An Examination of Terrestrial and Broadcasting Satellite Broadcasters' Programming by Type: What Factors Influence Program Diversity in the Multi-channel Era?

Abstract

This study calculated the program diversity and the programming differentiation of both terrestrial and broadcasting satellite broadcasters in 2010 to investigate the factors affecting program diversity in the multichannel era. The results showed that broadcast hours by program type differed between the public broadcaster, NHK, and private broadcasters, and between private terrestrial and private satellite broadcasters, implying that the operation of a public broadcaster and the introduction of satellite broadcasting have widened the range of programs available to the audience. This study also found that programming differed between terrestrial broadcasters and BS broadcasters that are related by ownership.

Notes

¹ The NHK BS analog broadcast service began in 1986 and terminated with the shift from analog to digital in July 2011.

² Oba (2004) measured the vertical diversity and horizontal diversity of major terrestrial broadcasters, BS broadcasters, and the basic channels of a large cable television operator in Japan. However, the investigation period was limited to a week, and he did not investigate the differentiation in programming across a few types of broadcasters or the relationship between the ownership of broadcasters and diversity examined in this study.

³ NHK had three BS digital channels when the investigation was carried out. One NHK BS channel sometimes rebroadcasted terrestrial programs to provide these programs nationwide during the transition to digitalization. NHK BS digital channels decreased from three to two (BS1 and BS premium) in 2011 when the transition to digitalization was completed. The number of BS digital channels became the same as that of analog channels by the reduction of BS digital channels, because NHK once had two channels for BS analog broadcast.

⁴ After dividing the 24 hours of each day into several groups, a method for analyzing the programming in each group of hours using the deviation index may be proposed in another study.

⁵ Video Research has investigated household and individual audience ratings since 1962 and 1997, respectively, and it is only one company that investigates audience ratings in Japan. The annual reports published by Video Research show the audience rating and the program type of each program.

⁶ Program type “children's” is included in the classification of Video Research and Tokyo News Service. However, there was no children's program during prime time for 8 weeks in 2010 during the course of this study. Although TV News Service classifies fashion and imperial family programs as separate items, programs of neither type were broadcasted in this sample.

⁷ The values of HHI for BS1, BS2, and BS High Vision were 0.458, 0.099, and 0.200, respectively.

⁸ The main reasons for the high ratio of Korean dramas are the popularity and the relatively low purchase cost of Korean dramas. The cost data are available from Kim (2013).

⁹ TV Tokyo has been the smallest among the five major broadcasters and cannot allot abundant resources for the programs production. Thus, TV Tokyo often produced and transmitted low cost programs, such as travel and cooking. In contrast, TBS Television and Fuji Television Network, which had relatively large budgets, transmitted many entertainment programs at the request of their advertisers.

¹⁰ The Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting has researched the household penetration of BS digital broadcast services periodically. http://www.dpa.or.jp/information/2012/130321002.html

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sumiko Asai

Sumiko Asai is a Professor at the School of Polical Science and Economics, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan.