The March 11 earthquake and tsunami shattered the moderate sign of optimism for Japan’s media industry. More than three months since the quake, it is still desperately trying to minimize the fi nancial fallout created by the disaster and its aftermath. Last year, things began looking up. TV advertising grew by 1.1 per cent, for the fi rst time in six years and in February ad agency Dentsu revised its fi scal operating profi t forecast (ending March, 2011) upward by 16 per cent to US$650 million in view of the recovery, particularly strong during the last quarter of 2010 when ad sales shot up by 12 per cent. But then, disaster struck. Following the 9.1 quake, UK research fi rm ZenithOptimedia, forecast Japanese ad spending would sink 4.1 per cent, and only seeing some recovery in 2012 to an estimated 4.6 per cent. Following the quake, most commercial networks suspended regular programming and broadcast earthquake and related news without commercials continuously from March 11 to March 13. According to Video Research, public broadcaster NHK scored the highest ratings across the board up to March 13. The all-day tuned-in rate exceeded 30 per cent on March 11 and was up more than 20 per cent in the Tokyo metro area alone. NHK deployed all of its eight channels, which includes terrestrial, satellite and radio, to report on the disaster from 2:48 p.m. or two minutes after the quake was reported, a spokesperson told TV ASIA Plus. The mainstream terrestrial channel continued to report on the quake for 522 hours until April 6, she added. Covering the event on the ground was also a challenge for news channels there. Said Katsuhiko Waza, president, BBC Worldwide Japan, “We found out that the Sony factory for HDCAM tapes in Tohoku was seriously damaged and that production of tapes had been completely stopped, so we requested our clients returned tapes for re-use.” Waza added that since the quake they have upgraded the I.T system to allow staff to work from home in case of aftershocks or another quake. A helping hand In the weeks following the disaster, Japan’s commercial networks’ ad revenue slipped 4 – 10 per cent as advertisers refrained from hard-sell advertising in an effort to be “self-restrained”. But this commercial abyss was soon fi lled by public service ads offered by the Advertising Council Japan (AC). AC, a voluntary organization created by advertisers and ad agencies in 1971, with a current membership exceeding 12,000, offered such ads to all the TV stations across the country free of charge over the coming year. Director and secretary general Susumu Takashima, currently ‘on loan’ to the council by Suntory, said because of the quake, AC also added several new commercials to its lineup, “mostly on manners, appropriate greetings and compassion, in an effort to aid those who suffered in the quake”. Although the number of public service advertisements broadcast is diffi cult to trace, since their use and number of plays is left entirely to the TV stations that air them, Takashima estimates more than 80 per cent of commercials were AC ads during the period immediately after the disaster. Surprisingly, there was some commercial gain from this initiative. A poem by Misuzu Kaneko (1903 – 1930) used in one of the AC ads about communication among friends, triggered a sudden demand for her books around the country. Also, Rey Okamoto, a relatively unknown model and actress, who narrated an ad on friendship, became a minor celebrity overnight. Go where the money is Besides the drop in ad revenues, commercial networks lost substantial potential revenue from sponsored events, which are a growing source of nonbroadcasting income. A number of major entertainment events were either cancelled totally or postponed due to the earthquake and the public’s sentiment that any celebrating should be respectfully curtailed. Among them was Cirque du Soleil’s KOOZA to be screened on Fuji Television. Tokyo Broadcast System’s coverage of the International Figure Skating Championships, originally scheduled to be held in Tokyo for the fi rst time in four years, was lost to Moscow and there was a two-week postponement of the pro baseball season opening, which many of the networks support. In their quest for improving revenue streams, networks are now looking overseas in a bid to drum up revenue through programme sales and new productions, an area largely ignored by many networks. Nippon TV recently signed a joint venture agreement with Taiwan’s major cable network, CtiTV for programme production and format sales there. On the anime front, where the number of titles released on TV has dropped by almost 30 per cent, TV Tokyo, which airs more than 30 anime shows a week, has signed a joint production agreement with China’s Carloon Animation for production of the 26-episode CG series Train Hero. TV Asahi and Fuji TV are also pushing joint production and distribution with Korean and Chinese cable networks and production houses. Digital delay While the 634-metre (2,092-feet) Tokyo Sky Tree, soon to be the world’s tallest television transmission tower, will be ready for digital transmission by all the broadcasters later this year, the fi nal and total analogue-digital switchover, scheduled for July 24, is likely to be postponed for up to a year in the quake-stricken areas. There is concern that a complete shift to digital would strip the affected communities of a major means to receive vital information related to the cleanup and recovery as well as subsequent aftershocks, which continue to rattle the country’s north-eastern region. Last month, cabinet approved a bill to postpone the scheduled digital switch in the three prefectures hardest hit by the quake and tsunami which continue to rattle the country’s north-eastern region. Last month, cabinet approved a bill to postpone the scheduled digital switch in the three prefectures hardest hit by the quake and tsunami for up to one year. The government will also waive radiowave usage fees when TV stations in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. Hideo Hiraoka, vice minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIAC), said it would cost several billion yen to assist broadcasters in the area to get ready for the fi nal digital switchover. In other areas, 95 per cent of households own digital TV receivers as of the end of last year, according to the MIAC. Last year, the ministry arranged for some 200,000 volunteers to encourage people without terrestrial digital receivers and other relevant equipment to introduce them in their homes. 3DTV boom fizzles A year after appliance manufacturers and content providers jumped on the 3DTV bandwagon, the new perspective in TV viewing has failed to ignite consumers’ interests. Although sales of such televisions are growing, overall sales of 3DTVs did not exceed 10 per cent of the total TV sales last year. Commercial networks that were ready to go into the 3D market a year ago are now more hesitant to take a risk with the current economic outlook. In the meantime, some of the foreign channels in Japan are also trying to encourage the tremor-hit TV industry and viewers to get back on an even keel. Discovery announced an open contest for local production houses to submit story ideas for its Rebuilding Japan documentary initiative. Six winning ideas, chosen by a joint committee from Discovery Japan, Animal Planet Japan and Discovery Networks International, will be commissioned and show in Japan and abroad from the spring of 2012. James Gibbons, president of Discovery Japan and Animal Planet Japan, said that the project is in response to the strong interest from local viewers to broadcast the recovery from the quake and tsunami. “We decided to launch the initiative after Discovery Japan was inundated with requests from viewers who had seen the touching on-air messages of sympathy and support from Discovery’s key talent – among them, Bear Grylls, and the Mythbuster’s Jeremy Wade, and Dave Salmoni. We are sure that the theme of the project – triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity – will resonate with our viewers not just in Japan but also around the world.”