Softbank to Create Online TV Portal: Report

Softbank is reportedly in final talks with each of Japan's five national commercial television networks to create a new portal site for viewing television programs online, according to a Nihon Keizai Shimbun report last Friday.

The Nikkei said the site would host more than 1,000 programs from each of the networks and would be mostly supported by commercials rather than viewer fees. Softbank expects it to begin operating by next spring.

However, Softbank would not confirm details when queried by multiple other media outlets. A few of the broadcast networks told Reuters, however, that they had been approached by Softbank but had not made a final determination.

The Nikkei said the talks concern which programs Softbank will be given access to as well as how much it will pay for them. The new site is expected to initially contain mostly news and sports shows, because their copyrights are relatively easy to deal with.

Though Softbank owns a controlling stake in Japan's most popular portal, Yahoo! Japan, it told the Nikkei it will create a new company to launch the Web site. The firm will likely cooperate with Yahoo Japan, however, possibly relying on it for access to its customer database, the Nikkei said.

Softbank's move comes as each of the broadcast networks has separately sought ways of offering their programming online (see this report by JMR: “TV Networks Considering Pay-per-view Online”).

In contrast to Softbank, the individual broadcasters plan to offer their programming for a user fee. In July, Fuji Television Network Inc. began offering sports programs and concerts online, for about 300 yen (about $2.70) per program. Similarly, Nippon Television Network, for instance, said it would release up to 10,000 programs online beginning in October, including both dramas and variety shows, and would charge 100 yen ($0.90) for a 15-minute program segment.

Softbank itself has already been broadcasting video over the Internet since 2001 through its BBTV video-on-demand service. BBTV now offers more than 5,200 video-on-demand movies for rent and 28 live broadcast channels, which, among other things, broadcast games played by the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, a professional baseball team owned by Softbank.

The Nikkei said Softbank's future plans extend to developing a 1,000-channel service that will receive programming from Japan's public broadcaster NHK, regional TV stations and foreign broadcasters – in addition to the five private networks it is reportedly in negotiations with now.