June 2015
From January through April 2015
Keiko Murakami
The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute held the “BUNKEN Forum” from March 3rd to March 5th, 2015. The first session of Day One (March 3rd), which was entitled “‘Televisions to Come’: What Roles Are Required for TV—Review FY2014 to Envisage 2020,” consisted of a lecture by Katsuya Watanabe, Deputy Director General (in charge of broadcasting administration), Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, a presentation by Keiko Murakami, Senior Researcher, NHK BCRI, and a discussion by these two speakers.
The discussion focused on what TV and broadcasters should do in order for them to remain needed by the public, for which three questions were raised: (1) What will become of terrestrial TV broadcasting, especially commercial local stations; (2) How far 4K and 8K televisions can go; and (3) What the roles of broadcasters in the age of full-fledged convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications are.
This article reports what was discussed at the Forum, along with a review on the latest moves of online distribution services, which made a drastic change during the period from January to April 2015.