Issues Confronting Cable TV in its 51st Year
November 2006
More than half a century has past since the birth of Japanese cable television in 1955 in Ikahomachi, Gumma Prefecture. However, such community-based channels are causing a lot of debate concerning the public nature of voluntary broadcasting. A cable television company in Tokyo received an administrative guidance from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) after political fairness of a program made by the citizen and aired by a community channel had been questioned. Furthermore, the Japan Cable and Telecommunications Association’s broadcast standards lack regulations on frequencies of flashing lights or health hazards, and they are reviewing the standards under the MIC guidance. The background to such problems lies a fierce competition triggered by entry of telecommunications carriers and satellite broadcasters into the fiber-optic cable television market amidst the developing integration of broadcasting and telecommunications. In order to gain a competitive edge, conventional cable television companies started to put more emphasis on their strength, community-based channels, and to engage in political and economic fields more proactively, and as a natural result, they are now facing issues concerning their public nature. Cable television is regulated by the Cable Television Broadcast Law, but the Broadcast Law is applied to broadcast content with strict regulations. Amid an ongoing review of broadcasting legal system, how to define the public nature of community-based channels and what kind of disciplines will be needed have become a major challenge for the future.