JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or Fuji TV, is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and-operated by , itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of , a certified broadcasting holding company under the Japanese Broadcasting Act, and affiliated with the Fujisankei Communications Group. It is headquartered in the Fuji Broadcasting Center in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo and 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) ( "Fuji Television OneTwoNext").
The current incarnation of Fuji Television was established in October 2008. Fuji Media Holdings is the former Fuji Television founded in 1957 renamed as a result of a restructuring. In the early days of Fuji TV's broadcasting, its ratings were in the middle of all Tokyo stations for quite some time. 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 made specifically to be televised.
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 future 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 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.
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. One year after it started broadcasting, the ratings of Fuji TV have kept pace with those of Nippon TV and KRT 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 to 23:40, becoming the first TV station in Japan to achieve all-day broadcasting except for the late-night period. Fuji TV also actively participated in the broadcast of the 1964 Summer Olympics. 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.
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 1970, the company also partnered with South Korea's Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). in Taiwan, it helped set up Taiwan Television (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 aired its first transoceanic satellite live broadcast, and the first satellite program broadcast was a special program on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Fuji TV was one the Japanese counterparts of the Big Three commercial TV stations at that time during the 1960s. 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 "Shionogi 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's 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 Nippon Cultural 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.