InterBEE REVIEW2016

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89To start the second day, a discussion was held on the utilization of the Internet for television reporting. Mr. Kazuhiko Yamashita of NHK’s Internet News Reporting Department, Mr. Paul Hiromichi Shizume, responsible for the Abema TV news channel at TV Asahi, and Mr. Toshihiro Shimizu, representing Fuji Television’s Internet media source Houdoukyoku, took the stage as panelists. An enthusiastic discussion was held under the skillful moderation of Ms. Keiko Murakami from NHK’s Broadcasting Culture Research Institute.As an entry point to the discussion, Ms. Murakami explained about the current status of rivalry between the leaders in news media on the Internet. She used a matrix composed of four quadrants indicating mass media, Internet media, text media, and video media, classifying and visually representing each media type. This organized presentation made the chaotic state of media easy to understand not only for broad-casting operators, but for anyone widely involved with media.Mr. Yamashita of NHK explained about the methods of conveying information on disasters or other situations from the perspective of public media, by applying Twitter as well as NHK’s “News and Disaster Response App.” While this application can be valuable for early com-munication on the occurrence of disasters by using push notifications, Twitter can transmit comprehensive information on continually-changing conditions. It can be clearly seen that these functions, includ-ing simultaneous news content delivery, are effectively answering the needs of the public during emergency conditions.Mr. Shizume of TV Asahi described the overall mechanisms of AbemaTV which allow it to distribute several dozen channels over the Internet similarly to broadcasting, and gave a presentation on its core function AbemaNews and its spotlighted program AbemaPrime. This program’s slogan is “Unbound by the restrictions of society”, which is reflected in its various challenges made to address themes that cannot be handled under the limitations put on terrestrial broadcasts, and to use techniques with a high level of difficulty.Mr. Shimizu of Houdoukyoku spoke about his company’s most current activities. Houdoukyoku began service in April 2015 in the form of broadcasting over the Internet, and underwent an expansive redesign on October 24 of this year. For this purpose, it conducted research on the latest trends of reporting media in the United States. Houdoukyoku in its new form has changed its policies from streaming-only to on-demand news streams, and is also distributing content in the form of text and images rather than limiting itself only to video content.The theme of “reporting” which was covered for the first time this year is one of the most prominent fields of interest today, as well as a fundamental part of the value of media to society. We will be sure to keep a close watch on the further developments of each of these services.The second session held on the first day was “How Will New View-ing Measurements Change Television?” Television viewing is no longer limited to watching TV programs in real-time, but has expanded in many different ways to include watching recorded programs and view-ing content over the Internet. A study on time-shift viewer ratings was started this past October, but it is only one step in a field where diverse players are undertaking a variety of projects to carry out viewing measurements. Panelists from three such major companies were invited to speak in this session: Mr. Makoto Niitsuma, Director of Video Research Ltd.’s Solution Business Development Division, Mr. Yoshiya Nakamura, Executive Analyst at The Nielsen Company Japan, and Mr. Takahiro Nagasaki, Corporate Officer of Intage, Inc. The role of moderator was taken up by media consultant Mr. Osamu Sakai.First of all, Mr. Sakai gave a brief description of the conditions surrounding the topic of television viewing measurements, followed by individual short presentations by each of the panelists.Mr. Niitsuma provided an explanation of the new viewing measure-ments used by Video Research. A project to measure “total viewer ratings” including time-shift viewer ratings was started from October, and according to Mr. Niitsuma, time-shift ratings are particularly high for drama programs and among the segment of young people.Next, Mr. Nakamura gave a presentation on the activities for total audience measurement carried out in the United States. This measure-ment, scheduled to be published from March 2017, is composed of four elements: television program viewer ratings, television advertisement viewer ratings, digital content viewer ratings, and digital advertisement viewer ratings.Mr. Nagasaki began his speech by introducing a portion of the indus-try events held in the United States. The discussion heated up on the subject of research methods, with the issue of using a panel method or census method for research highlighted as a key point. It was noted that at Intage, single-source panels are used for panel-based research, while smart television viewer log data is applied for census-based research. By using a single-source panel (i-SSP), the general media activity of a single person on a single day can be studied.Although the broadcasting industry has advanced to this point based on real-time viewer ratings for households, the advent of a more com-plex age is bringing with it a need to utilize more diverse types of data. This session gave a powerful impression that we have entered an age in which media companies must learn and master the skills of analysis in order to enhance their own values. “New Reporting: Opening Up Television Stations”NHK, AbemaTV, and Houdoukyoku speak fervently about the state of new reporting using the Internet10:30 AM-11:20 AM, Thursday, November 17th“How Will New Viewing Measurements Change Television?”A heated discussion by three media research companies about the latest trends in viewing measurements.2:20 PM-3:50 PM, Wednesday, November 16th