NHK, a public broadcaster in Japan, said Wednesday it plans to drastically lower its receiving fees it collects from households that have a TV by the end of fiscal 2023.
The range of the fee reduction is being adjusted to be the equivalent of about 10% of its receiving fee revenue, which currently reaches about 700 billion yen. As the broadcaster has accumulated vast surplus funds in profit, it has decided to lower the receiving fees by establishing a new system that will set aside a portion of it as funds for the fee cut.
These policies will be included in its management plan for fiscal 2021-2023.
NHK released its draft management plan in August last year, initially denying the receiving fee reduction. The initial draft stated NHK would maintain the current receiving fee level until fiscal 2023, citing the decrease in revenue due to the coronavirus, for example.
However, NHK received criticism through public comments from commercial broadcasters and others for expanding its business supported by ample receiving fee revenue. As a result, NHK has decided to change its policy and accelerate its management reform more than it had previously expected, sources said.
The current NHK receiving fees are 1,225 yen per month for terrestrial subscriptions and 2,170 yen per month for satellite subscriptions when paid by account transfer or credit card. Since the current receiving fee system was introduced in 1968, the fee amount has been lowered twice, by about 7% in 2012 and by about 2.5% last October. In fiscal 2023, the third time, the government aims for the largest fee cut yet.
NHK's surplus funds are expected to amount to 122 billion yen as of the end of fiscal 2021, 40 billion yen of which will be set aside as part of funds to cover revenue reduction.
In addition, the scale of business will be reduced to match the decrease in revenue. It stated in the management plan that two channels of its four satellite channels -- BS1 and BS Premium -- will be consolidated into one channel in fiscal 2023.
Meanwhile, the opinion paper was reported to the Diet last December, which was compiled by Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Ryota Takeda, calling on NHK to lower its prices to reduce the burden on households affected by the coronavirus pandemic and other factors. In response, NHK explained it was taking emergency measures such as exempting receiving fees for businesses receiving the government's benefits to sustain their operations.
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