Fuji Television

Fuji Television
, also known as , with the call sign JOCX-DTV, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). Fuji Television is one of the ''five private broadcasters based in Tokyo''.
Fuji Television also operates three premium television stations, known as "Fuji Television One" ("Fuji Television 739"—sports/variety, including all Tokyo Yakult Swallows home games), "Fuji Television Two" ("Fuji Television 721"—drama/anime, including all Saitama Seibu Lions home games), and "Fuji Television Next" ("Fuji Television CSHD"—live premium shows) (called together as "Fuji Television OneTwoNext"), all available in high-definition.
Fuji Television is owned by , a certified broadcasting holding company under the Japanese Broadcasting Act, and affiliated with the Fujisankei Communications Group. The current Fuji Television was established in October 2008. Fuji Media Holdings is the former Fuji Television founded in 1957.
In the early days of Fuji TV's broadcasting, its ratings have long been in the middle of all Tokyo stations. In the early 1980s, the ratings of Fuji TV rose sharply. In 1982, it won the "Triple Crown" in the ratings among the flagship stations for the first time, and produced many famous TV dramas and variety shows. In 1997, Fuji Television moved from Kawata-cho, Shinjuku District to Odaiba, the sub-center of Rinkai, Tokyo, which led to the development of the Odaiba area, which was almost empty at that time. After the 2010s, the ratings of Fuji TV dropped sharply, and now the household ratings rank fifth among all stations in Tokyo. But on the other hand, Fuji TV is also a TV station with more diversified operations in the Japanese TV industry and a higher proportion of income from departments outside the main business. In addition, Fuji TV is the first TV station in Japan to broadcast and produce locally-made animated series.
Offices
The headquarters are located at 2-4-8, Daiba, Minato, Tokyo. The Kansai office is found at Aqua Dojima East, Dojima, Kita-ku, Osaka. The Nagoya office is found at Telepia, Higashi-sakura, Higashi-ku, Nagoya. The Japanese television station also has 12 bureau offices in other parts of the world in locations in countries such as France, Russia, United States, South Korea, China, Thailand and the UK.
Branding
The first logo of Fuji TV was designed by Kamekura Yusaku. Its design concept comes from the channel's frequency "8", commonly known as the "8 Mark" (8マーク). After Fuji TV adopted the "eyeball logo" (described later) as a trademark, the 8 logo did not completely withdraw from use. For example, there is a sculpture of the 8 logo at the entrance of the FCG building; the program logo of the variety show "Grand Slam of Performing Arts" also uses the 8 logo.
In April 1985, in order to strengthen the unity of the group, the chairman of Fujisankei Group Haruo Kanai decided to formulate a new group unified trademark. On May 2, 1985, among the nine candidate logos, Fujisankei Group Decided to choose the "eyeball logo" (目玉マーク) designed by illustrator Masaru Yoshida as the group trademark. The logo was made directly using Liquitex pigments. Beginning on April 1, 1986, the eyeball logo officially became the logo of the companies under the Fuji Sankei Group, including Fuji TV. Fuji Sankei Group also decided to adopt the font proposed by Yuji Baba as the trademark font of Fuji TV. In order to increase the awareness of this logo, Fuji Sankei Group spent an equivalent of 4 billion yen in advertising costs and broadcast as many as 3,000 TV commercials.
