More is less and less is more - TBS' reforms finally paying off?

Nikkansports published a report by their columnist Umeda Keiko who frequently writes about TV programmes, in particular dramas. This won't be a total translation of what she wrote but rather I would like to highlight some of her key observations which may be interesting to you.

As you are probably aware, the ratings of Japanese dramas since 2000 has been much lower than its heydays in the 90s. As such, what used to be a borderline result i.e. above 15% is now considered a hit in today's terms. Anything above 20% is a smash hit and if you have anything above 30%, that drama will probably go into history books as a classic. In recent years, the biggest hit would have to be TBS' Summer 2013 monster hit "Hanzawa Naoki" which boasted the highest single episode rating of 42.2% in the Kanto region for its finale and this also happens to be the highest rating for a drama in the Heisei era so far. It looks unlikely that there will be another hit to snatch this title away from "Hanzawa Naoki" anytime soon especially as the Heisei era is about to end in April next year.

There was a time when TBS was falling behind the major broadcasters in terms of the ratings for its dramas and its low quality was much criticised. In view of this crisis, the TV station underwent a major revamp in its stance towards making dramas ever since 2015 which has propelled it back to being a brand name for quality dramas, some which even turn out to be smash hits or very much-talked about dramas.

According to this article by Umeda, these were some of the major changes implemented by TBS:

- From 2015, they abolished the Mondays 8pm and Thursdays 9pm timeslots which used to be for dramas. As such, this brought the number of drama offerings from 5 to just 3 per season and works out to 12 dramas in an entire year. This was in response to the low ratings and poor reviews of TBS dramas. With the reduction in drama offerings, this has allowed the TV station to pool their resources and use them in a more effective manner. The staff members are also able to work within their means and do proper checks and quality management processes with the freed up capacity. For TBS, this marked a return to their roots because they had always placed the producers and their works above anything else.

- In this era where the cast is usually decided first before the story is conceptualised, TBS is doing it the other way round by placing their emphasis on the story. As such, they feel that a well-thought concept which is used as the basis for casting would bring good results eventually as seen from some of their success stories to date.

- At any point in time, there would be a number of projects being raised as the management gathers for regular meetings to choose the best in the pool. If this process is not done properly, they would not be able to get the best concept and sell it to the best actors to take up the roles. And this would definitely not bring about a drama which is worth watching.

- Based on the current strategy, the Tuesday dramas feature female leads while Friday dramas tend to be controversial, much talked about and innovative. As for the Sunday dramas, they are classic human dramas. With a clear theme and segregation for each timeslot, it became easier for TBS to attract quality proposals from both within and outside the company. Every month, they will have about 5 proposals to vet and it is a rule in TBS that they will decide on the offerings for all timeslots within a season at least a year in advance.

- Due to their emphasis on the dramas' stories, they are able to draw out new sides of their cast members and show different charms of them which had never been uncovered before such as Aragaki Yui, Hoshino Gen and Ishida Yuriko from "Nigeru wa haji daga yaku ni tatsu", the machine-gun battle of words between Nakatani Miki and Fujiki Naohito in "Watashi, kekkon dekinain janakute, shinain desu", Yoshioka Riho who used to be known for her demure image but showed a cheeky and devilish charm in "Quartet",Tamamori Yuta who played a quiet senior high school teacher in "Reverse" or Ishihara Satomi who showed the strength of ordinary people in "Unnatural".

- As a result of these changes, TBS managed to grab the No.2 highest ratings for the 2017 golden slot of 7pm to 10pm which was the first time in 10 years.

My observations
Actually, FujiTV which used to be the go-to brand for dramas, is facing a very tough time in recent years as seen from their many dramas which are in the single-digit club. Even their prestigious Getsuku timeslot is facing constant calls for it to be abolished. I have to admit, most of their offerings don't interest me that much and the casting choices can be somewhat not to my liking most of the time as well. This is like a vicious cycle because if they continue to do badly, it not only causes the morale among the staff to be low, nobody will want to act in their dramas as well. And if the quality of the dramas suffer, the viewers will write them off even more especially once they see that it's a FujiTV offering. That's sad considering how they used to churn out hit after hit in the 90s and early 2000s.

