Japanese network Nippon TV has announced the appointment of Hiroyuki Fukuda as its new representative director, president and chief operating officer. Fukuda took office effective January 1 this year.
In his promotion to his new role, Fukuda addressed the significant decline in television viewership and stressed the importance of reducing Nippon Television’s dependence on broadcast revenues. He outlined his plans to shift Nippon TV’s business toward a “content-focused strategy” and warned of rough seas ahead.
Fukuda takes over from Akira Ishizawa, who will now serve as representative director of the newly founded Yomiuri Chukyo FS Broadcasting Holdings, which now includes four regional Nippon Networks.
Fukuda joined Nippon TV in 1985 and most recently assumed the position of Head of Production and Head of Programming. He later added the roles of Board Director and Chief Content Officer, where he oversaw content strategy and corporate strategy. Fukuda will serve in both positions simultaneously alongside his new role as Chief Operating Officer until June of this year.
“Our high level of dependence on our radio business remains the greatest risk,” Fukuda said in a statement. “In the upcoming “New Medium-Term Management Plan 2025-2027”, we aim to expand and develop the content-focused strategy set out in the current plan as Nippon TV Group is highly regarded in the global market, boasts strong intellectual property assets, and contributes to the well-being of People. To achieve this, we will transform our business portfolio and reduce our dependence on broadcast revenues. Active proposals from relevant departments and group companies are already underway.
Fukuda added that Nippon TV maintained the largest ratings share in Japan for the “Golden Time” category — equivalent to prime time in the United States — in 2024, despite being tied to a competitor. While the strategic core target of viewers aged 13-49 remains high, generating “lucrative advertising sales”, Nippon TV faces strong local competition, he said.
“With the downward trend in PUT (people using television) showing no signs of slowing down, we face the immediate and urgent challenge of capturing and maintaining the size of our individual and core target demographics,” Fukuda said. “Increasing the share of revenue from sources other than streaming is an important goal, but we must start by radically reviewing our approach to the annual viewer ratings battle and building a strong schedule for our streaming business.
“The morale of our content creation teams remains very high, and if nothing goes wrong in our approach, we will recover. Strengthening the schedule is also an initiative that will form the basis for expanding our content business,” Fukuda added.
He also covered how Nippon TV aims to harness technologies such as artificial intelligence in its content business. “As we seek to transform our business through technology, we are actively promoting the use of AI gatekeepers to improve the efficiency of the content creation process and our Ad Reach Max technology – a proprietary technology of Nippon TV that provides a platform for advertising slot transactions, which aims to create new value.” In advertising sales.”
“At a time of dramatic change in the media industry and the business environment in general, I feel that I was destined to take on this role as our battle for survival reaches its peak,” Fukuda said. “With the support of nearly 10,000 executives and employees across our 60 subsidiaries within Nippon TV Holdings where I am also appointed as Representative Director, President and Chief Operating Officer, I am committed to leading our group in my own way.”