Japan

Multichannel advertising has gone through a year of consolidation. The three major platforms are J:COM, SkyPerfecTV and NTT’s Hikari TV IPTV service and each hope to benefit from the shut down of terrestrial analogue broadcasting in 2011. The latest data shows that multichannel penetration is over 24% of all households, and growing. The top 29 basic pay channels all reach over 5 million households. This suggests that penetration is not limited to a few channels but is becoming more broad-based as cable operators and other platforms expand their line-ups.

Data from audience measurement provider Video Research shows that in multichannel households, the Cable and Satellite share was 20% through June 2010, continuing its upward climb. While the Video Research data cannot be described as robust (with only a 600 household panel measured 2 weeks every other month), a recent establishment survey showed that the panel does accurately reflect nationwide demographics.

CAB-J reported that revenue through March 2010 declined 11% year-on-year, from US$ 230 million in fiscal 2008 to US$ 203 million in fiscal 2009, a reflection of advertisers cutting back spending during the downturn. However, spending in recent months has reportedly picked up.

The stronger performance of multichannel television has been due to more accurate subscriber data, healthy viewership share growth (backed by Japan’s first establishment survey), and the fact that most basic multichannel offerings are available in high definition. Now that the subscription market penetration is over 20%, with more than 20% share of viewing, the sector offers a significant value proposition for advertisers targeting specific audiences inside the Japanese market.