NHK to cut monthly TV fee

Wednesday 26 Oct 2011
NHK said on Tuesday that its board of governors approved a business plan that includes a cut in its monthly television subscription fee by up to ¥120 (US$1.58) from next October, Kyodo reports.

The viewership fee cut is the first by NHK since 1968, when the radio subscription fee that had been included was terminated. The monthly fee now stands at ¥1,345 (US$17.74) for viewers of terrestrial broadcasting alone. Viewers of satellite broadcasting are required to pay an additional ¥945 (US$12.46) per month.

NHK’s three-year business plan through fiscal 2014 projects that the fee cut would still allow the broadcaster to break even in fiscal 2012 from next April.

It would leave it ¥4.7 billion (US$62 million) in the red in the 2013 fiscal year and ¥1 billion (US$13.2 million) in the black in the 2014 fiscal year.