Comments from the President

Summary of Press Conference (January, 2023)

• On Amendments to the Corporate Plan and the Vote on the Income and Expenditure Budget Plan and the Business Plan

  (Comments by MAEDA Terunobu, President)

  Amendments to our current corporate plan that include a 10 percent reduction in receiving fees and the elimination of one of the satellite TV channels were approved by the Board of Governors today. In the corporate plan, the policy aiming for a new NHK that is leaner and stronger remains unchanged. However, in light of new challenges such as the coronavirus pandemic and the situation in Ukraine, of the five initiatives that were set out, we have strengthened “supporting safety and security” and “delivering information far and wide” and made other amendments. We will continue to adapt to the changing times as a public service media organization that is supported by fees from viewers and live up to the trust placed in us by viewers and by society as a whole. We have been moving forward with reforms in various areas in order to realize a new NHK that is leaner and stronger. We have carried out various reforms: in production by managing programs across channels by genre, by fundamentally changing the receiving fee collection system, in management of the entire NHK group, and in our personnel system. We believe this series of reforms is producing a steady flow of successful results. This is the year of completion of reforms of NHK’s operations, receiving fees, and governance – the trinity of reforms, so to speak. We are implementing a 10 percent reduction in receiving fees for terrestrial and satellite contracts and expanding exemptions for students living alone, who may be stretched financially, so as to reduce the burden on them. We are also applying the same receiving fees to viewers regardless of their form of payment, whether they use payment slips or pay through bank accounts/credit cards. As prices continue to rise around the world, we decided to go one step further from what we had promised when the plan was drawn up in hopes of relieving the financial burden on our viewers, even if only a little. As a result, our operating income for fiscal 2023 was revised down by 44 billion yen due to the six-month period of lower receiving fees that will start in October 2023. Income is also expected to fall drastically from fiscal 2024 onwards, and ultimately, we expect the scale of our operations to be slimmed down to less than 600 billion yen. In the budget for fiscal 2023, we reflected amendments that were made to the corporate plan, and we will enhance structural reforms aiming for a new leaner and stronger NHK during that period. We will report accurate, impartial information that saves lives and livelihoods and deliver a variety of high-quality content to our viewers. We also plan to steadily implement the elimination of one of our satellite TV channels while ensuring that the quality of our programs is maintained, and smoothly carry out the reduction in receiving fees from October 2023. In addition, we will actively disseminate information on Japan to the rest of the world and promote mutual understanding between Japan and the international community. We will also advance efforts to provide information on Japan’s local communities to contribute to their development. The digital information space contains a lot of dubious information, and demand for high-quality, reliable public content and services will continue to increase. We believe the role that NHK is expected to fulfill in society as a public service media organization will become larger. We would like to firmly live up to such expectations by carrying out structural reforms so that we can realize a new NHK that is leaner and stronger.