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Wii Puts Japanese Television Under Pressure
Knuckles writes "The Times reports that Japanese consumers have been 'abandoning television' in order to play with Nintendo's Wii. Recent figures from Japan's audience-tracking firms show that 'last week was the first in nearly two decades where no single show on any commercial station attracted more than a 9 per cent audience share ... According to one senior executive of the country's largest commercial television channel, Fuji TV, families who used to tune in to its colourful diet of soap operas, panel games and comedy variety shows may, instead, be drifting away and choosing to spend the same, economically-critical golden hour time playing on their Wii.'"
In Japan, anime is not mainstream family television, aside from the typical kiddie shows and a couple of shounen series. The real substance of anime is aired at late-night slots, and has a really focused target. Average ratings for late-night anime are around 2%~4% at best.