The story
License
On November 24, 1959, Shotaro Kamiya, the then-president of Toyota Motors Sales Division, alongside ten other people, set up a license for Chūkyō Television Broadcasting, for the license of the third television station in the Tokai area. At that time there were an initial total of 9 companies which was later reduced to 5 companies (after 4 of the companies agreed to merge with Chukyo TV). On July 14, 1961, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (current Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) awarded the license to Chukyo TV being designated on channel 11. Afterwards, Chukyo TV held a founding meeting on August 30 of the same year, issued 400,000 shares, with a capital of 200 million yen. On November 25, 1961, Chukyo Television changed the company name to "Nagoya Broadcasting Co., Ltd.", referred to as "Nagoya Television", on the grounds that the place name "Nagoya" was more friendly.
NTV and NET years
On November 25, 1961, the company was renamed to Nagoya Broadcasting Network. Prior to its official broadcast, there were only two commercial broadcasters in the Tokai region: CBC (which is part of JNN) and Tokai TV (which is part of FNN and NNN). Nagoya TV then decided to become an affiliate of the NNN and NET TV (current TV Asahi) networks, which resulted from Tokai TV to become a full-time FNN affiliate.
The first tests of NBN were held on March 10, 1962. Eventually, service tests were conducted on March 25 and regular transmissions commenced on April 1, at 6:50 am. At the beginning of its operations, 65.8% of the programs broadcast by Nagoya TV were produced by Nippon Television, 25.7% were produced by NET Television, 5.1% were produced by themselves, and 3.4% were produced by other television stations. In June 1963, the Nagoya Television Labor Union was established. The labor relations at Nagoya TV were not harmonious in the early days. In July 1966, there was an incident where union members surrounded Nagoya TV for 23 days. However, the excessive confrontational behavior of the Nagoya TV union also caused dissatisfaction among some employees. These employees established a separate "Wakatake Association" in July 1969, and the Nagoya TV union split. In 1974, with the efforts of the labor union and Wakatake Kai, Nagoya TV became the seventh private TV station in Japan to have two days off per week.
In July 1966, Nagoya TV abolished the afternoon off-air period and realized uninterrupted broadcasting throughout the day. On December 15 of the same year, Nagoya TV broadcast its first color program. In 1969, Nagoya TV implemented all news programs in color. On September 26 of the same year, Nagoya TV launched its logo, a blue 11 in the hole of a red and green oval. In June 1972, Nagoya TV was allowed to conduct independent interviews in China. This was the first time since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution that a foreign TV station was qualified to conduct independent interviews in China. Nagoya TV's long-term coverage of China was recognized by the Japan Private Broadcasting Federation Award in 1975. In 1976, Nagoya TV's 6th China coverage was edited into a 13-episode documentary and broadcast nationwide through the ANN network.
As a sole ANN affiliate
Since its inception, Nagoya TV has maintained a ratio of about 60% of its broadcast programs coming from Nippon TV and about 30% from NET TV. However, this caused strong dissatisfaction with NET TV, which demanded that the ratio be changed to 5:5, one half from NTV and the other from NET. In October 1972, it intervened in the program adjustment of Nagoya TV and changed the program from 20:00 to 22:00 on Saturday night to NET TV. This move aroused strong dissatisfaction with Nippon Television, and the two went to court, and finally settled with a compromise plan of adapting one hour of the two-hour NET TV program to be broadcast. This incident became an opportunity for Nagoya TV to withdraw from the Nippon Television Network. On December 27, 1972, Nagoya TV, Chukyo TV, Nippon Television, and NET TV held a four-party meeting. After the meeting, the four parties agreed that Chukyo TV would fully become a member of the Nippon TV network, and Nagoya TV would fully become a member of the NET TV series network. When the network was switched, Nagoya TV broadcast a large number of advertisements to increase awareness of the network switch and curb the economic losses caused by this matter.
