Tokyo Weekender August 2016

THE NEW WAY TO
WATCH TV
Words by Matthew Hernon
ONLINE STREAMING IS THE WAY FORWARD, AND JAPAN NOW
HAS SEVERAL SITES AVAILABLE THAT WILL REUNITE YOU WITH
ALL THE SHOWS YOU’VE BEEN MISSING
Speak to a foreigner in Japan about terrestrial TV here
and the response will often be quite negative. There’s
some decent stuff out there, but in general it’s full of
low-budget dramas, biased news stations, celebrities
appearing in tiny pop-up screens (waipu) responding
with “eh” to everything and programs about food where all
the dishes are described as “oishi” or “umai.” When it comes to
overseas content, there’s little on offer. You get the odd drama
like “Downtown Abbey” or “Numbers” and a few films, but not
much else. For a long time, satellite TV was the only alternative.
Fortunately there’s now a host of options thanks to the rise of
online TV streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.
HULU
This was the first international Subscription Video on Demand
(SVOD) site to show its hand on these shores, launching here in
2011. The California-based company, which hadn’t previously
ventured overseas, saw Japan as a huge untapped market with
extensive broadband penetration and Internet-connected device
ubiquity. Yet despite the apparent potential, many observers
were skeptical about the move. This is, after all, a country with
an aging population that’s never really shown a lot of interest
in cable TV. Renting DVDs from Tsutaya has long been the
preferred option. With the popularity of Hollywood movies and
foreign shows on the decline, it was always going to be tricky
persuading large numbers to part with their cash for an online
American television streaming site.
And so it proved. Hulu struggled early on as it offered just
overseas content, and at ¥1,480 per month it was deemed a little
steep. Things improved slightly after the price was reduced to
¥980, though a significant breakthrough wasn’t really made until
2014 when the company was bought out by Nippon TV. While it’s
still operating at a loss, the number of paid subscribers – said to
now be in excess of 1.3 million – has been growing annually and,
according to Nikkei, the company is targeting another 36,000
customers this year.
An extensive library certainly helps. Hulu may not be as prolific
as its rivals when it comes to original material, but it does
36 | AUGUST 2016 | TOKYO WEEKENDER