Japanese network Nippon TV has unveiled Hiroyuki Fukuda as its new representative Director, President and COO. Fukuda assumed his role from January 1 this year.
In stepping up to his new role, Fukuda addressed the broad decline in television audiences and emphasized the importance of reducing Nippon TV’s dependence on broadcasting revenue. He outlined his plans to shift Nippon TV’s business towards a more “content-centric strategy,” as he warned of rocky seas ahead.
Fukuda took over his new posts from Akira Ishizawa, who will now serve as the Representative Director of the newly-established Yomiuri Chukyo FS Broadcasting Holdings Corporation, which now houses four regional Nippon networks.
Fukuda joined Nippon TV in 1985 and has recently been President of the production division and President of Programming. He later added board director and Chief Content Officer posts, overseeing content strategy and corporate strategy. Fukuda will simultaneously serve in these two roles alongside his new COO role until June of this year.
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“Our high level of dependence on our broadcasting business remains the biggest risk,” Fukuda said in a statement. “In the upcoming ‘New Medium-Term Management Plan 2025-2027,’ we aim to further expand and develop the content-centric strategy stipulated in the current plan as the Nippon TV Group that is highly valued in the global market, one that boasts powerful IP assets, and contributes to people’s well-being. To achieve this, we will work to transform our business portfolio and reduce our dependence on broadcasting revenue. Active proposals from relevant departments and group companies are already underway.”
Fukuda added that Nippon TV maintained the largest ratings share in Japan for the ‘Golden Time’ category — equivalent to U.S. prime-time — in 2024, although was tied with a competitor. He said that while the strategic core target of viewers aged 13 to 49 remained high, producing “lucrative advertising sales,” Nippon TV faces strong domestic competition.
“With the downward trend in PUT (Persons Using Television) showing no signs of slowing down, we face the immediate and urgent challenge of acquiring and maintaining the volume of our individual and core target demographics,” said Fukuda. “Increasing the share of revenue from sources other than broadcasting is an important goal, but we must start by fundamentally reviewing our approach to the annual viewer ratings battle and building a strong timetable for our broadcasting business.
“Morale across our content creation teams remains tremendously high, and barring any errors in our approach, we will recover. Strengthening the timetable is also an initiative that will form the basis for expanding our content business,” added Fukuda.
He also addressed how Nippon TV aims to harness technologies like artificial intelligence in its content business. “Striving to transform our business through technology, we are actively promoting the use of AI concierges to improve the efficiency of the content creation process and our very own Ad Reach Max — Nippon TV’s proprietary technology that provides a platform for advertising slot transactions, which aims to create new value in ad sales.”
“At a time of drastic change in the media industry and the business environment in general, I feel that I have been fated to take on this role as our battle for survival is reaching its climax,” said Fukuda. “With the support of approximately 10,000 executives and employees across our 60 subsidiaries within Nippon TV Holdings where I was also appointed Representative Director, President, and Chief Operating Officer, I am committed to leading our group in my own way.”
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