Transformers and Weird Japanese TV

Japan has idiotic TV shows at New Year's. They often have these ridiculous game shows where people compete doing... Well, where people compete doing... Well, what the hell are they doing?

You watch and decide!


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Study Confirms: Internet Surpasses TV for News Among Young People

Just an update on an earlier post about the sooner-than-you-think demise of major TV station. The final sentence says it all: "Now, it's just a matter of time before spending catches up with the audience."

This time from Business Insider:


According to a new Pew study, the Internet surpassed TV as the number one news source for 18-to-29 year olds in the U.S. last year.

The trend isn't new--the Internet has been gradually replacing other sources of news for the last decade, with a particularly sharp rise in 2007. But 2010 is the first time that the Internet surpassed all other sources of news for young users. The trend will only accelerate as those younger users age and move into other demographic groups.

The Internet is also closing in on newspapers as the number-two news source among 50-to-64 year olds, and finally surpassed radio in the over-64 demographic.

Now, it's just a matter of time before advertising spending catches up with the audience.

Why spend tens of thousands on TV or radio advertising when you cannot measure your results? Why not buy internet advertising that you pay for each person who views or clicks?

TV News Viewership Sinks...

More proof that major station TV - with their 1000's of employees - is heading to the end of the road...

I've written (again!) repeatedly about the demise of TV in Japan. Some people think that I mean that TV is going to disappear off the face of the earth forever. That is not the case. TV will be around for many more decades to come, I'm sure.

What won't be around for many more decades to come are these over-sized bloated TV networks that employ thousands of people.

Think about it: A TV station like TV Tokyo targets a very wide audience of ages from 6 ~ 86. TV Tokyo employs well over 1,000 people.

A station like Fashion TV in Tokyo targets 20 ~ 45 year old women.  Fashion TV employs about 40 people so their overhead is nowhere near as high as TV Tokyo.

Let's say you are a women's shoes manufacturer. Fashion TV targets your main audience. Yet their advertising rates are less than 1/20th the price of TV Tokyo. As a sponsor who wants a prime audience, do you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV Tokyo advertising, or do you specialize and only go for your core audience?

Of course, you go for the core audience.

Today, again, more data has come out on the quick collapse of TV. Specifically TV News.

Mashable reports:

In 2010, 65% of people younger than 30 cited the Internet as their go-to source for news, nearly doubling from 34% in 2007. The number who consider television as their main news source dropped from 68% to 52% during that time.

Of all 1,500 American adults surveyed, 41% say they get their national and international news from the Internet, up 17% from 2007. Sixty-six percent cite television — down from 74% — indicating the trend is spreading among other age groups.

Forty-eight percent of those 30-59 cite the Internet as their main news source, up from 32% in 2007, while television went down from 71% to 63%. Though the number of those in the 51-64 age group who consider television their main news source (71%) is about the same, those who turn to the Internet (34%) is nearly equal to the number who cite newspapers (38%). The amount of people 65 and older who get their news from the Internet has risen from 5% to 14%, but television remains the chief source for 79% of respondents. 

News is the bread and butter of television.  So, to extrapolate on the figures above... If 65% of all people younger than 30 cite the Internet as their main news source - and TV is losing money now - what's going to happen in 10 years?

Like I said, there will always be TV stations... But the day of the hugely staffed stations is soon coming to an end.

Nintendo Announces that 3DS is Dangerous for Children!

Nintendo has announced that their 3DS is dangerous for children under 6 years old. Well, no kidding.

I have written about the hazards of TV and watching things on a screen for children at Lew Rockwell here and here. Here's more by another writer on an overview why video games are bad in general.


At the time of the writing of the above articles, hand-held gaming was not the big scourge it is today. But it is a simple line of logic to realize that, if wasting time sitting around watching a TV screen is bad for children, then sitting around and watching a game screen is just as bad.