History
Early stages
In 1957, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued the "Basic Guidelines for the Frequency Allocation Plan for Television Broadcasting", planning to set up three new television channels in the Yokohama area of Tokyo, of which only one station was a private general television station, and the other two were educational television stations (what would be the future NET TV and Tokyo 12 Channel). Around the general private station's build-up, fierce competition was launched from radio stations, film companies and other circles, including the two private radio stations in Tokyo at that time, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting (JOQR) and Nippon Broadcasting System (JOLF). Under the coordination of Nippon Cultural Broadcasting president Mizuno Shigeo, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting and Nippon Broadcasting agreed to integrate their applications and apply for a comprehensive TV station broadcasting license in the name of "Central Television" (Chūō Terebijon, 中央テレビジョン). Afterwards, Central Television merged with Toho's "Toyo Television Broadcasting" (東洋テレビジョン放送) and Shochiku's "Art Television" (芸術テレビジョン放送) to apply for a name change to Fuji Television (富士テレビジョン). On July 8, 1957, Fuji TV obtained the broadcasting license. After obtaining such, Fuji TV began broadcasting preparations and purchased nearly 2 hectares of land in Kawata-cho, Shinjuku District for the construction of the headquarters building, and at the same time carried out at the Sugar Industry Hall in Yurakucho Preparations for broadcasting (the building is also the headquarters of Japan Broadcasting Corporation). On November 28, 1958, because the Kanji character "Fuji" had many strokes and was difficult to display on the TV screen, Fuji Television decided to change the company name from the Kanji "富士" to the katakana "フジ".
Fuji Television Network Inc. was founded in 1957 by Nobutaka Shikanai and Shigeo Mizuno, presidents of Nippon Broadcasting System and Nippon Cultural Broadcasting respectively.
On January 10, 1959, Fuji TV began a trial broadcast. On February 28 of the same year, Fuji TV held the eve festival before the broadcast, and broadcast it live as a pilot program. On the next day, March 1, Fuji TV officially started broadcasting. One month after the launch, on April 10, Fuji TV participated in the broadcast of the wedding of Crown Prince Akihito (the current emperor) and Michiko Masada, and broadcast a special program that lasted 15 hours and 41 minutes. This wedding was also an important opportunity for television«s popularity to skyrocket in Japan. At the beginning of the broadcast, because most old-style TVs could only receive channels up to channel 6, certain viewers were unable to watch watch Fuji TV (as it was on channel 8), which became its weakness. For this reason, Fuji TV actively negotiated with home appliance companies, enabling mass production of 12-channel VHF band receivers. One year after it started broadcasting, the ratings of Fuji TV have kept pace with those of Nippon TV and Radio Tokyo TV (now TBS TV). In 1961, Fuji TV abolished the off-air period from 14:00 to 17:40, and extended the broadcast time from 6:30 in the morning to 23:40 in the evening, becoming the first TV station in Japan to achieve all-day broadcasting except for the late-night period. TV station. Fuji TV also actively participated in the broadcast of the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964. Since Fuji TV had a strong financial background during its establishment, there was no trade union for a long time. It was not until 1966 that Fuji TV established a labor union and proposed to abolish the 25-year-old retirement system for women. But it was not until 1972 that Fuji TV realized that both men and women retired at the age of 55.
On June 23, 1959, Fuji TV signed a program exchange agreement with Kansai TV, Tokai TV and KBC Television. This was the beginning of Fuji TV starting to build its own network. In 1966, the Fuji News Network (FNN) was formally established, as the third national TV network, with Fuji-produced national news programming being aired to the network's affiliates in regional Japan. At that time, there were 6 affiliated TV stations. On April 1, 1969, 13 UHF TV stations were launched in various parts of Japan, 8 of which were affiliated to FNN (Out of the four UHF stations that started in 1968, two were FNN affiliates). In the same year, the Fuji Network System (FNS) was officially established, and at the end of 1969, the number of affiliated stations increased to 21. In addition to Japan, Fuji TV started actively expanding international cooperation. In 1960, it signed a cooperation agreement with the National Broadcasting Company; in Taiwan, it helped set up the Taiwan Television Corporation (TTV), and was one of its major shareholders until 2006, when the party, government and army withdrew from the media policy and demanded the withdrawal of foreign capital. In 1963, Fuji TV realized the first transoceanic satellite live broadcast, and the first satellite program broadcast was a special program on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In 1967, Fuji TV opened its first overseas base in New York.
