The story
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.
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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 the headquarters of Fuji TV from Kawada Town to the Odaiba area, which was still almost an empty space at the time, in order to adapt to the equipment needs of the digital TV and satellite TV era- 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. 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 TV moved its headquarters from Kawadacho, Shinjuku to the Fujisankei Group Building (FCG Building) in Odaiba, Minato, designed by Kenzo Tange, and broadcast special programs for 7 consecutive nights to congratulate the move to the new headquarters. This year, Fuji TV's drama series received good ratings. On September 9, "The Virgin Road", "Under One Roof 2", "The Beach Boys" and "Love Generation" all achieved average ratings of more than 20%. Fuji TV also established a new "Wednesday Theater" this year, allowing dramas to be broadcast from Monday to Thursday evenings. On August 8 of the same year, Fuji TV stocks were listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, becoming the third flagship station to have its stocks listed after Nippon TV and TBS. It was also the first time that a main station's stock was listed after 37 years. In addition, in this year, with the launch of Sakuranbo TV and Kochi SunSun TV, Fuji TV's network was also announced to be completed. In April 1998, Fuji TV opened its official website.
In 2000, BS Fuji began broadcasting. Together with CS channel Fuji TV 721 (now Fuji TV ONE) launched in 1998 and Fuji TV 739 (now Fuji TV TWO) launched in 1999, Fuji TV officially entered the satellite TV field and realized a multi-channel structure. By 2002, the number of subscribers to pay channels Fuji TV 721 and Fuji TV 739 had reached 1 million. On December 1, 2003, Fuji TV began to broadcast digital TV signals. The following year, Fuji TV regained the triple crown of ratings from Nippon TV after 11 years. However, while the ratings are rising, the peculiar situation that the parent company of Fuji TV and Nippon Broadcasting Corporation is smaller than its subsidiary company (in 2003, Nippon Broadcasting Corporation held 34.1% of the shares of Fuji TV) has also made Fuji TV become the leader of securities investment funds such as Murakami Fund. The target of equity acquisition. Beginning in 2003, Fuji TV and securities investment funds launched a competition to purchase the equity of Japan Broadcasting Corporation, and eventually developed into the Livedoor turmoil in 2005.
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.
In 2005, Fuji Television began offering Fuji Television On Demand (shows streamable over the internet) to customers of the internet service provider Softbank BB/BBTV. In 2008, Fuji Television on Demand got its own website. By 2022, the service had over a million subscribers.
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 restructured and became a certified broadcasting holding company "Fuji Media Holdings, Inc." (株式会社フジ・メディア・ホールディングス, Kabushiki gaisha Fuji Media Hōrudingusu) and the second incarnation of "Fuji Television Network Inc." took over the broadcasting business; this was the first time a Japanese commercial broadcaster restructured into a holding company with a wholly owned subsidiary taking over the station operations.
On July 24, 2011, Fuji Television ended its analog signal.
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 until 1996, due to change in arrangement of Formula One commercial rights after that season.
Decline and restructuring
In the 2010s, Fuji TV suffered from sluggish ratings. In 2011, Fuji TV's triple crown position in ratings was regained by Nippon Television, and was surpassed by TV Asahi the following year, with the ratings dropping to third place in the flagship stations. Poor ratings also affected business conditions. Fuji TV's advertising revenue has been declining year by year since 2005, and was surpassed by Nippon Television in 2014. It lost its first position in the core bureau's advertising revenue after 30 years. In 2015, Nippon Television's turnover also exceeded that of Fuji Television. In order to reverse this situation, Fuji TV promoted Chihiro Kameyama, who has produced many popular TV series, as president in 2013. After Kameyama took office as the president, he stopped broadcasting "It's not a big deal if you take the time to smile!" and other long-running programs, and implemented measures such as a large-scale personnel transfer of 1,000 people in an attempt to promote revitalization within the company. However, these measures did not reverse the sluggish ratings. During the New Year's Eve week from 2015 to 2016, for the first time, Fuji TV's evening prime-time ratings were lower than those of Tokyo TV, ranking last among the flagship stations.
In 2016, Fuji TV's evening prime time ratings were surpassed by TBS again, falling to fourth place in the flagship stations. However, Fuji TV's sluggish ratings are also due to the phenomenon of TV disengagement, which has led to a decline in overall TV ratings; real-time ratings have declined but the proportion of time-shifted ratings has increased. On the other hand, Fuji TV ranks second in ratings among the 13 to 49 age group, which is most valued by advertisers. Therefore, Fuji TV has invested more resources in program production for young audiences to improve advertising effects. Fuji TV is also actively investing in the development of new media fields, and FOD has become profitable.
