Fuji Group Rep Banned from Japan Series Sends Apology Flowers
The Reason for the “Bans
The Mainichi Shimbun and other media reported that Fuji TV has been effectively “banned” from Game 1 of this year’s Japan Series, in which SoftBank and DeNA are engaged in a fierce battle.
A sports director at a Tokyo-based TV station spoke in a hushed voice.
At the practice session held on the day before the Japan Series on the 25th, Fuji TV’s reporters and camera crews covering the DeNA baseball team were covering the game as usual, so there was a lot of confusion at the scene. The scene was quite tense.
When we asked Fuji officials what was really going on, they told us, “The NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball), which is in charge of managing and covering the Japan Series, asked us to return our Japan Series coverage passes. Without the pass, we will not be able to cover up to seven games of the Japan Series in the stadium.
Why was Fuji Television, which specializes in sports coverage, unable to enter the stage where this year’s professional baseball games were to be concluded? It is said that the broadcast of the U.S. Major League Baseball World Series, which began on the same day, had a major influence on the situation. A Fuji Television insider said, “This year’s World Series will be broadcast live from the home of Sho Ohtani.
This year’s World Series attracted the world’s attention with the Dodgers, with Shohei Ohtani (30) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (26), and the Yankees, a prestigious team. Therefore, Fuji Television officially acquired the broadcasting rights. It decided to broadcast all games live, and also exercised its rebroadcasting rights to replay the games on terrestrial broadcasting. However, the NPB must have been dissatisfied with this.”
Because the World Series is played in the evening local time, due to the time difference, the live broadcast in Japan starts around 9:00 a.m. The NPB thought this would interfere with the Japan Series. It is hard to imagine that this would interfere with the Japan Series. ……
