Tokyo– NHK has so far co-produced about 1,000 documentary, science and other programs with foreign broadcasting stations and others, from Silk Road in the 1980’s to the recent Miracle Body and Wild Japan. NHK has now co-produced a program with SABC, the South African public broadcaster. This is NHK’s first joint production with an African broadcasting station.

The joint program has been made for Discover Science, which features unique, large-scale experiments and is broadcast on NHK’s Educational TV channel. The joint production was made in areas such as the Kalahari Desert. For this African location, the experiments included use of a giant pinhole camera to photograph a 5m-tall giraffe, and water collection in the desert using 100 plastic bags.

NHK intends to build on this opportunity to promote its contents in Africa. The program will be broadcasted on 31 October in Japan; and in February next year in South Africa.

NHK’s new corporate plan is promoting the expansion of international activities and this reinforcement of international co-productions will continue. NHK is looking for new production partners not only in Europe and North America but also in countries of South America, Asia, and others to shoot 4K and 8K footage for joint programs across an even wider range of genres, including entertainment shows and dramas.