As for NTV, it's a case of hits and misses for me as I don't find most of their offerings interesting. The current season's "Todome no Kiss" does seem nice even though I haven't watched it yet. They used to do quite controversial or very eye-catching dramas in the past e.g. "Mother" or "Ashita, Mama ga inai" but it seems like their strength and emphasis now lies more in variety shows. In fact, when I was in Japan for holidays, I found myself watching a lot of their late night and morning variety shows because they were quite interesting.

As for TV Asahi, what irks me a lot is their tried and tested formula taking priority as it is a failproof solution and honestly, an easy way out during this challenging environment for dramas. Just look at the number of seasons of "Aibou" or "Doctor X" so far! I can understand the rationale of milking a hit series' value to the limit but there is really nothing new about such sequels once it has gone beyond part 3. Other than that, they seem to have a penchant for the extramarital affair or cheating genre which honestly speaking, can get somewhat repetitive after a while. As far as I am concerned, I am quite resistant to the idea of sequels even though I may like a drama a lot because I can never be sure if they will do a good job for the later installments.

TV Tokyo turns out to be the surprise kid in the last 5 years or so. They know that they are clearly at a disadvantage in terms of resources or viewership bases so they are very adventurous at trying various genres and manage to produce decent pieces of work despite their limitations. Even actors know that they won't earn as much by working with TV Tokyo and always joke about it openly. I think this daring spirit to challenge the norms has worked very well for them so far and they might be a great force to reckon with if they can build on the momentum.

NHK is an anomaly in another sense because of its unique status as the national broadcaster and it used to be known for its Taiga and period dramas only. With the surge of popularity in the recent years' asadoras, this has given them a more "trendy" image compared to the past. Being a national broadcaster means that its funds are partly from the people because the tax income from the government will go here too while the rest comes from subscription income. And yes, I am one of those subscribers too! ^__^ As such, they face added scrutiny in how they use their funds and are somewhat bounded by their traditional image. However, if you have watched their dramas in recent years, they have done a number of dramas with rather controversial themes like the recent "Otouto no Otto" which talks about LGBT. In the past, you would never imagine this coming from NHK. And it looks like they are starting to place more emphasis on their drama offerings beyond the Taiga and Asadora because their seasonal dramas are getting even longer (as many as 10 episodes) and there are more offerings within a year compared to the private networks which tend to stick more closely to the seasonal boundaries of 3 months.

WOWOW is a relatively new name in the last decade or so which has proven itself to be a strong performer. There have been many good dramas from them, some of them controversial or violent or too extreme to be shown on private networks but I guess the problem with them is that they are subscription-based. In terms of reach, they still haven't tapped on those who are non-subscribers. This is just my personal observation though but I tend to see more overseas fans talk about WOWOW dramas compared to Japanese fans for some reason so I attribute it to the fact that there is still a lot WOWOW can do in terms of expanding its viewership base. It will be a pity if they are making such good dramas but nobody is watching them.

Last but not least, the Internet streaming services of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and AbemaTV join in to provide more varied content which can now be easily accessed by overseas fans. OK, maybe not AbemaTV which is largely for the domestic audience just like GyaO. A common grouse we always have is, where can we go to watch our favourite dramas but the Japanese TV stations hardly bothered about making their content available overseas for a long time. Of course, there are more cable TV stations these days but since consuming content on the Internet is the trend, those streaming services stand a great chance in changing the way we watch dramas. My only worry is whether there are geographical restrictions on what content I can access and if I have enough time to watch everything I want! ^__^

What do you think about TBS' new strategy and the other TV stations' offerings? Any insights or observations to share?