Incorporated: 1957
NAIC: 515120 Television Broadcasting
SIC: 4833 Television Broadcasting Stations
Fuji Television Network Inc., or Fuji TV, is one of Japan's oldest and largest television broadcasting groups. The company's network of 28 affiliate stations provides it with coverage of 98 percent of Japan's population. An emphasis on entertainment programming has consistently placed the company at the top of the country's ratings. Fuji TV has also actively invested in new digital television technologies, including digital satellite broadcasting. The company is also a major partner in SKY PerfecTV. Fuji TV also controls the Nippon Broadcasting System, which with 37 stations is not only Japan's largest radio network, but also is one of the largest in the world. The company's Broadcasting division also includes its television and film production operations, which have generated such major hits as the Bayside Shakedown film and television series. The company claims six of Japan's all-time top ten highest-grossing live-action films (and four of the top ten including animated films). This division also includes the company's overseas division, including U.S.-based Fujisankei Communications International (FCI). Altogether, the broadcasting division remains the largest part of the group's operations, at more than 75 percent of its annual sales of Y476 billion ($5 billion) in 2006. The company's other divisions include Direct Marketing, which accounts for 11.5 percent of revenues, and Video and Music, which includes Pony Canyon and FujiPacific Music, and adds 12.5 percent. Fuji TV is the flagship of the Fujisankei Communications Group, which also controls the Sankei Shimbun Group newspaper and magazine publishing group, among other holdings. Fuji TV is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Hisashi Hieda is the company's chairman and CEO.
On the Air in 1959
Fuji Television Network grew out of the publishing empire founded by the Shikanai family in the early part of the 20th century. By the 1920s, the Shikanai family had become a noted publisher of trade magazines. In 1930, the family launched a new business-oriented title, Nihon Kogyo Shimbun. The Shikanais' conservative political leanings allowed the group to profit following the Imperial government's takeover of the country's media outlets. In 1941, the government instituted a "one prefecture, one paper" policy that gave the Shikanai family control over the Fuji prefecture. In 1942, the company absorbed the region's other newspapers, creating its flagship newspaper Sankei Shimbun.
Fuji Sankei, as the company became known, retained its prominence in the immediate postwar years. By then, the company was led by Nobutaka Shikanai, born in 1911. Shikanai had served as an officer in the Imperial Army and had inherited his family's conservative philosophies. Indeed, in the postwar period, Shikanai used the company's newspapers to lead the anticommunist, antilabor movement drive. In this way, Shikanai developed close ties with the powerful Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which dominated Japanese politics in the postwar era. The company's staunch support of the LDP earned it a reputation, according to Asia Times, as "an extension of the ruling party."
The Shikanai family's relationship with the LDP helped it win a television broadcasting license for the Tokyo region in the late 1950s. This led to the founding of Fuji Television in 1957, and to the launch of its first broadcasts in 1959 as the Fuji Television Network, or Fuji TV. The new network initially broadcast in black and white. In 1964, however, Fuji TV, which held the concession for the Tokyo Olympic Games, became the first in Japan to broadcast in color. By then, the Shikanai family had also begun developing its own radio network, Nippon Broadcasting System, which grew into the country's largest, and one of the largest in the world.
By the end of the 1960s, Fuji extended its reach beyond the Tokyo market. The company began developing its news network in partnership with other local television stations, founding Fuji News Network in 1966. By the end of the decade, the company had started to establish and acquire affiliate stations. This led to the creation of Fuji Network Systems (FNS) in 1970, to serve as a holding company for the company's national broadcasting network. Fuji continued building up its national penetration into the new millennium. In 1997, for example, FNS acquired Kochi Sun Sun Broadcasting Inc. and Sakuranbo Television Broadcasting Corporation. These additions helped boost the company's coverage to more than 98 percent of the country's population.
Fuji TV also developed a strong production division from the late 1960s. The company introduced a popular music-oriented program, Music Fair, in 1964, which remained on Fuji TV's schedule into the 2000s. In 1969, the company had its first in-house developed hit, the popular Sazaesan cartoon series. The company also became the first in Japan to launch a home shopping channel in 1972.