The Los Angeles Times reports:


Nintendo's 3DS video game system might be hazardous to the health of children younger than 6, according to a warning posted Wednesday on the Japanese video game company's website. The 3DS is the gaming giant's latest version of its DS line of handheld video game consoles. The feature of the 3DS that separates it from Nintendo's popular other DS systems: It can handle 3-D gaming and movies, displaying the depth-adding effect without requiring users to wear 3-D glasses. Although Nintendo is advising that only the preschool crowd refrain from using the new system's 3-D feature, it also recommends in its note that all players -- children and adults -- should take breaks from its glasses-free 3-D gaming every 30 minutes, or whenever a user feels sick.


"...might be hazardous?" Get real. Have a little common sense. Of course they are bad for children (children's brains, minds, and vision - not to mention social skills) Just watch any kid who spends 30 minutes a day or more playing these things and see how his school grades drop and his ability to interact with other children decline.


A few months ago I went with my son to a 6-year-old classmates birthday party. There several parents were talking and trading notes. One of the parents was complaining about the school bus.


He said something like his child would come home from school crying because the other kids on the school bus  all had their own DS game and, since he didn't have one, the other kids wouldn't play with him. (I didn't bother to ask that father how it is that kids are supposed to play together when they are all dwelling deep inside of their single player DS game.) The father, not realizing that his child was manipulating him so that he could get a DS like the other kids, relented (because he loved his child and wanted him to have "friends") and bought his kid a DS.


Big mistake.


Well, the story continued and, several months later, the father recalled, he had his son's birthday party at home. Well, lo and behold, the son's "friends" came over and, instead of playing, the father recalls that they all sat of the sofa, not speaking a word to each other and playing DS games.... Frustrated, the father finally ordered them to put down the DS games and "play" (you know that you had a bunch of groaning kids there!).


Duh!


Gee, do you think the same thing is not going on on the school bus?


Anyway, kid's today need all the advantages in life they can get. Only a truly foolish parent would buy a DS game for their child... Would you buy your child their own TV set for their room to watch whenever they want? I wouldn't. Some people do.... Those are the kids who have trouble in school. Don't ask me, ask your child's teacher or school administrator...


Or ask someone like me who worked in TV and radio for 3 decades and know, from the inside, how bad TV is for kid's....


One can look at American society as a whole today and see how too much TV has made the average American dumb as nails, but that's a story for another day.


Oh, and don't think that you can control your child's use of the device... They will find a way around your controls.... Whether it is at your house or sneaking off to another house.... 


You cannot control what goes on at other people's homes, but do your child a favor do not buy these devices or even allow them in your house.


Am I against DS games? Absolutely not. If my son wants one, then he when he gets a job of his own and wants to buy one, then more power to him. But, I suspect that, since he won't have played them as a child, then he won't be interested in it later... I mean, when you have girls, sports, outdoors, books, traveling, good food, etc., etc., why play hand held games?


Trust my friends, that, since we never had a TV in our house, my son is not even interested in it... He is not interested in games either (I have taken him to the game center for his birthday and other occasions before - he likes that. Like I said, kid's these days need all the help they can get. 


Handheld games and TV are a hinderance. Don't be a lazy parent and buy this junk as a defacto babysitter for your child. They deserve better.

4 Funny and Ridiculous Japanese TV Performers

Absurd! Japanese TV is just really a waste of time. You only need to watch this once.

First is a guy who can strip naked in one move.

Then a guy who can take the skin off a grape with his belly button.

Next a guy who can peel a banana with his ass.

Finally a guy who can eat pudding off his stomach without using his hands! He follows it up by eating a bowl of steaming ramen upside down.



OK... You've wasted 5 minutes. Get back to work!

The First TV Broadcasting in Japan

Nihon TV (日本テレビ）was the very first TV station to ever broadcast in Japan. They changed their name to Nippon TV in 1993.

Here is their opening sequence from 7 o'clock am on August 28, 1953:

While I predict that many of the other major Japanese broadcasters will collapse after the digital conversion on July 24, 2011. I believe that Nihon TV and Fuji TV will be able to survive.