Fuji Media Holdings is also trying to make up for the negative impact of the downturn in the television sector by developing sectors other than television. Fuji TV began broadcasting the evening programs of its terrestrial station simultaneously on the Internet from April 11, 2022. In July of the same year, Koichi Minato, who had been the producer of many high-rating programs, became president of Fuji TV, later signed a cooperation agreement with French media conglomerate Groupe M6 after the failed merger with Bouygues-owned TF1 Group in a following year. After taking office, he implemented a number of measures to strengthen the field of entertainment programs such as variety shows and dramas. One of them is to start broadcasting "Pokapoka" in 2023, and resumed the broadcast of live strip variety shows in the weekday noon time after nearly 9 years. Fuji Media Holdings announced that it had acquired the broadcasting rights of the Asian Games along with TBS Holdings, beginning with the Hangzhou 2022 event on its 65th anniversary.
On September 27, 2024, Fuji TV and Fuji Media Holdings announced the establishment of Fuji Consumer Products which would handle licensing and marketing for Chuggington and Gachapin & Mukku.
News and information
Mezamashi TV (めざましテレビ; April 1994 – present) - Morning news program.
FNN TV Morning Edition (FNNテレビ朝刊; October 1966 – September 1975) - Morning news program.
FNN News 7:30 (FNNニュース7:30; October 1975 – March 1977) - Morning news program.
FNN TV Morning Edition (FNNテレビ朝刊; April 1977 – March 1982) - Morning news program.
FNN Morning Wide: News & Sports (FNNモーニングワイド ニュース&スポーツ; April 1982 – March 1986) - Morning news program.
FNN Morning Call (FNNモーニングコール; April 1986 – March 1990) - Morning news program.
FNN Morning First Run! (FNN朝駆け第一報!; April 1990 – March 1991) - Morning news program.
FNN World Uplink (April 1991 – March 1993) - Morning news program.
FNN Good Morning! Sunrise (FNN おはよう!サンライズ; April 1993 – March 1994) - Morning news program.
Sun! Shine (サン!シャイン; March 2025 – present) - Morning news program.
Hiroshi Ogawa's Show (小川宏ショー; May 1965 – March 1982) - Morning news program.
Good Morning! Nice Day (おはよう!ナイスデイ; April 1982 – March 1994) - Morning news program.
Nice Day (ナイスデイ; April 1994 – March 1999) - Morning news program.
Tokudane! (情報プレゼンター とくダネ!; April 1999 – March 2021) - Morning news program.
Mezamashi 8 (めざまし8; March 2021 – March 2025) - Morning news program.
Live News days (April 2019 – present) - News program before noon.
Sankei Telenews FNN (FNNニュースレポート11:30; October 1966 – March 1982) - News program before noon.
FNN News 12:00 (FNNニュース12:00; October 1975 – March 1977) - News program before noon.
Sankei Telenews FNN (FNNニュースレポート11:30; April 1977 – March 1982) - News program before noon.
FNN News Report 11:30 (FNNニュースレポート11:30; April 1982 – September 1987) - News program before noon.
FNN Speak (FNNスピーク; October 1987 – March 2018) - News program before noon.
Prime News Days (April 2018 – March 2019) - News program before noon.
Live News it! (April 2019 – present) - Evening news program.
FNN News (FNNニュース; October 1966 – October 1970) - Evening news program.
FNN News 6:30 (FNNニュース6:30; October 1970 – September 1978) - Evening news program.
FNN News Report 6:00/6:30 (ニュースレポート6:00/6:30; October 1978 – March 1984) - Evening news program.
FNN Super Time (FNNスーパータイム; October 1984 – March 1997) - Evening news program.
FNN News555 The human (FNNニュース555 ザ・ヒューマン; April 1997 – March 1998) - Evening news program.
FNN Supernews (FNNスーパーニュース; April 1998 – March 2015) - Evening news program.
Minna No News (みんなのニュース; April 2015 – March 2018) - Evening news program.
Prime News Evening (プライムニュース イブニング; April 2018 – March 2019) - Evening news program.
Live News α (April 2019 – present) - Night news program.
News Talk (ニュース対談; March 1959 – September 1965) - Night news program.
Today's News (きょうのニュース; October 1965 – March 1966) - Night news program.
This is News (こちら報道部; April 1966 – March 1968) - Night news program.
FNN News Final Edition (FNNニュース最終版; April 1968 – March 1977) - Night news program.
FNN News Report 23:00 (FNNニュースレポート23:00; April 1977 – March 1987) - Night news program.
FNN News Factory (FNNニュース工場; April – September 1987) - Night news program.
FNN Date Line (October 1987 – March 1990) - Night news program.
FNN Newscom (April 1990 – March 1994) - Night news program.
News Japan (ニュースJAPAN; April 1994 – March 2015) - Night news program.
Ashita No News (あしたのニュース; April 2015 – March 2016) - Night news program.
You're Time 〜Anata No Jikan〜 (ユアタイム〜あなたの時間〜; April 2016 – September 2017) - 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
Mr. Sunday (2010- ) (co-produced by Kansai Television), extended to 2 hrs. in 2025
Sun! Shine (サン!シャイン) (2025- )
From Wikipedia’s article on Fuji Television, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3