Entering the age of color television
In September 1964, Fuji TV broadcast a color TV program for the first time. This was the Gerry Anderson series Stingray produced by ITC Entertainment in the UK, and in turn the first British sci-fi series to be filmed in color. On February 11, 1967, Fuji TV broadcast the first color program "Guess it!" produced in the company's studio ". This year, with the realization of the colorization of studio 7, the color programs of Fuji TV began to increase significantly, and signature programs such as "Arabian Nights" and "MUSIC FAIR" also began to be broadcast in color. In 1968, Fuji TV broadcast the first color series "Small Love and Romance". In 1969, Fuji TV broadcast the moment of Apollo 11 landing on the moon in color, and broadcast a special program of 23 hours and 20 minutes. In 1970, the news studio of Fuji TV had also converted to color. Fuji TV's technological innovations also expanded to other fields in the 1970s. In October 1978, Fuji TV started broadcasting in stereo.
In January 1968, Fuji TV, Sankei Shimbun, Nippon Broadcasting, and Culture Broadcasting and their related subsidiaries formally established Fuji Sankei Group to strengthen cooperation among companies within the group, and Fuji TV also became a member of the group. One of the core enterprises. In 1969, Fuji TV celebrated its 10th anniversary. For this reason, Fuji TV broadcast a series of special programs from February 24 to March 2 of this year, and won the first place in the ratings this week. Fuji TV's network continued to expand in the 1960s. In April 1970, FNS joined Delta 27, becoming one of the largest private TV networks in Japan. At the same time, in order to reduce program production costs and cope with the growing strength of labor unions, Fuji TV decided on the policy of "separation of production and broadcasting" in September 1970, and transferred the program production department to several subordinate production companies. However, this measure did not bring success in ratings, forcing Fuji TV to abolish this system in 1980.
Before the early 1970s, except for Tokyo Channel 12, which was converted into a generalist TV station at the latest, the ratings pattern at that time was described as three strong (TBS, Nippon TV, Fuji TV) and one weak (NET TV). However, after the mid-1970s, as the ratings of TBS and Nippon TV rose, Fuji TV fell into a slump in ratings, and the competition in the TV industry became two strong (TBS, Nippon TV) and two weak (Fuji TV, NET TV). For this reason, Fuji Television carried out a thorough budget cut in the late 1970s. On the other hand, in addition to the main business of TV, Fuji TV began to diversify its operations during this period, and gradually increased its involvement in fields. In 1974, as part of the commemorative activities for its 15th anniversary, Fuji TV became one of the organizers of the Mona Lisa Japan Exhibition, which attracted more than 1.5 million people to visit.
Triple Crown and golden ages
Nobutaka Shikanai, first chairman of Fuji Television, resigned in 1980. Haruo Kauchi at Fuji Television's stand has completed a series of large-scale reforms. Haruo Kanai's return to Fuji Television Station's caused Fuji TV to enter a paradigm shift, changing its slogan from the hardline conservative "Mother and Child's Fuji Television" (母とこどものフジテレビ) to "It's not TV if it's not fun" (楽しくなければテレビじゃない). In 1981, Fuji Television had programming readjustments to match the new policies. Among them were the ending of celebrity interview program Star's 1001 Nights and a reorganization of the late afternoon schedule. In the first week of July 1981, Fuji TV surpassed TBS's viewing rate, enabling the channel to win the Triple Crown in ratings for the first time. In 1982, Fuji Television Station acquired the first core station, and broke through TBS's 1963 start maintenance record. Fuji TV was also the top channel for advertisers in this period. From April to September 1982, Fuji Television Station ranked number 1 in business acquisition at the flagship stations. Investigated by Video Research, TBS, which exceeds the quality of Fuji Television, climbs to the top of each television station in Japan, and is displayed on Fuji Television Station. In terms of technology, Fuji Television Station started research on high-definition television technology in 1987.
