Japan: broadcasting market size

The total sales of the broadcasting industry in Japan amounted to 3.55 trillion Japanese yen in fiscal year 2020. Figures decreased by about 310 billion yen compared to the previous year.

The broadcasting industry

The Japanese broadcasting industry consists of four different segments: terrestrial broadcasting, cable TV broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, and the public broadcaster NHK. Terrestrial broadcasting, which originally started with the introduction of radio broadcasting in 1925, makes up the largest segment of the industry. Regular terrestrial television broadcasting commenced in 1953 and was shaped from the beginning by the coexistence of public and private broadcasting. In the years that followed, major public events, such as the wedding of the Crown Prince in 1959 and the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, spurred on the diffusion of television sets, which became increasingly affordable as the country experienced rapid economic growth. Today, the television industry in Japan counts seven national television networks, of which five are based on commercial key stations.

Television advertising

Unlike NHK, which receives reception fees from households and businesses and is therefore not dependent on advertising, commercial broadcasters generate most of their revenues via advertisements. For many decades, television had held the spot as the leading advertising medium in Japan. As there has been a shifting of resources from traditional to online media among advertisers for many years, the internet was able to overtake television for the first time in 2019. Despite this development, television advertising continues to be a big business in Japan, with most of the expenditures being invested in terrestrial television advertising. As a breakdown of the terrestrial television advertising expenditure by industry shows, the leading industries are information and communications, cosmetics and toiletries, as well as beverages and cigarettes.