In 1976, Shotaro Kamiya resigned as the president of Nagoya TV, which was the first time the president was replaced after Nagoya TV started broadcasting. In 1979, the success of "Mobile Suit Gundam" and the special program starring then Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira greatly increased the national popularity of Nagoya TV. In the 2nd, 3rd and 5th weeks of April 1981, Nagoya TV won the triple crown of ratings for the first time. In 1981 and 1982, Nagoya TV ranked first in the daily ratings for two consecutive years.
In 1987, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, Nagoya Television changed the official Japanese name of the company from "Nagoya Broadcasting" to the current "Nagoya Television Broadcasting", unified the official name and general name, and launched a new logo, while changing its English name to Nagoya TV. In the same year, Nagoya TV also launched a new morning information program "Good Morning Nagoya TV". In July 1995, Nagoya TV opened its official website, becoming the second private TV station in Japan to open an official website (after TBS). In 1996 and 1997, the 35th anniversary of its launch, Nagoya TV produced a series of special programs such as "Late Night Express '96 ~ Hot Wind Asia ~", and won three Japan Private Broadcasting Association Awards. At the turn of the century, Nagoya TV signed cooperation agreements with foreign TV stations such as Dalian TV, Ho Chi Minh City Television, Suzhou Radio and Television and Arirang TV to strengthen overseas cooperation.
The current brand, Mētele (メーテレ Mētere, derived from the first character in the name Nagoya (名, on reading "めい" mei)), and hybrid sheep-wolf mascot (Wolfy) were introduced on March 31, 2003. The design concept of Wolfy is "a wolf in sheep's clothing", which means that although it is a sheep now, it is shedding its skin and becoming a wolf TV. The name "Wolfy" was selected from more than 15,000 submissions During the 2005 Aichi International Expo, Nagoya TV not only broadcast a series of special programs, but also co-organized a concert with the Expo Association on May 28. In 2007, on the occasion of its 45th anniversary, Nagoya TV's average daily ratings reached 8.9%, ranking second among Nagoya private TV stations for the first time in 15 years. In the same year, Nagoya TV also ranked second with an average prime-time viewership rating of 13.1%.
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In 2009 and 2010, due to the 2008 financial crisis, Nagoya TV suffered losses for two consecutive years. In 2011, Nagoya TV turned losses into profits. On July 24 of the same year, Nagoya TV stopped broadcasting analog TV signals and fully entered the digital TV era. In 2012, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its launch, Nagoya TV launched the promotional slogan "Sheep and Wolf are both Mētele" (Sheepも. Wolf も. メ～テレ) and produced many special programs. This year, Nagoya TV's prime-time ratings reached 13.4% and evening-time ratings reached 13.5%, winning the double crown in ratings. In 2013, Nagoya TV won the double crown in ratings.
Nagoya TV is also very keen on contributing to local causes. The year after the broadcast, Nagoya TV donated 1,000 street trees to the Nagoya City Hall. Since then, Nagoya TV has continued tree planting activities for a long time. By 1984, Nagoya TV had planted more than 30,000 trees in Nagoya City, and also held tree planting activities in Ise City, Yokkaichi City, Toyohashi City and other places. On October 9, 1969, Nagoya TV donated the large fountain located on the south side of the Nagoya TV Tower to the Nagoya City Hall and named it the "Fountain of Hope." The fountain cost 70 million yen to build and has a diameter of 20 meters. In 1972, as part of the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the broadcast, Nagoya TV donated and planted more than 1,100 cherry blossoms in Heihe Park, and named the area where cherry blossoms were planted "Sakura Garden".
On July 21, 2020, NBN became the first commercial television station in Japan to operate a satellite rebroadcast vehicle with 4K capabilities.
On October 2, 2023, the station entered the Locipo web platform, which was initiated by other stations in Nagoya in 2020. Out of the five stations broadcasting from Nagoya, NBN refused to participate at launch.
From Wikipedia’s article on Nagoya Broadcasting Network, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4