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The story
Fuji TV President Kenji Shimizu, speaking at the network’s press conference on the 25th, pointed to the strong performance of sports broadcasts — including Japan’s national football team matches — saying “the buzz around sports content really helped us.” The Round of 16 World Cup match between Japan and Brazil, aired on June 30, reportedly pulled an average household rating of 15.9% in the Kanto region despite a 2 a.m. kickoff. The comment sparked debate on 5channel: some praised the strong ratings for such a late-night slot, while many others questioned the broadcast’s production quality and Fuji’s broader strategy of leaning on sports and anime to prop up its struggling variety and drama lineup.
Fuji TV President Kenji Shimizu held a press conference at the network’s Tokyo headquarters on the 25th.
During the conference, he touched on the strong performance of the network’s live sports broadcasts, saying “the buzz around sports content really helped us.”
Fuji TV broadcast the World Cup in North and Central America live, and the Round of 16 match between Japan and Brazil (2 a.m. kickoff), aired June 30, recorded an average household rating of 15.9% (Kanto region). President Shimizu remarked, “We pulled off a high rating despite it airing in the dead of night.”
Source: nikkansports.com / Original article here
What people said
Chiikawa airs on Fuji too, you know.
though the coverage itself is terrible quality.
For a soccer match, the lineup should be a given — I want the tournament overview, which stadium it's at, and who's doing commentary included by default too.
About the only thing I watch is Tsutsumin's Live News α.
By the way, I also barely watched TBS's Asian Games coverage since they used Ninomiya.
Soccer was absolutely the right call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and TV would get popular again too
The Ohtani overkill has already turned tons of Japanese people off watching TV entirely.
That's talking about the Johnny's harassment scandal, which is many times worse than the "Ohtani overkill."
I don't mind that the dramas suck,
but Fuji TV needs to stay out of anime.
Isn't it IKKO doing the dancing these days?
Or maybe President Takata.
is Chiikawa becoming a huge hit?
Garbage numbers, lower than the J-League.
Note: no source given.
We don't need pointless variety shows.
There's real sports worth broadcasting, like Naoya Inoue's fights or curling.
There's no way they could air Inoue at this point. It's the sports content everyone wants most, but it's absolutely impossible to land — after all, the current pound-for-pound #1 boxer is Japanese.
Chiikawa —
content built on "harassment gags" that keeps sparking backlash.
He really must be on the chopping block.
Background and Talking Points on This Topic
This Round of 16 match was part of the 2026 World Cup held in North and Central America. Because of the time difference, the Japan vs. Brazil match kicked off at 2 a.m. Japan time — a brutal slot for viewership. Even so, pulling an average household rating of 15.9% in the Kanto region is unusually high for a broadcast that late at night. Fuji TV has spent the past several years watching sponsors pull out one after another over scandals involving its star talent, while ratings for its once-flagship variety shows and dramas have kept slumping. President Shimizu’s comments hint at a strategy of leaning on sports broadcasts — one of the few areas that reliably draws numbers — as a foothold against those headwinds. Reactions in the thread were split: some praised the World Cup ratings themselves, while others criticized the production quality (like camera switching) and pointed to the network’s reliance on the anime “Chiikawa” as its flagship content as a sign of weak management. The coexistence of strong numbers with frustration over on-the-ground production quality is what characterizes this thread.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[TV] Fuji TV President Shimizu Feels Sports Broadcasts Like Japan’s National Team Matches Are Paying Off: “The Buzz Really Helped Us”.”
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