Tōkai Television Broadcasting

Tokai Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd. (THK, 東海テレビ放送株式会社, often called Tokai TV (東海テレビ)) is a Japanese television station affiliated with Fuji News Network (FNN) and Fuji Network System (FNS), based in Aichi Prefecture, Gifu Prefecture, and Mie Prefecture. It is also known as Tokai Hoso Kaikan.

Offices

 * Headquarters - 14-27, Higashi-Sakura Itchome, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
 * Tokyo Branch Office - Hibiya Chunichi Building, 1-4, Uchisaiwaicho Nichome, Chiyoda, Tokyo
 * Osaka Branch Office - Breeze Tower, 4-9, Umeda Nichome, Kita-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture

1957-1964: founding and early broadcasts
In 1957, around the application for the third television broadcasting licence in the Tokai region seven companies, namely Tokai Broadcasting, Tokai TV, Tokai Radio, Kinki Tokai Broadcasting, Nippon Color TV, Nagoya Broadcasting and Nippon Television launched their bids. Then, the four companies of Tokai Broadcasting, Tokai TV, Tokai Radio, and Kinki Tokai Broadcasting merged into "New Tokai Television" and obtained a TV broadcasting license on October 22, 1957.

The channel number for broadcasting was anticipated to be channel 1 in the Tokai region, although there were voices in the postal office who believed that channel 1 should be used by CBC as it was the first to broadcast. CBC was willing to continue to use channel 5, as its frequency was widely known, and its number was located in the center of the TV channel switching dial at that time, thus, Tokai TV was going to use channel 1.

On December 1 of the same year, New Tokai TV set up an office in the North Hall of the New Nagoya Building, and began preparations for broadcasting. On January 20 of the following year, New Tokai Television established its headquarters in Higashishincho, Higashi-ku, Nagoya City, and on February 17 changed its name to Tokai Television, referred to as THK.

On December 18, 1958, Tokai TV began airing test signals, and began trial broadcasting on the 21st of the same month. At 11:15 on December 25, Tokai TV officially started broadcasting, becoming the 17th private TV station in Japan. At the beginning of the broadcast, Tokai TV and Kansai TV established a network relationship. In 1959, with the launch of Fuji TV, Tokai TV joined the network with Fuji TV as the flagship station, but also broadcast some programs from both Nippon TV and NET TV. In 1961, Tokai TV abolished the off-air period in the afternoon and started broadcasting uninterruptedly from morning to evening. With the launch of Nagoya TV in 1962, Tokai TV stopped broadcasting programs from Nippon TV and NET TV, and became a member of the Fuji TV network. In 1964, Tokai TV broadcast a color program for the first time (the British series Stingray), which was being networked by Fuji TV). Four years later, Tokai TV's self-produced programs were now produced in color. The first self-produced color program was Kazuo Hasegawa's Masterpiece Series.

1965-1987: growth and success
In 1965, Tokai TV launched its current logo. The logo is designed with the concept of "gazing at the modern eye". In 1968, in order to adapt to the arrival of the color TV era, Tokai Television changed the color of the central circular part of the logo from black to blue. On May 18 of the same year, Masahiko Harada's match against Ed Geoffrey, broadcast by Tokai TV, set a record rating of 68%, making the boxing broadcast a signature program of the Fuji TV series. In 1967, as part of the local contribution business, Tokai Television donated a fountain to the Nagoya City Government, which was set up in Sakae Park. Tokai TV has produced many commemorative special programs on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, among which the TV series Hida Koshito was affirmed by the Meiji Centennial Art Festival. This period was also the first viewing peak of Tokai TV. In 1967 and 1968, Tokai TV won the triple crown of ratings for two consecutive years. In 1970, Tokai TV became the first company in the Japanese TV industry to have a two-day weekend. In 1977, Tokai TV's pre-tax profit exceeded 10 billion yen for the first time.

In 1982, Tokai TV won the Triple Crown in ratings for the first time in 14 years, due to the increase in the ratings of Fuji TV and the increase in the ratings of the baseball broadcast by the professional baseball team Chunichi Dragons. This year, Tokai TV's average ratings throughout the day reached 9.3%, 18.5% during prime time, and 17.7% during evening time. From the third week of May 1984 to the fourth week of September 4, 1987, Tokai TV ranked first in the average ratings of the whole day for 176 consecutive weeks. Tokai TV's ratings triple crown lasted for 16 years from 1982 to 1997. In 1987, Tokai TV's pre-tax profit exceeded 20 billion yen for the first time. In this year, Tokai TV aired the 30th anniversary documentary Big White Night Journey to the Extreme North of the Soviet Union, and it was broadcast throughout Japan. In April 1988, Tokai TV started 24-hour broadcasting on weekends.