Read more on Nippon TV at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Television

So, You Want to Work in Japan's Music Industry?

If you really want to be a famous musician or work in the music industry, and you need advice, great! You've come to the right place. I've worked in the music business since 1978. So I have a pretty good idea as to what's going on.


Might as well start of at the beginning with having your dreams crushed like a grape, right? 


Let me tell you aspiring musician that there is absolutely no way. You have zero chance of making it without a hugely one-in-a-trillion lucky break. You have a better chance of winning the lottery. But, on the other hand, this article might be your lucky break!... Then again, you'd probably do well to get a job at a convenience store.


Trust that, by the time you finish reading this article you'll realize that, if you want to work in the music business in Japan, you really might as well get a job at a convenience store. It's really that simple.


But, if you really believe you can "make it," then good for you... Read on...


Yesterday, I had lunch with Aki Morishita the vice president of Fuji Pacific Music Publishing, the biggest music publisher in the world. Aki also has a very high ranking position at EMI Music Publishing too.

Both Aki and I were joined by a young friend who is a musician and song-writer named Andre Dimuzio. Andre, like many other young musicians, is looking for a break into the music industry.

I think he was very surprised by what both Aki and I had to say.

I think many people know that the old way of the music business is dead; record labels are collapsing all around us and the traditional methods of distributing music have also been turned on their heads. 

I've also written before about what these changes mean for TV and radio in Japan  here, here, and here.

CD retail is dying, and along with it the labels and TV and radio are dying a slow death too... 

Both Aki and I joked about how no one can sell any physical product anymore (CDs, etc.) excepting vinyl for club DJ's, but it looks like I could be wrong about that too as Panasonic has announced that they will discontinue production and sales of Technics turn tables.

As the Tokyo Reporter writes:

Fans of analog music were dealt another blow when consumer electronics company Panasonic announced earlier this month that it would be discontinuing the audio products within its Technics brand, most notably the legendary line of analog turntables. On October 20, the company said that it was winding down production of the Technics SL-1200MK6 analog turntable, the SH-EX1200 analog audio mixer and the RP-DH1200 and RP-DJ1200 stereo headphones due to challenges in the marketplace. "Panasonic decided to end production mainly due to a decline in demand for these analog products and also the growing difficulty of procuring key analog components necessary to sustain production," the company said in statement. 

Here, all this time, I had thought that DJ specialty record shops in Tokyo, like Manhattan Records, were doing a good business selling vinyl records. Maybe not.

Like I said, the music business is falling apart in Japan and the old order has definitely shot itself in the foot. Aki said that there are rumors that Tower Records Shibuya won't last to summer 2011. I wrote about that before too. And, after the bankruptcy of a radio station in Nagoya, there are the rumblings of another great upheaval in two big FM stations in Kyushu. 

I thought it was interesting that, during the conversation, I mentioned that the only hope for radio stations in Japan was automation - something they do not want to do as people will lose their jobs... But this morning's news also adds another surprise to the mix.

I had pointed out to my friends that Lawson's Convenience store runs their own in-store radio station. It is called, "Lawson's Hot Station" and while it is total and complete pablum, it does the job that Lawson's needs - and it is a fully automated "radio station."


Lawson's = Smart.

Now, Lawson's takes it one step further as they have taken over HMV records in Japan!

As Nikkei reports:

Lawson Inc. intends to use its takeover of HMV Japan KK to attract young consumers, the biggest users of convenience stores, by tapping the major music and movie retailer's online sales expertise and roughly 4.7 million members. HMV Japan -- which rings up half its annual sales of some 30 billion yen online -- sends out e-mail showcasing new products to customers based on their purchasing histories. The convenience store operator's attention was drawn to the passion of HMV Japan customers toward certain genres of music and movies.

Now, young musician with stars in your eyes, here's a test. Let's see if you can put two and two together... 

Question: If you want a job in the music industry in Japan, you should try to get a job at:

a) a record shop

b) a record label

c) a radio station

d) a convenience store

The correct answer is d.