According to the newspaper, NHK is adjusting to lower its subscription fees starting in October 2023.
NHK's monthly fee for terrestrial and satellite broadcasting is 2170 yen. The fee for terrestrial broadcasting only is 1,225 yen.
According to the article, the number of satellite broadcasting subscriptions is 2.23 million and terrestrial broadcasting only subscriptions are 19.52 million.
A simple calculation shows that 47,805.1 million yen comes from satellite broadcasting contracts and 23,912 million yen from terrestrial broadcasting contracts, for a total of 71,717.1 million yen per month.
In a year, this means that even if NHK was to keep quiet, NHK would receive roughly 860.6 billion yen in subscription fee income. That's amazing.
Although a simple comparison may not be possible, this is more than the sales of TBS, TV Asahi, and TV Tokyo combined.
In the case of commercial broadcasters, sales decline when viewership ratings are poor, but NHK's subscription fees do not decline no matter what kind of programs they broadcast.
The reason behind this price cut is that NHK's surplus funds amount to 600 billion yen and are likely to increase further. In other words, the collected subscription fees are not being used up.
The reduction in the reception fee is 10% for satellite broadcasting contracts. The terrestrial broadcasting contract is said to be several tens of yen.
I do not have a parabolic antenna to receive satellite broadcasts, so I subscribe to terrestrial broadcasting only. I do not watch terrestrial broadcasting at all. But I still have to pay a subscription fee. You may say, "It's your choice if you don't want to watch it," but since there are no programs that I want to watch, I think the broadcasters are largely to blame.
Since the current number of subscription subscriptions is 41.55 million and the number of Japanese households is 59.76 million, a simple calculation suggests that about 30% of households do not have a subscription.
The next time I buy a TV, I plan to buy one that does not receive broadcasts, so I hope to join the ranks of households that do not have a subscription as soon as possible.
