Murdoch’s Star TV Goes on the Air in Japan

A new era of foreign television broadcasting to Japan--something already common in most of the rest of Asia--began Monday with the launch of 24-hour programming from Rupert Murdoch’s Hong Kong-based Star TV.

Star TV’s entry into the Japanese market--with American and Asian programs dubbed or subtitled in Japanese, plus a few shows purchased from Japanese producers--marks the first wave in what could become a flood of foreign programming targeted at viewers in the world’s second-largest economy.

“Now for the first time, Japanese television is under real competition with foreign services,” said Reimei Okamura, a professor of international media at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. “Star TV is just the beginning of a rush of foreign signals, I believe.”

Key to this new opening of the Japanese broadcasting world are technical developments in digital satellite broadcasting that allow a vastly increased number of channels to be carried over a limited number of frequencies.

Another major factor is fear within the Japanese government, especially at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, that without rapid deregulation and development of better infrastructure, Japan risks falling behind in the global race to develop and use cutting-edge information and telecommunications technology.

In a sharp break with traditional restrictions, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications last April granted permission to Star TV and Turner Broadcasting’s TNT & Cartoon Network to launch direct satellite broadcasts to Japan and to receive income from that programming. Such broadcasts are expected to boost the growth of both satellite and cable television in Japan.

“Japan is on its way to creating one of the most vibrant and dynamic cable-satellite television industries in the region,” Gary Davey, Star TV’s chief executive, said Monday at a Tokyo news conference. “We look forward to playing a part in the Japanese satellite television industry. We saw an important opportunity to work with the Japanese cable industry as it grows.”

Turner’s TNT & Cartoon Network is not yet reaching individual Japanese subscribers, but its pan-Asian signal, carried on a Chinese satellite, now “is available to cable operators who have to make a decision about whether to put it on their systems,” Ted McFarland, president of Turner International Asia Pacific, said in an interview.

Some American and other foreign programming, including Turner Broadcasting’s CNN, is already available in Japan through cable television or Japanese-owned broadcast satellites. But in all cases, the companies delivering this programming are either entirely or primarily Japanese-owned.

In addition to the activities of new foreign broadcasters such as Star TV, digital satellite capacity is rapidly being added by Japanese companies or through Japanese-foreign joint ventures that will vastly boost the demand here for both Japanese-produced and foreign programming.

A Japanese consortium, Direct Multi-Channel, launched a digital satellite called JCSAT 3 last August, and plans to use it to inaugurate a service offering as many as 70 channels later this year.

Hughes Communications, which provides digital satellite broadcasts in the United States through DirecTv, has joined as a minority partner with Japanese companies to launch DirecTv Japan, which aims to offer about 100 channels starting next year.

In the United States, the exploding number of available channels can be largely filled by American programs produced over the last 40 years, said John McBride, Star TV’s regional director for Japan.

But in Japan, where prime-time airwaves are dominated by news programs and talk, music or quiz shows, “the situation is very different,” McBride said. “There’s just not enough software to fill all those channels. Japanese programs have a short shelf life. If you look at prime-time TV, there’s not a lot of programming you’d want to keep on the shelf and broadcast again in two years or 20 years.”

Complicated ownership and sales rights for many Japanese programs further stifle attempts to recycle them for cable or satellite broadcasts, McBride said.

Star TV therefore will be “a big outlet for U.S. movie and television product,” McBride said.

The growth of foreign broadcasting to Japan also will be driven by the size of Japan’s economy as a consumer market.

“Of course the population of China and India is so huge, but those economies are still in the developing stage,” Okamura said. “For American program providers like Disney or any other company in Hollywood or elsewhere, the U.S. market is most important. But secondarily, the European market and the Asian market--especially the Japanese market--is most important.”

Foreign-controlled direct satellite broadcasts are expected to boost Japan’s cable television industry much more than they compete against it, because most viewers are expected to receive these programs through new cable hookups rather than through purchase of their own satellite dish.

Star TV, which started Monday with one channel but plans six 24-hour channels within two years, will spend about $4 million annually per channel just for dubbing and subtitles, McBride said. It will initially be carried by 35 cable television companies with 400,000 viewers, and aims for 1.2 million cable viewers within a year and 3.5 million cable subscribers by 2000, he said.

The initial channel offers a wide variety of programming. Star TV plans to add five more specialty channels: a “learning” channel mainly devoted to English and computer study for children and families; a pay movie channel; the Fox Sports Channel; Fox animation; and an Asian music video channel.

“Some programs like dramas and comedies will be translated into Japanese--otherwise most of the audience can’t follow them,” said Okamura, the media professor. “But programs like music, sports, even some of the information programs like travel programs, while it’s better for them to be translated into Japanese, they still make sense for the Japanese audience even if they’re in English.”

McBride said he believes Star TV’s greatest cultural impact will come from its Asian programming, which will include movies and other shows from China, Hong Kong and South Korea.

“There’s not much interest [in Japan] in Asian programming, and I think that’s basically a prejudice toward Asia--that ‘these countries around us couldn’t possibly put together programming of interest to us,’ ” McBride said. “That’s a prejudice, and I really hope we can change that prejudice. I think the Japanese will be very surprised to see how good and interesting the programming from Asia is.”