1989-1999
On January 27, 1989, Tokai TV's 30th anniversary commemorative TV series Nagoya Bride Story aroused heated discussions across Japan, and was successfully serialized and broadcast until 1998. Its third work in 1991 achieved a high audience rating of 29.7% in Nagoya, and won the Excellent Award of the Democratic Federation of Freedom of the Year. In 1991, Tokai TV produced high-definition TV programs for the first time. In 1996, in order to publicize the awareness of the program, Tokai TV purchased all the advertising space in some carriages of Nagoya Municipal Subway's Higashiyama Line and Meijo Line, and named it "Tokai TV Station", which became the first attempt of various TV stations in Nagoya. Since 1987, Tokai TV has continued to hold the Tokai TV Festival (东海テレビまつり) activities. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the broadcast in 1998, the Tokai TV Festival was held for two days on November 21 and 22, attracting more than 34,000 people to participate. Tokai TV also established the Tokyo Production Department in 1999 to strengthen its program production capabilities in Tokyo.

2000-2010
Thanks to the emergence of famous figure skaters in Nagoya, Tokai TV has held many figure skating events since 2000, contributing to the popularization of figure skating in Japan. On December 1, 2003, on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of broadcasting and the move into the new headquarters, Tokai TV began to broadcast digital TV signals. On November 1 of this year, Tokai TV broadcast a 7-hour and 30-minute special program with the theme of "Challenge" to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the broadcast. In 2004, Tokai TV once again won the triple crown in ratings after 7 years. During the 2005 Aichi World Expo, Tokai TV produced many special programs, and jointly set up an exhibition hall (Yumemiruyama/梦みる山) with Chunichi Shimbun, Central Nippon Broadcasting, and other companies to showcase the latest imaging technology. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of broadcasting in 2008, Tokai TV held the Tokai TV Thanksgiving Festival from November 1 to 3. The Nagoya TV Tower in Hisaya Odori Park to the light Part of the square was used as the venue, attracting as many as 370,000 people to attend.

2011-present: end of analog broadcasting
On July 24, 2011, Tokai TV Station stopped broadcasting analog TV signals and completely entered the era of digital TV. However, the "Mr. Cesium" incident (described later) occurred at the station the following month, which seriously damaged its credibility. At the same time, due to the sluggish ratings of flagship station Fuji TV, Tokai TV also fell into a low ratings in the 2010s. In 2018, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its launch, Tokai TV produced a special program Goodbye, TV, exposing the difficulties faced by the news department of Tokai TV, which aroused huge repercussions from the TV industry. This documentary was later adapted into a movie. In 2020, Tokai TV and three other private TV stations in Nagoya (CBC TV, Chukyo TV and TV Aichi) jointly created the on-demand video service Locipo, trying to open up the Internet field.

Mascots
Since 1997, the eve of the 40th anniversary of broadcasting, Tokai TV has launched a new mascot every 10 years. In 1997, the mascot "ヤッパくん" launched by Tokai TV Station was set as an alien who liked to watch the programs of Tokai TV station. In 2008, the 50th anniversary of broadcasting, Tokai TV launched a new mascot "わんだほ". The appearance of this mascot is based on clouds. The prototype is the shape of the channel number "1" of Tokai TV Station, but it can be deformed into other shapes. In 2018, the new mascot launched by Tokai TV on the occasion of its 60th anniversary is Icchy (イッチー). The mascot is set to be a little fairy from the local flower fields in Tokai, which looks like a yellow bear.

Analog
Analog TV was discontinued on July 24, 2011.

JOFX-TV
 * Nagoya TV Tower - Channel 1
 * Toyohashi - Channel 56
 * Nakatsugawa and Gujo-Hachiman - Channel 10
 * Gero - Channel 6
 * Owase and Takayama - Channel 8
 * Tajimi - Channel 55
 * Gifu-Nagara and Ise - Channel 57
 * Nabari - Channel 62, etc.

Digital
Digital TV began on December 1, 2003.

