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NHK's Hashimoto hints at cutting viewer fees+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Jan. 26_(Kyodo) _ The head of public broadcaster NHK, Genichi Hashimoto, hinted Thursday that the broadcaster may reduce its mandatory TV viewing fees if it sees a decline in the number of viewers refusing to pay.
Hashimoto, president of NHK, officially named Japan Broadcasting Corp., made the remark at a meeting of the governing Liberal Democratic Party's subcommittee on communications and broadcasting.
"If the receipt of the viewer fees can be facilitated, (NHK) could review" the current viewer fee rates, Hashimoto said during a briefing on NHK's fiscal 2006 budget and on fiscal 2006-2008 business plan.
NHK charges color TV-set owners 1,345 yen a month per household to receive terrestrial broadcasts and 2,290 yen for satellite broadcasts, with the payment being made via bank account transfer. No hikes or reductions have been made to the viewer fee rates since fiscal 1990.
The number of households refusing to pay the fees to NHK stood at about 1.25 million at the end of January, accounting for some 30 percent of all Japanese households required to pay them. A series of scandals at NHK last year led to a sharp increase in the number of people refusing to pay.
The Broadcast Law requires viewers to pay fees to the public broadcaster. Commercial TV stations whose revenues come from advertising provide their broadcasting service free of charge.
NHK expects its revenue to fall to some 594 billion yen in fiscal 2006, down 53.8 billion yen, or 8.3 percent, from fiscal 2005 through to this March 31.
Under the three-year business plan, NHK will cut the salaries of its board members and managerial employees and also reduce its workforce by 1,200 employees over three years.
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