The Beginning of The End of TV Stations

What happened to the popular program “Wednesday’s Downtown” (TBS)? The March 13 and 20 broadcasts were almost identical for two weeks in a row, leaving viewers stunned. And at the end of the program,

The budget for this year’s program has run out, so we have broadcast the same content as last week.

The reason for the surprise was revealed in the message “The budget for this year’s program has run out. The next week’s broadcast on the 27th was also a compilation of the best scenes from the past,

I was surprised to hear that they lost the budget.

“Two weeks of reruns and recaps……..

There was a succession of posts such as “Matsumoto Hitoshi’s paycheck is not enough,

But the budget should have been left over after Matsumoto Hitoshi’s fee was reduced.

But the budget is seriously running out because the sponsors have left? Seriously?

Some of the posts suggested that Matsumoto Hitoshi, who is currently on hiatus, had something to do with it. Some people think that it is just a way to create a buzz to boost ratings, but what is really going on? ……

According to a producer who has been in charge of variety shows at a key station for many years, recent variety shows are made at the very edge of production costs.

According to a producer who has been in charge of variety programs at a key station for many years, variety programs these days are made on a shoestring budget. This is because “Mizudau” is a station-produced program, rather than being thrown to a production company. That allows us to use the company’s facilities and equipment, including studio fees. The cost is determined by taking into account depreciation and other factors, but the actual production cost is not so clear.

For example, the production cost per prime-time variety show broadcast in the 1990s was around 50 million yen. Now it is about half that amount. You may think that is a lot of money, but if you have to pay the talent and do overseas location shooting, the production cost will quickly exceed the amount of money spent. A quiz show that requires only a studio can be done inexpensively, but a variety show that requires a lot of location shooting costs a lot of money.

At that time, a variety show that had been very popular and had been getting good ratings was quietly cancelled. That is the reason for the cancellation of “That’s it! How’s it really going?

The show won the Galaxy Award for the month of November last year and had unusually high viewer ratings for a late-night program. However, it was eventually terminated. “It is whispered that the reason was that, like ‘Mizudau,’ the program could no longer afford the production costs,” said a producer.

The program was produced by Chukyo TV, an affiliate of NTV. According to the producer mentioned above,

According to the aforementioned producer, “I think the budget for a local station is much smaller than for a key station production. But if the show featured high-profile actors and actresses, it would be difficult to make it work.

He also explained the current situation. It would seem that both key stations and local stations would be able to get by with solid sponsorship from commercial broadcasters, but it seems that even these sponsors are becoming more difficult to obtain. However, it seems that even these sponsors are now having difficulty obtaining sponsors,” said an employee of an advertising agency,

The era of television as the largest advertising medium is gone,” said an employee at an advertising agency. Not only the young, but also people are becoming less and less interested in television. Until the 1990s, TV station sales people were stronger and it was their job to turn down sponsors. Now it is the opposite. Advertising fees are cut off, and if anything goes wrong, they are withdrawn immediately. Also, the survival of late-night programs is in jeopardy. Health-consciousness and energy conservation are the main concerns, and viewers have stopped watching late-night programs in the first place.

He is pessimistic about the future of late-night programming. However, the fact that the production budget for “Mizudau” has fallen short is most likely due to Matsumoto’s case.

I haven’t heard that the sponsor has pulled out, but it may happen in the future. Even if they don’t withdraw, I think it is possible that they have lowered their advertising costs. Nowadays, complaints go directly to the sponsors, so we have to cut ties with the program in order to avoid damage to our image.

Not only the programs, but also the TV stations themselves are facing an existential crisis.

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