JOFX-DTV
 * Remote controller ID 1
 * Nagoya (Seto Digital Tower), Nabari, Toba, Isobe(present-day Shima), Kumano, and Iga - Channel 21
 * Toyohashi, Nagara, Chuno, Seki, Nakatsugawa, Ise and many others - Channel 15

News
Tokai TV's first news program hosted by a host was News Corner (ニュースコーナー) which started broadcasting in 1961. In 1963, Tokai TV held the first court live broadcast in Japanese TV history. In 1965, Tokai TV Station began to broadcast a 30-minute large-scale news program Chunichi TV News Sunday Evening Edition on Sunday. In order to strengthen the news reporting system, the news departments of Tokai TV and Tokai Radio were integrated in 1967. When the Hidagawa bus crashed in 1968, Tokai TV broadcast the accident report at 7:45 in the morning, and was commended by FNN. In the early 1970s, Tokai TV produced a series of news special programs about Yokkaichi asthma, which won the Galaxy Award and other awards. During the hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 124 in 1974, Tokai TV broadcast a special program that lasted more than seven hours, significantly ahead of other private TV stations. Beginning in 1978, Tokai TV broadcast a large-scale strip news program Evening News 630 from Monday to Friday evening, making the weekday news programs also large-scale. In the following year, Tokai TV Station opened a dedicated news studio to strengthen the ability to produce news programs. When Emperor Showa passed away in 1989, Tokai TV aired a special program that lasted 42 hours and 2 minutes. When China Airlines Flight 140 crashed in 1994, Tokai TV was able to get the news quickly because it had a live weather video recorder at Nagoya Airport. It broadcast the flash report at 20:26 ahead of other stations, and started broadcasting at 20:39. The station produced a special program and devoted as many as 347 employees to report the accident.

In 1991, Tokai TV opened its first overseas branch, the FNN Vienna branch, broadcasting news from all over Europe centered on Eastern Europe. In 1997, the station closed the Vienna branch and opened the FNN Jakarta branch to strengthen news reports in Southeast Asia. In 2003, Tokai TV opened the FNN Beijing branch.

TV series
The first TV series produced by Tokai TV was the satirical comedy Ganbare Your Excellency. In 1960, Tokai TV Station began to broadcast the theater of Famous Water Yaozuo, and it was successfully sold to Mainichi Broadcasting. In May 1964, Tokai TV broadcast the first work of its most famous TV series Noon Series, Snow Burning, which successfully opened up the noon ratings. The fifth work of the noon series The Worry of This World set a record with an average audience rating of 20% in Nagoya area; the average audience rating of the tenth work The Sun of Love even exceeded 30%. In order to facilitate the appearance of heavyweight actors, the midday series was re-produced in Tokyo in 1969, five years after it was broadcast. Beginning in April 1976, the length of the midday series was extended from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. The noon series No Ambition, which began broadcasting in October of this year, had an average audience rating of 15.3% in Nagoya. Due to its wide acclaim, it was repeatedly extended, and finally aired as many as 210 episodes. In 1986, the midday series The Arashi of Love was serialized due to its great success, and then the sister works Hana no Arashi and Natsu no Arashi were broadcast, and a remake was carried out in 2002. Koharu in 1996 took the hot spring hotel in Ishikawa Prefecture as the stage, and it was a popular series that produced as many as six parts. In 2002, Tokai TV adapted Kikuchi Kan's famous novel Mrs. Pearl into a midday series, which caused a social phenomenon. The term "Mrs. Pearl" was selected as the top 10 in the New Words and Buzzwords Awards of the year. Peony and Rose in 2004 is considered to be the pinnacle work of the love-hate route of the noon series. From 2015 to 2016, Peony and Rose also made a remake. However, due to changes in the audience's living habits, Tokai TV's noon series aired the last work Lam's Tears~We Have Tomorrow~ in March 2016. At the same time that the noon series ended, Tokai TV set up six new adult dramas on Saturday night, and continued to provide series for the Fuji TV network. Compared with the mid-day dramas that mainly focus on love-hate dramas, the six dramas of adults are late-night dramas, with more diverse themes.

Music Calendar (ミュージックカレンダー), which began broadcasting in 1967, is a long-lived program that has been broadcast for 10 years. It has also been successfully broadcast on other members of the network such as Fuji TV. This program is also Tokai TV's first self-made color program. After the establishment of the Tokyo production department of Tokai TV, the production capacity of variety shows has been significantly improved. The production of Age Difference Showdown! (年の差バトル! 言い分 vs Eぶん!!) has achieved more than 10% ratings.  Sun's House, which began broadcasting in 2003, is hosted by Tomomitsu Yamaguchi. It is a long-lived program, having been broadcast for more than 17 years with at least 800 episodes.

