Subsidiary company of SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director, President& Chief Executive Officer: Shinji Takada), WAKUWAKU JAPAN (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO Masafumi Kawanishi, hereafter WAKUWAKU JAPAN) has launched on Taiwan’s paid broadcasting service TBC on 1 July 2017 (Sat). Taiwan Broadband Communications (TBC) is the third largest network broadcaster in Taiwan, with approximately 760,000 household subscriptions and occupies the top rank in the Taichung and Taoyuan areas.
With this launch on TBC, the number of platforms on which WAKUWAKU JAPAN is available in Taiwan increases from 5 (from September 2016) to 12. This has also resulted in the number of potential viewing households rising from 700,000 to approximately 4,370,000 households (~12,000,000 people).
TBC’s Sr. Vice President for Content & Partners, Mr. Peter Pan, had the following comment, “WAKUWAKU JAPAN presents a way to learn about Japanese culture in even greater detail. I am looking forward to the launch.”
Taiwan has a population of approximately 23,500,000 people spread over 8,460,000 households. Paid TV subscription service penetration is at approximately 90 percent, and nearly every household is subscribed to cable TV, or IPTV. With the addition of TBC to WAKUWAKU JAPAN’s broadcasting platforms, it will be available to watch on the 4 main platforms in Taiwan.
In February 2017, WAKUWAKU JAPAN organized the large-scale gourmet event, EAT UP JAPAN2017 held at Taipei Station. In a span of 6 days, more than 25,000 visitors came to the event, garnering over 100 articles written about it in the media. In conjunction, TV commercial promotions about the event were also aired on the country’s terrestrial channels. With the aim of increasing the brand recognition of WAKUWAKU JAPAN, several promotion campaigns, including wrappings on buses running in Taipei, both real and digital campaign, in order to promote the original WAKUWAKU JAPAN-produced culture program WAKUWAKU be Ponkickies and the simulcast of television drama CRISIS on the channel.
WAKUWAKU JAPAN is in the midst of planning a variety of efforts both on and off screen, with the aim of encouraging deeper relations between Japan and Taiwan. In addition, there are also plans to air the newest and never-before-seen series for the drama lovers in Taiwan, collaborations with local distributors as well as merchandising campaigns starring well-loved Japanese characters. As a Japanese company, WAKUWAKU JAPAN hopes to collaborate with the various Japanese businesses in Taiwan in order to bring events that will excite the people of Taiwan, and increase the number of visitors to Japan as well as raise the profile of the channel.
