The unconventional rebel - TV Tokyo - and why it dares to go against the tide

Have you ever heard of this term "テレ東伝説" (the legend of TV Tokyo)? Why does the smallest TV station in Tokyo have the reputation of being the unconventional rebel which dares to go against the tide?

Before we look into the reasons what led to this, let's find out more about the TV stations in Japan and how the industry is structured.

Types of TV stations

There are 3 main types of TV stations in Japan i.e. key stations (キー局), local stations (ローカル局 / 地方局) and independent U stations (独立U局).

Key stations are the main TV stations in a TV network. Typically, the programs they produce are sent out to the affiliated stations in the same network to be broadcasted. As the key stations in the 5 main networks are located in Tokyo, they are also known as zaikyo key kyoku (在京キー局) i.e. key stations based in Tokyo. The 5 key stations in Tokyo are:

- NNN (30 stations) / key station: NTV

- JNN (28 stations) / key station: TBS

- FNS (28 stations) / key station: FujiTV

- ANN (26 stations) / key station: TV Asahi

- TXN (6 stations) / key station: TV Tokyo

As you can see, TV Tokyo belongs to the smallest network and in terms of revenue, is also the smallest. Based on the financial year ended Mar 2022, the difference between the TV Tokyo and FujiTV networks' revenue is 3.55 times while the net profit difference between TV Tokyo and NTV is a whooping 7.9 times! 

Unlike other TV networks, you actually cannot watch TV Tokyo in some parts of Japan as the coverage scope is only 70%. As seen from this map, there are no local stations covering the Tohoku and Shikoku regions as well as Okinawa. Technically speaking, they are not considered a nationwide network unlike their competitors in this regard. However, when TV Tokyo finally hopped onto the TVer platform and offered realtime online streaming of its programs from 11 Apr 2022, it was met with a very favourable response and much fanfare as people in the areas that couldn't watch the station could finally do so online.

There are two smaller subsets:

- the "sub key stations" i.e. those which operate like key stations but produce comparatively fewer programs for the network and are located in Osaka i.e. Mainichi Housou, Asahi Housou TV, Kansai TV Housou, Yomiuri TV Housou and TV Osaka. 

- next in line are the Nagoya-based wide region stations i.e. CBC TV, Tokai TV Housou, Nagoya TV Housou, Chukyo TV Housou and TV Aichi

And the table below shows which sub key station and wide region station belongs to which network:

As for local stations, there are 129 such stations which serve specific and limited areas. Generally, they would broadcast the programs made by the key stations but for news, weather forecast or local infotainment programs, these will be produced by the local stations.

Last but not least, the 13 independent U stations are those which do not belong to the TV networks in various prefectures e.g. Tochigi TV, Gunma TV, TV Saitama, Chiba TV Housou, Tokyo Metropolitan Television and TV Kanagawa.

So what is the legend of TV Tokyo?

Whenever there is a major happening in Japan, most of the TV stations including NHK would change their usual programming to air news programs by either bringing forward the usual TV news timeslot or extending it beyond the designated timeframe. However, how TV Tokyo handles the reporting of such happenings makes it stand out among the competition - they would just put telops on the screen while sticking to their usual programming schedule. Telops, which stands for television opaque projector, refers to text superimposed on a screen.

As such, TV Tokyo has the reputation of remaining unfazed by what its competitors are doing especially in such circumstances where every key station in Tokyo and NHK are reporting the same thing. It was even mentioned before in a TV Tokyo anime "Keroro Gunsou" that TV Tokyo will only air a news special when Earth faces destruction. In fact, TV Tokyo doesn't even mind being thought of in this manner and even made fun of itself during a variety show in 2020 that it had aired "The Moomins" as usual during the Gulf War in the early 1990s.

Picking the right battle to fight with minimal resources

As seen from what I explained above, the TV Tokyo network is the smallest with just 6 stations and this means that they have lesser staff members to begin with. Naturally, they would have a smaller news reporting team compared to the other networks so they cannot afford to spend too many resources on news specials whenever something happens.

However, things were not like this in the past as TV Tokyo tried to go with the flow. Back then in 1995 when the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake took place and the Sarin Gas Attacks happened, they did spend a lot of time doing live news specials but this also meant that they had used up most of their budget just on these live shows. This resulted in TV Tokyo recording a huge loss of JPY 75m in that financial year. That amount was especially significant for a small network like theirs.

Learning from their lesson at that time, TV Tokyo decided to head down the path of investigative journalism rather than spend a lot of time on live news programs. This meant that when major events happened, they would inform viewers through the use of telops and follow up with an in-depth documentary-style program backed up by extensive research some time after the event. This way of reporting was very much unheard of back then but it became the norm since the 2000s when other TV stations started copying TV Tokyo's method.

You can also see that TV Tokyo has cut down on its news reporting in the following ways:

- Evening news slot shortened to a mere 6 minutes since Apr 2020 so the freed-up time was used for television shopping programs or re-broadcasts of variety shows.

- Its night news program at 10pm on weekdays/11pm on Friday is said to be the station's only "proper" news timeslot since the morning news is only shown on weekdays but not on public holidays even if it is a weekday. 

Maintaining normalcy amid mental fatigue due to overreporting & information overload

What do you do when faced with a major event that gets repeatedly reported and talked about on every single TV station in your country? TV Tokyo does not make it a secret that their practice of "business as usual" is to maintain normalcy when in such a situation.

Naturally, when something major happens, it is inevitable that the media attention will be solely focused on that. However, when that happens, it can get very overwhelming especially if the incident concerned may be personally traumatic or disturbing to some people or that the reporting tends to over-sensationalize the issue. And to be honest, when it comes to issues like scandals of celebrities or something not necessarily of national interest, there are people who do not like the idea of their favourite TV shows being interrupted, postponed or cancelled for such reasons. TV Tokyo makes it clear that they are offering an option for such people who would like to get away from this extensive news reporting for some normalcy and some peace away from the stressful reporting.

Of course, taking this unconventional path comes with its share of praises and a price to pay. Whenever TV Tokyo sticks to its guns and continues with its usual programming, they get commended for their courage to buck the trend and viewers are thankful that they can still watch their favourite shows. However, those who are not in favour of their approach would also voice their disapproval and flood them with complaints.

For those who are interested, you can see this page for a list of what TV Tokyo did over the years to maintain their usual programming whenever something happened. Regardless of whether you agree with the direction they have taken, it is obvious that they have been holding on for their beliefs and tries to deliver what they think is needed or wanted by the viewers.

Of course, there were some situations which warranted the need for TV Tokyo to do more news reporting than they usually would:

- The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami Crisis: live news reporting for 33 hours before resuming normal programming - the first to do so among all key stations. While they received praise and encouragement by many viewers for doing this, they also received about 600 complaints.

- The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 during the period when there was a spike in infections in the Metropolitan area.

- The tsunami alert and warning issued after volcanic activity on the Tonga Islands on 16 Jan 2022

- Russia's invasion into Ukraine in 2022

As such, it is often said that if TV Tokyo is to cancel its anime broadcasts, something major must have happened.

By doing this analysis into why TV Tokyo is continuing with its programming despite what happened on Friday in Japan, it is first and foremost, not with the intention of siding with them nor invalidating their stance. The truth is, I've read some comments expressing disbelief or disapproval over what they are doing so I thought it was better to let everyone make their own decisions on where they stand on this issue after knowing the background and the rationale of TV Tokyo's decision.

I certainly hope that this helps you to understand the situation better and would love to hear your comments on how you feel about this through Facebook, Twitter or the comments section under this post.