InterBEE REVIEW2016

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ranging from AVOD to TVOD and SVOD, in collaboration with other companies. Mr. Masahito Ota from Nippon TV took the platform next, making it his third consecutive year to speak at this event. Mr. Ota, who explains Nippon TV’s orga-nized strategies in a clear and easily-understandable fashion every year, announced the current state and ideas of the catch-up service TADA and flat-rate video delivery service hulu. His presenta-tion content noted that since hulu’s acqui-sition from a U.S. media company, its membership has been growing smoothly and is expected to increase even further from its status of 1.3 million users as of March of this year. It was also noted that although half of its total users are smart device users, examination of the data for viewing time reveals that television use accounts for a greater amount of time. He further indicated that a large-scale renewal of Nippon TV’s video delivery service is currently being prepared.Mr. Ninagawa from TV Tokyo Commu-nications then once again took the stand to speak about TVer. He reported that even though it is being overshadowed by the strength of AbemaTV, the number of times the TVer application has been downloaded is rising steadily and has exceeded 4 million downloads.25The latter half of the session was a discussion moderated by Mr. Tsukamoto. Questions were posed on a variety of topics including the ideas people have about SVOD, measures to compete with overseas businesses, and the relationship between video delivery and time-shift viewer ratings. In closing, Mr. Tsukamoto showed slides of data comparing the use of video services, indicating that TVer’s MAU (Monthly Active Users) status is currently struggling to expand. Although the question of “What are your future plans involving TVer?” was deftly presented as a decisive question, all of the stations’ responses were somewhat ambiguous. Mr. Ota’s answer of “It would be difficult to operate with just TVer”, hinted at the difficulties that exist with jointly-deployed services.With the debut of AbemaTV and the successive launches of LINE’s live video delivery service and Internet-based video services like CChannel, it is likely that there will be upcoming questions on how to best utilize the predominance of televi-sion stations in video delivery, and not only with regard to TVer. This session clearly revealed both the evolution of each of the participating stations and the many difficulties present in this field.How to Best Apply the Predominance of TelevisionMr. Kazuo Nomura from Fuji Television explained about this year’s expansion of the service content of FOD (Fuji TV on Demand). In addition to a substantial increase in the number of programs subject to its catch-up service “Fuji TV Plus 7” from 14 to 24, the service has also been equipped with a function for sepa-rating out displayed advertisements. While enhancing its electronic document business, the company has made a full-scale entry into SVOD, and has greatly expanded its service content with mea-sures including the submission of original programs. It has also started undertakings into VR, and is becoming a video delivery company able to offer a wide variety of entertainment options.Next, Mr. Shinjiro Ninagawa from TV Tokyo Communications made a presenta-tion on the deployment of his company’s video delivery business, centered on the idea of being “TV-Tokyoish”. He explained points including the company’s plan to maximize its reach by locating more and more contents in positions applicable to an all-directional sales policy, and by striving to build a business ecosystem that comprises the steps of “broadcast-ing promotion monetization”.Mr. Yasuyuki Tazawa from TBS explained that TBS substantially redesigned its video delivery service in October, imple-menting a dramatic change in direction from its previous “branch office principle” of providing programs to services of other companies while owning no services of its own. Completely separate from its catch-up service TBS FREE, it has launched an SVOD service for unlimited premium viewing which allows customers to view content from its extensive archive of drama programs for a monthly fee of 900 yen. Of this amount, 500 yen can be used for “pay-as-you-go” services, making it ultimately very reasonable and leading to extremely rapid growth in its number of users. Mr. Tazawa explained that rather than shifting from its “branch office prin-ciple” to a “head office principle”, TBS is instead adopting an “all-inclusive head office principle”.Mr. Hiroshi Ohba from TV Asahi began his presentation by explaining that the reason he was not able to clearly explain TV Asahi’s strategies at this same event last year was that at the time, various planned projects were in progress but still being kept confidential. This time, he described the overall strategy which could not be divulged last year due to the preparation of AbemaTV. He spoke about TV Asahi’s “5-Media Strategy” which com-bines 5 types of media including the Inter-net and Media City (event venues includ-ing Roppongi Hills and EX Theater) in addition to terrestrial broadcasts, BS, and CS, and which is deploying video delivery Reports by Individual Stations on their Latest Video Business Strategies