On April 1, 1986, Fuji Television changed their corporate logo from the old "Channel 8" logo, to the "Eye" logo used by the Fujisankei Communications Group. In 1986 and 1987, Fuji Television worked with Nintendo to create two games called All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. and Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic for the Famicom. All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. was a retooled version of Super Mario Bros. with some minor changes, such as normal levels being replaced with levels from Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and some enemies being replaced with Japanese celebrities with comedic effect. Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic later became the basis for Super Mario Bros. 2, which was subsequently released a year later.
In October 1987, Fuji Television began branding their late-night/early-morning slots collectively as JOCX-TV2 (meaning "alternative JOCX-TV") in an effort to market the traditionally unprofitable time slots and give opportunities to young creators to express their new ideas. JOCX-TV2 featured numerous experimental programs on low budgets under this and follow-on brands, a notable example being Zuiikin' English which first aired in spring 1992. The JOCX-TV2 branding itself was changed in October 1989 to JOCX-TV+, which lasted until September 1991, when it was replaced with GARDEN/JOCX-MIDNIGHT in October 1991. Meanwhile, Fuji Television helped produce only the third series of the British children's television programme Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (now called Thomas & Friends) with its creator and producer Britt Allcroft. The GARDEN/JOCX-MIDNIGHT branding lasted until September 1992 when it was replaced with the JUNGLE branding, which lasted from October 1992 to September 1993. The JOCX-MIDNIGHT branding was introduced in October 1993 to replace the previous JUNGLE branding, and lasted until March 1996 when Fuji Television decided to stop branding their late-night/early-morning slots.
In 1988, Haruo Kauchi died due to acute liver dysfunction, and Nobutaka Kauchi's son-in-law Hiroaki Kauchi assumed the post of chairman of Fuji Television. In 1991, Hiroaki Kauchi decided to move to Kawata-cho under the direction of Fuji Television's Taiwan headquarters. . However, on the other hand, Hiroaki Kauchi's solo production style was unsatisfactory inside, Hiroaki Kagami and Hisashi Hie had a relationship between the two, and the emergence of a split in the management of Fuji Television Station. Ehisa, a pro-Japanese group, was appointed to the board of directors of the Japanese newspaper company, which was held on July 21, 1992. The next day, Hiroaki Kanai left Nippon Broadcasting, Fuji Television, and the chairmanship of the company and the chairman of the Fuji Group. The underlying cause of the incident was also acquired by the 2005 Vitality Gate Trial. However, Fuji Television's high-rise was born inside, and Japan's bubble economy collapsed. At the same time, preparations have been made for the launch of sales in the area of Fuji Television, which was established in 1995.
On March 10, 1997, Fuji Television moved from their old headquarters in Kawadacho, Shinjuku, into a new building in Odaiba, Minato, designed by Kenzo Tange.
Since 2002, Fuji Television has co-sponsored the Clarion Girl contest, held annually to select a representative for Clarion who will represent Clarion's car audio products in television and print advertising campaigns during the following year.
On April 1, 2006, Fuji Television split up the radio broadcasting and station license of Nippon Broadcasting System into a newly established company with the same name. The remaining of the old Nippon Broadcasting System was dissolved into Fuji Television. This resulted in the assets of Nippon Broadcasting System being transferred over to Fuji Television.
On October 1, 2008, Fuji Television became a certified broadcasting holding company and newly founded "Fuji Television Network Inc." took over the broadcasting business.
Fuji Television, which broadcasts Formula One in Japan since 1987, is the only media sponsor of a Formula One Grand Prix in the world. Fuji Television has also licensed numerous Formula One video games including Human Grand Prix IV: F1 Dream Battle.
