Gaffer Tape wrote:
Um, yes? Again, could someone clarify for me if the Japanese television business model works in a fundamentally different way from American television? Because the way I understand television, production companies don't PAY for a timeslot. A network commissions a studio (pays THEM) to create a television series, based on the idea that it will be profitable for their station. As long as the show remains profitable to them, they will continue to pay the production company money to produce it. If they decide it's no longer in their best interest to continue the show, they will cancel it, and the production studio will be shit out of luck. There aren't many production companies that can actually fund their own work, and even if they could, they'd still have to find a station that's willing to air it. But apparently you're saying that, in Japan, the production company can just decide to stick whatever crap they want to into a timeslot, and the network just has to bend over and take it? That really doesn't make any sense to me from a business standpoint.
That's the thing, the Japanese TV way of doing things is different than the American TV way of doing things. But there is a well-known American example of production company paying to use a timeslot, and that is Toonzai/CW 4Kids. If you look up its Wikipedia page, it shows that half of Toonzai is owned by 4Kids (Production Company) and the other half is split up evenly between the co-owners of the CW (CBS and Time Warner). So, 4Kids has the rights to use that timeslot in a way that is approved by the CW, its not like the CW picks the shows. Also, in the latest
Kanzentai Feature shows that some of Toei's primary goals are to "Constantly maintain four to six stable broadcasting time slots," and "aim to create [the] 'next hit title' by securing stable income from the multi-use of the current TV lineups and library titles." Going off that, it seems that the "library titles", like Kai are a means to fund the "next hit title", which would be Toriko. I'm not saying that Toei could put whatever the hell they wanted into the timeslot and Fuji TV would have to take it, I'm saying is that Toei went to Fuji TV and pitched the new idea, and Fuji TV just says "Sure. Do it." As long is its not something that's obviously going to fail or something totally inappropriate for the timeslot, then they don't really care as long as they get their precious money.
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