By then, Fuji TV had also branched out into film production, releasing its first film, Goyokin, by film director Hideo Gosha, in 1969. By the 1980s, Fuji TV's film production unit had developed into one of the country's leaders, and one of only a few that could compete against the dominance of foreign films at the Japanese box-office. One of the company's first major successes was the film Antarctica, released in 1983, which smashed all previous box-office records and remained the highest-grossing Japanese film until the mid-1990s.
Ratings Leader
The early 1980s marked Fuji TV's arrival at the top of the country's television broadcasting market as well. The adoption of a new programming strategy, which emphasized lighter entertainment and variety-oriented fare, played the central role in the company's growth in the decade. Under new slogans such as "We Love Television" and "It's Not Fuji Television If It's Not Fun," the company became a favorite across the country. By 1982, the company had scored its first so-called triple crown, topping the ratings in the three major age and gender categories. Over the next decade, Fuji TV appeared to have a monopoly on the triple crown, winning the title for 12 years in a row.
Also during the 1980s, Fuji TV began developing something of an international profile. In 1982, the company formed a new subsidiary, Fujisankei Communications International (FCI), with headquarters in New York City, which became the first to offer commercial television programming for the Japanese expatriate market. FCI developed special overseas editions of Fuji TV's news and other broadcasts, which were then distributed via satellite to broadcasters in the United States and Europe.
In the early 1990s, the company scored new successes, leading to the development of a new type of series, called "trendy dramas," with the broadcasts of Tokyo Love Story, Under the Same Roof, and Power Office Girls. The company also captured a growing share of the youth market, with hit series including The 101st Proposal and Long Vacation. Many of the company's series led to successful strings of spinoff series, and cross-media products. As such, Fuji TV developed a number of its successful television series into hit films, and vice versa.
The early 1990s also marked the end of the Shikanai family's direct control of their media empire. The death of chairman Haruo Shikanai, son of Nobutaka Shikanai, from liver cancer at the age of 42 had weakened the family's position at the end of the 1980s. By 1992, the company's other shareholders had forced the Shikanai family from management of the Fuji Sankei Communications Group. Nonetheless, that company, as well as Fuji TV, retained the family's conservative editorial policy, and its relationship with the country's ruling party.
Digital Revolution in the 21st Century
Fuji TV went public in 1997, listing its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's First Section. Through a complex shareholding arrangement, however, Fuji TV came under the control of its much smaller sister company, Nippon Broadcasting System. Also in 1997, Fuji TV moved to a new, and iconic, headquarters building on the Tokyo Bay waterfront. The building boasted a state-of-the-art television broadcasting facility, enabling the company to begin its shift toward digital broadcasting.
Fuji TV took a step in that direction when it became the first Japanese terrestrial television broadcaster to enter the digital satellite broadcasting sector. In 1997, Fuji TV joined the JSkyB satellite television consortium with partners News Corp., Sony, and Softbank Corporation. By 1999 that alliance then merged with another satellite broadcaster, PerfecTV, becoming SKY PerfecTV. That service boasted 276 channels of programming. Fuji TV began developing programming for its own two channels on SKY PerfecTV. The first of these was launched in 1999, featuring sports and news, and was called SCTV. While SKY PerfecTV offered the company entry into the communication satellite (CS) sector, Fuji TV also eyed direct entry into the digital broadcasting satellite (BS) sector. For this, the company began developing a new channel in 1998, called BS Fuji. When it launched in 2000, Fuji TV became one of the first to broadcast in the new high definition format.
The move into satellite broadcasting enabled the company to begin broadcasting beyond Japan for the first time as well. In 2000, the company launched tests of a new television service, providing programming to broadcasters in the Asian-Pacific region. As it prepared to launch the service to the general public, Fuji TV had already lined up broadcasters in four countries in the region.
