectively given the boot to a number of well-known newscasters as part of their programming schedules for autumn. Christel Takigawa, 32, who had worked for "News Japan," a Fuji TV news program broadcast since October 2002, and Baku Owada, 59, who had served as a host for "Wide! Scramble," a TV Asahi information variety program for 11 years, parted company with the respective programs on Sept. 25. Two days later, actress Rei Kikukawa, 31, left NTV news program "Shinso Hodo Bankisha!" after seven years. In all three cases, the newscasters claimed to be "moving on," while their vacant spots were filled by other members of staff. The stations' reasons for the departures included such explanations as "Takigawa offered to step down" (Fuji TV), "The move coincides with a fresh approach for the 15th anniversary of the program" (TV Asahi), and "It's just part of ordinary changes in the host of the show" (NTV). The number of TV commercials has been falling since fiscal 2005, due partly to the rise of Internet advertising. This has meant that many TV stations have had to tighten their fiscal belts.

According to Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry data, 195 terrestrial TV and radio stations were in the red to the tune of 21.2 billion yen in total, as of the end of fiscal 2008--the first time a deficit had been recorded since the end of fiscal 1976, when records first began. Against this background, TV Asahi reduced production costs by 15 billion yen this fiscal year, a 16.6 percent cut compared with the previous fiscal year, while NTV cut about 14.2 billion yen, a drop of 12.7 percent. Other cost-cutting efforts include a reduction in affiliated overseas locations and a cut in the number of cameras used, and reducing the number of programs that are recorded into the wee hours, when costs are more expensive. Ultimately, such measures have trickled down to the cast of each show. TV personalities often command as much as several million yen per show, according to a TV station staffer. "People have started thinking that program hosts don't necessarily have to be TV personalities," the official said. If a TV station appoints a regular member of staff to act as an announcer, they are not obliged to pay an extra appearance fee.

This recent trend also has spread to variety shows: TV personality Eriko Kusuta, 57, who had worked for NTV's "Sekai Marumie! Terebi Tokusobu" for 19 years, parted company with the show on Sept. 28. "It's obvious that these recent parting of the ways are down to production cost cuts and downsizing at TV stations," said Tokyo University of Technology Prof. Hiroyoshi Usui, an expert in media science who also had a long career as a producer at a production company. "With only a few exceptions, TV companies have neglected to educate their announcers with regard to utilizing them effectively in their programs. It's a good time for such companies to reconsider how to utilize their human resources," Usui said.

[SpikeX]

It is really only a matter of time before "ow! my balls" becomes a reality

Go away! I'm batin'

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: TV shows cutting costs, big-name staff to stay afloat

This article (Japanese) says that the decision to give Hideyuki Nakayama the front role on NTV's "Omokkiri Don!" is because he can be paid 800,000 a programme compared with a top MC's price of 4 million yen.

[dimwit]

Why does the word schadenfreude seem to be so appropriate here? Let me see, the choice of terrestrial broadcasting on any given evening here is: a quiz with about 20 to 30 agency talents, a drama starring a bunch of agency talents, or a NHK historical drama. With such banal pickings who would bother tuning in?

[Buraku]

They'll probably have a hard time selling the dramas in the west but they could sell remake rights.

Everyone loves Japanese tv

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