Informational programs and documentaries
In 1961, Tokai TV produced the housewife's information program Hello, Madam (Ou-様こんにちは) for the first time, which was broadcast from Monday to Friday. The name of the program Housewife Information Your Two Points (奥様信息あなたの2时です), which began broadcasting in 1971, came from audience solicitation. It introduced various practical information for housewives and established the foundation of Tokai TV's local information programs. Today Tokai, which began broadcasting in 1974, is a housewife-oriented program that incorporates news color, and it is broadcast every Monday to Friday evening. In 1998, Tokai TV produced the first private TV station to broadcast 6 editions a week of live strip local information program P-can TV. In 2006, Tokai TV began broadcasting the information program Style Plus on Sundays, making Tokai TV broadcast local information programs every day. Now Tokai TV broadcasts the strip information program Switch in the morning period from Monday to Friday, and Mr. Taichi! hosted by Kokubun Taichi at noon on Sunday.

Hometown Journey, which began broadcasting in 1963, visited the stages of literary works all over Japan. It has been broadcast for 44 years and has a total of 2,279 episodes. The program was not only sold and broadcast overseas, but also obtained materials from China in 1982. In 1975, Tokai TV's documentary Showa 49 Spring Osawa Village won the Art Festival Grand Prize, and was the first work of Tokai TV to do so. In 1982, Tokai TV became the first western TV station to be allowed to cover the Baikal-Amur railway. In 1985, Tokai TV took 9 years to produce. The documentary The Disappearing Village (消える村) recording the changes in the lives of residents in the submerged area of Tokuyama Reservoir was affirmed by the 25th Anniversary Special Award of the Galaxy Awards. In 1990, the documentary film tracking a 10,000-yen banknote (SY660000H) produced by Tokai TV won the Excellence Award in the TV Entertainment Department of the People's Liberation Association. The documentary Papa is Edison (とうちゃんはエジソン) produced by Tokai TV in 2003 with the theme of inventor Kato Yuanzhong, won the Galaxy Award and the FNS Documentary Award this year. It was the first time that Tokai TV won the Galaxy Award Grand Prize.

List

 * News
 * News One (evening news)
 * FNN Tokai Telenews


 * Dramas aired from 1 : 30 p.m. until 2 p.m. on weekdays
 * Sports
 * Professional Baseball Live 2024 (day game / night game) (プロ野球中継2024/プロ野球ナイター中継2024, baseball games of the Chunichi Dragons)
 * Keiba beat (競馬beat, horse racing live)
 * Nagoya Marathon
 * Tokai Classic (golf tournaments)


 * Discontinued
 * P-Can TV (ended in 2011 due to the Mr. Cesium incident)

Mr. Cesium incident
On August 4, 2011, when the "Happy Shopping" segment in Tokai TV's program ''Bessatsu! P-Can TV'' (Bessatsu! ぴーかんテレビ) was broadcasting, the TV shopping content of Inaniwa udon noodles from Akita Prefecture. Suddenly, the announcement screen of the winner of the Love Rice at First Sight Produced in Iwate Prefecture appeared, having nothing to do with the content, and the winner's name was written as "Mr.たお米セシウムさん)", and this screen lasted 23 seconds. After returning to the presenter appearing in the studio, the host of Bessatsu! P-Can TV and Tokai TV host Tomoyuki Fukushima quickly apologized. Afterwards, according to the investigation results of the channel, the cause of the accident was that the subtitle producers of the program accidentally broadcast the subtitle screen for practice. Because this incident happened about five months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident (cesium is a radioactive pollutant), it caused a public outcry.

After the incident, Tokai TV received a large number of calls and emails from viewers to protest. Iwate Governor Tatsumoto also protested against Tokai TV on behalf of the Iwate government. The Japan Commercial Broadcasters Union issued a written serious warning to Tokai TV for this incident. After the incident, Tokai TV stopped broadcasting the program. The then president Shuo Asano also publicly apologized on the TV program and the Iwate Prefectural Government. Tokai TV also set up a countermeasure headquarters to comprehensively verify the cause of the accident and prevent similar incidents from happening again. On August 30, Tokai TV broadcast a one-hour inspection program, introducing the cause and process of the accident, and apologized to the audience and agricultural workers in Iwate Prefecture. After the incident, Tokai Television also established a regeneration committee to rebuild broadcasting ethics and launch activities to support the Tohoku region.

Other TV stations in Nagoya

 * Chūkyō Television Broadcasting (CTV, 中京テレビ放送, affiliated with NTV and NNN / NNS) - 4
 * Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting Co., Ltd (CBC, 中部日本放送, affiliated with TBS TV and JNN) - 5
 * Nagoya Broadcasting Network (NBN, 名古屋テレビ放送, affiliated with TV Asahi and ANN) - 6
 * Aichi Television Broadcasting (TVA, テレビ愛知, affiliated with TV Tokyo and TX Network) - 10