Coverage
Current
Broadcasting rights
Football
Soccer
FIFA
National teams
Men's :
FIFA World Cup (including qualifiers for Europe (all matches) and Asia (selected matches)
JFA
Japan national football team (World Cup and all Asian Cup qualifiers from first round, with exclusive coverage for all friendlies)
Japan national under-23 football team
Kirin Cup Soccer
EAFF
EAFF E-1 Football Championship
AFF–EAFF
AFF–EAFF Champions Trophy
Women's :
FIFA Women's World Cup
Japan women's national football team (World Cup and Asian Cup all qualifiers from first round, with exclusive coverage for all friendlies)
Japan women's national under-23 football team
EAFF E-1 Football Championship (women)
Figure Skating
World Figure Skating Championships
Baseball
Nippon Professional Baseball
Volleyball
FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup
FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup
Boxing
K-1
Judo
World Judo Championships
Horse-racing
Japan Cup
Motorsport
Formula One
Multi-sport events
Asian Games
Summer Olympic Games
Winter Olympic Games
Former
Basketball
FIBA
FIBA World Cup
Golf
Fujisankei Classic
Mixed martial arts
Rizin Fighting Federation
Volleyball
FIVB Volleyball World League
TV broadcasting
Analog
as of July 24, 2011, end date
JOCX-TV -
Tokyo Tower - Channel 8
Digital
JOCX-DTV -
Remote controller button 8
Tokyo Skytree - Channel 21
Branch stations
Tokyo bottom
Hachioji (analog) - Channel 31
Tama (analog) - Channel 55
Islands in Tokyo
Chichijima (analog) - Channel 57
Hahajima (analog) - Channel 58
Niijima (analog) - Channel 58
Ibaraki Prefecture
Mito (analog) - Channel 38
Mito (digital) - Channel 19
Hitachi (analog) - Channel 58
Hitachi (digital) - Channel 19
Tochigi Prefecture
Utsunomiya (analog) - Channel 57
Utsunomiya (digital) - Channel 35
Gunma Prefecture
Maebashi (analog) - Channel 58
Maebashi (digital) - Channel 42
Saitama Prefecture
Chichibu (analog) - Channel 29
Chichibu (digital) - Channel 21
Chiba Prefecture
Narita (analog) - Channel 57
Tateyama (analog) - Channel 58
Choshi (analog) - Channel 57
Choshi (digital) - Channel 21
Kanagawa Prefecture
Yokosuka-Kurihama (analog) - Channel 37
Hiratsuka (analog) - Channel 39
Hiratsuka (digital) - Channel 21
Odawara (analog) - Channel 58
Odawara (digital) - Channel 21
Okinawa Prefecture
Kita-Daito (analog) - Channel 46
Minami-Daito (analog) - Channel 58
Overseas
U.S. (leased access, selected programs)
San Francisco, California KTSF - Channel 26
New York WMBC-TV - Channel 63
Honolulu, Hawaii - Nippon Golden Network
Networks
Programming
Anime
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Girls Bravo
Moegaku 5
One Piece
Re:Stage Dream Days
Tokusatsu
Mirrorman (1971–1972)
Toei Fushigi Comedy Series (1981–1993)
Megaloman (1979)
Robot Detective K (1973)
Dramas
Japanese
(1996)
(1997)
(1997)
With Love (1999)
Hero (2001)
(2003–2004)
(2003, 2004)
(2003, 2004)
(2005)
(2005)
(2005)
(2005, Tuesday 9:00 PM)
(2006, Tuesday 9:00 PM)
(2006)
(2006)
(2007, Monday 9:00 PM)
(2007)
(2007)
(2007, Monday 9:00 PM)
Zettai Kareshi (2008)
(2008)
(2008, Thursday 9:00 PM)
(Winter 2008, Monday 9:00 PM)
(Spring 2008, Monday 9:00 PM)
(Summer 2008, Monday 9:00 PM)
(Autumn 2008, Monday 9:00 PM)
BOSS (2009, Thursday 9:00 PM)
(Winter 2009, Monday 9:00 PM)
(Spring 2009, Monday 9:00 PM)
Buzzer Beat (Summer 2009, Monday 9:00 PM)
(Autumn 2009, Monday 9:00 PM)
(Autumn 2012, Monday 9:00 PM)
(Winter 2013, Monday 9:00 PM)
(Spring 2013, Monday 9:00 PM)
(Summer 2013, Monday 9:00 PM)
Fight! Bookstore Girl (戦う！書店ガール, Spring 2015)
Good Morning Call (autumn 2016) on Netflix and Fuji Television
Korean
Since 2010, Fuji Television started airing Korean dramas on its block programming.
