[JTND] TV Station Ownership Rules To Be Loosen

[Matatabi Report <editor@matatabi.com>]

From  Asahi Newspaper Article:

A Bankrupt TV Station Can be Taken Over by Another in the Same Market

Japan's telecom regulator will soon allow a television station owner
to takeover a financially collapsed station in the same market. The
broadcasting policy committee, an advisory committee for the regulator
has been re-examining the media consolidation regulation
principal. The committee will submit the final report recommending
loosening of TV station ownership restriction by the end of month.

Current rules limit the cross-ownership of TV stations to up to 10% in
the same market and to less than 20% in the different markets.

It is expected that some stations in the smaller markets are likely to
have shaky financial health because of serious recession and the
investment for digital broadcasting equipments. Digitalized
terrestrial TV broadcasting begins in the three big cities later this
year.

http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0217/093.html
(Japanese)   

[Japan already has high media industry consolidation. The
cross-ownership of TV, radio, and newspaper in the same market are
quite common (It is much worse than in the U.S.). This de-regulation
will likely to bring us a fewer choices. I hope there will be some
means to ensure diversity in the sponsor-supported terrestrial TV
programming --Naoki]

[key_tv]
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