Ochiai Hiromitsu Gets ¥2M for Samurai Japan Commentary on Amazon Prime
My Style of Commentary Returns
Baseball fans were stirred. On November 9th, during a warm-up match against the Czech Republic, which serves as a prelude to the ongoing “3rd WBSC Premier 12,” former Chunichi Dragons manager Hiromichi Ochiai (70) served as a special guest commentator for the live broadcast on Amazon Prime Video.
Hiromichi Ochiai, who served as the manager of the Chunichi Dragons until 2011, worked as a double commentator alongside former Seibu Lions manager Hatsuhiko Tsuji (66) for the game.
“During the broadcast, Ochiai shared an interesting behind-the-scenes story from his time as GM of Chunichi’s front office, revealing that he had tried to acquire Sōsuke Genda (currently with Seibu), who was a college student at the time, but ultimately didn’t pursue him because Genda had already decided to join the corporate league. Ochiai, with his white beard and almost sage-like appearance, was called ‘Manager Ochiai’ rather than just ‘Ochiai-san’ by the announcers and Tsuji, which clearly showed the high level of respect and tension in the atmosphere,” said a reporter who was on-site.
Recently, Ochiai has been active on his YouTube channel, Ochiai Hiromichi’s My Style Channel, where he talks about a wide range of topics, from baseball to conversations with his grandson. However, his appearances on terrestrial television have been limited to programs like Sunday Morning (TBS) and Saturday Sports and Sunday Sports (both on NHK). These are mostly corner segments, and sometimes pre-recorded material is aired, so it’s been a while since he last provided commentary for a live baseball broadcast.
Over 10 Times More Than Terrestrial TV
A sports producer from a Tokyo-based TV station remarked, “I think they did well with the casting.”
“It is possible to offer to Ochiai, but the problem lies beyond that. He will always ask, ‘How much preparation are you going to provide?’ In other words, he won’t accept a job for a low fee. Also, it’s difficult to get him involved unless his wife, Nobuko, agrees.”
The Samurai Japan game on the 9th was exclusively streamed live on Prime Video, a platform known for offering significantly higher fees in the sports genre. There were even rumors that Ochiai’s fee was ¥2 million. In contrast, the fees for terrestrial TV broadcasts range from ¥50,000 to ¥100,000, or at most a few hundred thousand yen, so they simply can’t compete.”
Prime Video started streaming game broadcasts from the “World Baseball Classic” held last spring. For games not broadcast on terrestrial TV, they provided exclusive streams, sometimes ironically airing commercials for those games on terrestrial TV.
“During the previous WBC broadcast, Sadaharu Oh (84), the chairman of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and the first WBC manager, made a guest appearance as a commentator, sparking a lot of attention. Looking ahead to the ‘Premier 12’ and the 2026 WBC in the spring, Prime Video is naturally aiming to acquire the broadcasting rights. It’s rumored that Ichiro (51) and Hideki Matsui (50), both WBC veterans, might be commentators. A fixer, Mr. X, who is well-versed in both the pro and amateur baseball worlds as well as broadcasting, is reportedly working on the casting.”
The departure of baseball from terrestrial TV seems to be advancing at an unexpectedly rapid pace.
PHOTO： Kyodo News