Cookery
Iron Chef (1993–1999, 2001 Special)
News and information
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
FNN World Uplink (April 1991 - March 1993) - Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
- Morning news program.
Live News days (April 2019 – present) - News program before noon.
- News program before noon.
- News program before noon.
- News program before noon.
- News program before noon.
- News program before noon.
Prime News Days (April 2018 - March 2019) - News program before noon.
Live News it! (April 2019 – present) - Evening news program.
- Evening news program.
- Evening news program.
- Evening news program.
- Evening news program.
- Evening news program.
- Evening news program.
- Evening news program.
- Evening news program.
Live News α (April 2019 – present) - Night news program.
- Night news program.
- Night news program.
- Night news program.
- Night news program.
- Night news program.
- Night news program.
FNN Date Line (October 1987 - March 1990) - Night news program.
FNN Newscom (April 1990 - March 1994) - Night news program.
- Night news program.
- Night news program.
- Night news program.
The News α (October 2017 - March 2018) - Night news program.
Prime News α (April 2018 - March 2019) - Night news program.
Kids News - Weekly children's news program
Variety shows
- end
(Spike TV produced an American version of Hey! Spring of Trivia.)
The Gaman
Flyer TV
Zuiikin' English
Mecha-Mecha Iketeru!
(October 1982 - March 2014)
Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ (October 1994 - December 2012)
Domoto Kuyodai (ended)
Music Fair
FNS Music Festival
Idoling!!!
a-nation 2012
(December 31, 1996 -)
Reality television
– Dating program that takes place on a pink van traveling the world.
VivaVivaV6 (April 2001–present)
Magic Revolution (2004–present)
Game Center CX (2003–present)
Game shows
Brain Wall (Hole in the Wall in United States)
Quiz $ Millionaire (Japanese version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?; April 2000-March 2007, New Year's Special 2013)
The Weakest Link (April–September 2002)
Vs. Arashi (April 2008 – 2020)
VS Damashii (VS魂) (January 2021-September 2023)
Mokushichi marubatsubu (October 2023)
Foreign
Chuggington
Pororo the Little Penguin
Thomas & Friends
Controversies
On August 7–21, 2011, more than 2,000 protesters from Japanese Culture Channel Sakura and other groups rallied in front of Fuji Television and Fuji Media Holdings' headquarters in Odaiba, Tokyo to demonstrate against what they perceived as the network's increased use of South Korean content, information manipulation and insulting treatment of Japanese people. Channel Sakura called Fuji Television the "Traitor Network" in these protests.
Further on June 29, 2015, Fuji Television apologized for running subtitles during a show earlier in the month that inaccurately described South Koreans interviewed on the street as saying they “hate” Japan. The apology came after a successful online petition over the weekend, with people stating the major broadcaster had fabricated the subtitles to breed Anti-Korean sentiment amongst the Japanese public. Fuji Television explained that both interviewees indeed spoke of their dislike of Japan during the interviews, but it accidentally ran clips that didn't contain that message. According to the broadcaster, “we aired these inaccurate clips because of a mix-up during the editing process as well as our failure to check the final footage sufficiently.”
See also
Fujisankei Communications Group
Television in Japan
Hobankyo – Organization based in Japan that enforces Fuji Television copyright issues.
Notes
References
External links
Fuji Media Holdings, Inc. Official Site
Fuji Television Official Site
Fuji Television OneTwoNext
Wiki collection of bibliographic works on Fuji Television
Fuji Television Anime News Network
Television stations in Japan
Japanese-language television stations
Television networks in Japan
Mass media companies established in 1957
Television channels and stations established in 1959
Television in Tokyo
Anime companies
Mass media companies based in Tokyo
Fuji News Network
Fuji TV
Fujisankei Communications Group
1957 establishments in Japan
Odaiba