What is the current situation, challenges, and future of the media and broadcasting industry?

In this article, we will explain the current status and future challenges of the media and broadcasting industry , as well as what will be required of the media and broadcasting industry in the future.

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What is the current status and challenges of the media and broadcasting industry?

First, I will summarize the current status and future challenges of the media and broadcasting industry.

Currently, five terrestrial television stations, known as civil code key stations, are leading the broadcasting industry: Fuji Television, Nippon Television Broadcasting Network, TBS Television, TV Asahi, and TV Tokyo. However, in reality, television stations are gradually declining as a company due to problems such as declining viewer ratings.

Reasons for the slump in the television industry include declining viewer ratings and an increase in the number of people using video distribution services on the Internet.

In this way, we will explain in more detail the current situation of TV stations, which cannot be said to be doing well.

Sales remain flat

According to the results of a survey on TV advertising expenditures released by Dentsu, advertising expenditures were 1,947.8 billion yen in 2017, which gradually increased to 1,912.3 billion yen in 2018, and 1,861.7 billion yen in 2019. However, it is on the decline.

On the other hand, TV station sales are currently continuing to increase, albeit slightly.

As TV advertising expenditures are decreasing, TV stations cannot grow as companies through TV advertising alone as they have in the past. For this reason, TV stations have begun to focus on digital advertising in recent years, and profits have been increasing. This is one of the reasons why TV station sales are increasing.

Additionally, in addition to digital advertising, television stations maintain their corporate sales by engaging in non-broadcasting businesses such as video distribution services, real estate, and theme parks.

However, it cannot be said that television stations will continue to earn profits in the future if they continue with their current management policies.

For television stations in the future, making full use of digital advertising in particular will be the key to their growth as a company.

According to Dentsu data, revenue from digital advertising across television media increased to 10.5 billion yen in 2018 and 15.4 billion yen in 2019. Digital advertising on television media is an area that is expected to continue to grow.

In fact, the revenue from digital advertising is huge.
According to Dentsu, Internet advertising costs, which include digital advertising costs for four traditional mass media media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, and advertising costs for product sales e-commerce platforms, amounted to 2,104.8 billion yen in 2019, which is the same as that of the same year. This surpassed TV advertising expenditure of 1,861.7 billion yen.

This data shows that the Internet currently has more influence than television.

Now that TV advertising spending is declining, it is important for TV stations to increase revenue through digital advertising. For television stations, the Internet has become essential to their growth as a company.

Young people are rapidly turning away from TV

Currently, it is said that there is a growing shift away from watching television, especially among young people. In fact, a 2019 Jiji Press survey found that 10% of people in their teens to 20s do not watch TV.

With the spread of the Internet, it is now possible to learn about trends and news on SNS such as Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube without having to watch TV at all. Another reason why young people are turning away from TV is that when they want to watch video content, they can use YouTube and video distribution services to meet that need.

Social issues are also related to the shift away from television, especially among young people.
Labor shortages are currently a serious problem in the labor market, and working hours per person are increasing, especially among young people. Young people who work long hours from early morning until late at night have little time to watch TV at home.

People who work long hours and don’t have time to watch TV inevitably end up getting information from SNS and the Internet, which they can use without being restricted by location or time.

This social background is also the reason why the media among young people has changed from television to SNS and the Internet.

Growth of the Internet advertising market

In recent years, the Internet advertising market has begun to grow significantly.

According to Dentsu data, the total Internet advertising expenditure for the four media of newspapers, magazines, radio, and television was 1,509.4 billion yen in 2017, 1,785.9 billion yen in 2018, and 2,104.8 billion yen in 2019. Masu.

TV advertising expenses in 2019 were 1,861.2 billion yen. The Internet advertising market is larger than the TV advertising market.

Also worth noting is the growth rate of Internet advertising expenditures.

In 2018, the growth rate of TV advertising expenses was 98.2% for terrestrial TV and 98.1% for satellite media-related compared to the previous year, and in 2019, it decreased by 97.2% for terrestrial TV and 99.4% for satellite media-related compared to the previous year. doing.

On the other hand, the growth rate of Internet advertising expenses for all TV media in 2019 was 146.7% compared to the previous year, achieving a high growth rate. The Internet advertising expense market will continue to grow significantly in the future.

Power shift occurring in the media and broadcasting industry

Until now, television stations have focused on terrestrial broadcasting. Therefore, viewers who wanted to watch content had no choice but to watch the program in real time or by recording it.

However, television stations are now starting to take advantage of the Internet and collaborate with the Internet industry to make their content available to more viewers.

For example, “TVer,” an app that allows you to watch TV programs you missed, is jointly operated by five commercial broadcasters.

There is also AbemaTV, a joint venture between TV Asahi and CyberAgent.
In this way, content distribution through cooperation between television stations and the Internet industry is expected to become even more serious in the future.

Currently, video streaming services like Netflix are very popular, and some people even watch video streaming services instead of watching TV.

In order for television stations to compete with video distribution services, they must expand into other media, including the Internet, to provide content. If we do not do this, television stations may continue to decline as a company.

What is required of the future media and broadcasting industry

Although the number of people who watch TV is decreasing year by year, there are still many people who want to watch video content. Currently, such viewers are enjoying video content on the Internet, such as YouTube and Netflix.

The fact that there are so many people who want to enjoy video content means that depending on how they do it, there may be more opportunities for content produced by TV stations to be viewed, not just on terrestrial TV.

The days when TV stations broadcast content only on terrestrial TV are coming to an end. In the future, it will be extremely important for television stations to use the Internet to reach a wide range of viewers, rather than broadcasting content only on television.

For example, some TV stations are now distributing drama spin-offs on video distribution services.

In this way, if TV stations can actively use the Internet and provide content to viewers, they can expect continued growth as a company.

summary

Television stations are being asked to reconsider the way they produce and distribute content in the future.

For example, it is necessary to proactively use video distribution services and create and provide content that meets the needs of viewers, such as distributing content over the Internet.

By making good use of the Internet, the broadcasting industry can continue to grow.