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.'"

Comments

TV is going the way of the Dinosaurs?

[Zekasu]

It's funny to think that television is finally being replaced (or at the very least, threatened) by a medium that actually supports the end of the couch potato. Irony? Just a bit.

Re:TV is going the way of the Dinosaurs?

[mark-t]

We own a Wii, and both of my kids play all the games sitting down, even the sports ones. I would assert that the end of the couch potato is still a long long way off.

Re:TV is going the way of the Dinosaurs?

[KevinKnSC]

You know what playing that way makes your kids, right?

Journalism, or Nintendo press release?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's so perfect, it could have been written by Nintendo.

But television is destined to become as irrelevant and ignored as commercial local radio stations. Maybe one day we'll get to reclaim the bandwidth that it wastes, and use it for something more worthwhile.

So?

[Spy der Mann]

I left TV for videogames, the web, chat, forums, downloadable music and anime episodes long time ago.

Re:So?

[Megane]

Except that lately, even their anime is sucking. (unless you happen to enjoy cardboard cutout fanservice series, that is) It started about three or four years ago, and while there have always been a couple of good series, they are getting pretty thin.

Right now it looks like mainly just Lucky Star, and Oh Edo Rocket (which is getting severely neglected by fansubbers, at 2 episodes subbed out of 16 so far; looks like it's time to find some raws). And Blue Dragon may not be the best series, but I've been watching that too.

Re:So?

[wanderingknight]

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.

Re:So?

[Glytch]

Lucky Star stopped being funny when it turned into the "Let's worship Aya Hirano!" show. Sure, she's talented, but the Konata-is-a-Haruhi-fan gags are getting real old, real fast.

Err, not that I watch either show. Cough.

Re:So?

[jollyreaper]

Except that lately, even their anime is sucking. (unless you happen to enjoy cardboard cutout fanservice series, that is) It started about three or four years ago, and while there have always been a couple of good series, they are getting pretty thin. I have to agree with you. Of course, when I got into anime, the shows I was introduced to were a "best of" from the last two decades so it seemed like anything that came from Japan was gold. No, it's just that the importers only brought over the best of the best. If you were a 13-yr old boy from a far distant country and your introduction to American cinema consisted of Star Wars (original trilogy), Terminator 1 and 2, Alien, Aliens, Predator, Matrix (first one only), Boondock Saints, Casino Royale, Braveheart, Blade Runner, etc (fill in your own blank here), you would think that Hollywood had True Ultimate Power and was sweet like ninjas. You wouldn't know about all the clunkers, stinkers, and decent movies that might not be in a genre you could appreciate at the time.

That being said, what I've been hearing about from Japan has really, really sucked. Some of my favorite shows have been Cowboy Bebop, first season Ranma, Evangelion (except for the WTF ending), Lain, Robotech, Nadesico, etc. I think the two Ghost in the Shell TV series have been the most adult-oriented offerings I've seen recently. And by adult I don't mean hentai, I mean not a bunch of bishoju mugging for the camera and bishonen gaying up the place. I'm sick of the whole "I'm this terribly powerful and brooding fighter guy and I'm like 17" thing so many shows have going on. Gundam Wing was the worst about that and not just because there were so many shonen-ai fanfics, though that is also a problem. And just how many fucking high school dramas do we need anyway? I give Ranma season 1 a pass because it was the first high school drama I ever saw and it was very funny. The subsequent seasons were insipid and uninspired, just like all the other knock-offs out there. I also give Tenchi a pass because it was only the second harem comedy I saw following Ranma and it was also well-done. But after that, how many more can you take? By the numbers anime sucks just as hard as by the numbers Hollywood crap.

Re:So?

[Darkael]

Except that lately, even their anime is sucking.

Excuse me? What about Gurren Lagann (Gainax at its best), Seirei no Moribito, Bokurano, Dennou Coil, Darker than Black, etc? Even the "generic" shounen anime of the year, Claymore, is pretty enjoyable.

Your statement may have been somewhat true in 2006, which was mostly dominated by Haruhi, but so far 2007 has a fuckton of excellent titles. Lucky Star is actually one of the worst examples from this year.

Re:Maybe

[Goaway]

You think Hard Gay is "repressed"?

Under Pressure

[Bibz]

Wii Puts Japanese Television Under Pressure

At first, I tought that japanese television were under pressure with all those flying wiimotes. Imagine all the stress the TVs must have when someone starts to play the wii, they never know if they're gonna make it or not.

Re:Not sure how to take this...

[meringuoid]

So you can have your Wii and new Anime, but it requires the anime fans support the studios.

* examines T-shirts, wallscrolls, DVD boxsets, figurines dotted around room *
* examines ridiculous amount of bandwidth being consumed by Azureus for Haruhi-related purposes *

... I probably come out around even.

It will never really be significant

[Aranykai]

Think about it. Wii NEEDS TV. Quite impossible to play one without a TV. Not to mention, their primary advertising is to young people on TV.

No reports in the Japanese press?

[KNicolson]

I've just spent some time searching the Japanese language internet, and I cannot find a decent source for this - all the blogs seem to be quoting British sources for this. Has anyone got any hard facts?

Re:Maybe

[jollyreaper]

You think Hard Gay is "repressed"? Instant Slashdot poll
Do you find this comment more disturbing:

A) In context?
B) Out of context?
C) Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
D) Cowboy Neil?

Too few Wiis to notice?

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one that thinks that ~3M Wiis sold in a country with 127M people is not going to be noticable in terms of television viewing?

As much as I love my Wii, I find it very hard to believe that there's enough of them out there to really make a noticable difference.

Japanese TV

[Taulin]

A lot of you really do not know what Japanese TV really means. My wife is Japanese, and I lived there several years while going to animation school. I spent many a' day doing my home work while trying to find something to watch on TV (I was doing contract programming from home/bar). Let me tell you this...there is NOTHING of interest on TV before 7 or 8 at night. NOTHING! Don't make me repeat that. Oh wait...at around 2:00 there are old Samurai movies that have some nudity in them....