Fuji TV continued to reposition itself in Japan's fast-evolving media landscape. The deregulation of the broadcast sector in the late 1990s had introduced a whole new spectrum of competition for the company. The proliferation of satellite services provided another source of competition for the company. Meanwhile, the emergence of broadband Internet access services represented nothing less than a revolution in the media market, permitting the convergence of a variety of heretofore separate media. Fuji TV responded to the new market by adopting a new strategy focused on U.S.-styled cross-platform content development. As part of that effort, the company launched a series of investments to boost its production operations. In 2004, for example, the company spent $3.2 million in order to acquire a stake in digital animation specialist Gonzo Digimation. The investment was described as a strategic partnership designed to help Fuji TV challenge international animation powerhouse Pixar.
Fuji TV in the meantime was enjoying renewed success at the top of both television ratings and box-office rankings in Japan. The company's television broadcasts, which had dipped in popularity during the second half of the 1990s, were revived by such blockbuster hits as Bayside Shakedown. Fuji TV quickly capitalized on the success of that series, developing a cinema release of the title, Bayside Shakedown 2. That film went on to become the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film of all time, taking in $158 million at the box office. At the same time, the company once again rose to the top of the ratings, capturing the triple crown in 2004. By 2007, the company had captured the title for the third year in a row.
By then, Fuji TV had faced a major challenge to its independence. In 2005, fast-growing Internet start-up Livedoor founded by Takafumi Horie began quietly acquiring majority control of Nippon Broadcasting System (NBS), then publicly announced its intention to take over Fuji TV itself. The broadcaster responded by increasing its own stake in NBS, and seeking support from the Japanese government. In the end, Fuji TV's political connections--recent Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori had in fact started his professional career as a reporter at Sankei Shimbun--helped it beat off its attacker. With more than 36 percent of NBS's shares, Fuji TV had gained veto control over its own destiny.
By May 2005, Fuji TV and Livedoor had worked out a peace agreement, whereby Fuji TV bought out Livedoor's stake in NBS, and also agreed to buy 143 million shares in Livedoor at a premium price of $373 million. Following the takeover of majority control of NBS, Fuji TV restructured, with NBS becoming a subsidiary of the television group, as part of its Broadcasting Division. Meanwhile, Horie came under scrutiny from Japan's securities and exchange commission. Arrested in January 2006, Horie was convicted of securities fraud and sentenced to 30 months in jail in March 2007. By then, Fuji Television Networks was at the top of Japan's television broadcasting industry.
Principal Subsidiaries
Fujisankei Communications International, Inc. (U.S.A.); Fujisankei California Entertainment, Inc. (U.S.A.).
Principal Competitors
Nippon Hoso Kyokai; Nippon Television Network Corp.; Asahi Broadcasting Corp.; Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting Company Ltd.; RKB Mainichi Broadcasting Corp.; Broadcasting System of Niigata Inc.
Further Reading
Brothers, Kate, "Fuji Rides Japanese Wave at B.O.," Hollywood Reporter, June 6, 2006, p. 10.
Dawson, Chester, "Turning Tokyo into Tinseltown," Business Week, November 22, 2004, p. 30.
"Fuji TV Looks to Its Domestic Investor Base to Raise Y100bn," Euroweek, January 16, 2004, p. 26.
Hanson, Richard, "The Politics of Japan's Media Takeover Battle," Asia Times, March 10, 2005.
"Japanese TV Jumps the Great Wall," Video Age International, November-December 2002, p. 6.
Osaki, Tad, "Fuji TV: Earnings Winner," Variety, September 6, 1999, p. 47.
Ryall, Julian, "Tables Turned for Fuji TV," Hollywood Reporter, January 31, 2006, p. 11.
Schilling, Mark, "Fuji Slams Livedoor," Daily Variety, March 27, 2007, p. 7.
------, "Japan's Webs Spin Gold from Spinoffs," Variety, October 9, 2006, p. B1.
Testar, Jason T., "Fuji Television Network," Hollywood Reporter, March 27, 2001.
Whiteman, Bobbie, "Climbing Mt. Fuji," Variety, April 25, 2005, p. 8.
— M. L. Cohen
