7, 28. 2006
Shukan Asahi weekly carried the special article "NHK on the Verge of 'Bankruptcy'" on two instalments.
According to the report published in the June 16 issue of the Shukan Asahi weekly, the decrease in viewing fees collected by NHK in fiscal 2006 will exceed 100 billion yen compared with the viewing fees collected annually during the years before the series of scanndals involving NHK employees came to surface. The report indicated that this decrease figure was higher than the figure made public. The reason was that: (1) 85% of the fees are collected automatically by deducting from the bank accounts of the viewers and this caused a time lag so that some payment refusals were not accurately reflected on the decrease made public, (2) The figure made public did not include the payments which were not made because of difficulty to ask the viewers directly to make the payment (numbering 1.25 million cases), and non-payments due to economic reasons (1.39 million cases). This means that the figure made public by NHK was inaccurate.
Viewing Fees Collecting System Collapsed Because Of Scandals
The statement of accounts NHK announced for the term ending in March 2006 showed that its receipts of viewing fees decreased by 38,500 million yen from the previous term to 602,400 million yen. The ordinary business income (equivalent to the sales of ordinary business firms) went down by 10,500 million yen to 674,900 million yen. Although NHK maintained equilibrium between income and expenditure by squeezing the production costs for programs and equipment expenses, it suffered revenue and profit declines for 2 years in a row. As of the end of March, the number of contracted viewers of NHK had fallen 440,000 from the previous term to 36.18 million.
Before the scandals came to the surface, the receipts of viewing fees totalled as much as 650 billion yen. More than 10% of the revenue was spent for the operating the system to collect the viewing fees. The system collapsed, however, because of the scandals. In the beginning, the reason for not paying the fees was mostly stemmed from the viewers' protest against the scandals. One year later, however, the reason changed to "a sense of unfairness" on the ground of "because the neighbors are not paying." This could mean the fees might continue to be unpaid.
Unless something is done, NHK is destined to go bankrupt. Having the sense of impending crisis after the series of scandals, NHK placed its hope in the effort of the LDP subcommittee for the improvement of communications and broadcasting industry and Takenaka's advisory group.
Genichi Hashimoto, President of NHK, made frequent visit with Diet members including those who have close connections with Post and Telecommunications bureaucrats as part of his effort to push the LDP and Takenaka groups to support NHK.
Non-payment Of Viewing Fees Become Violation Of Broadcast Law If Obligated
LDP subcommittee and Takenaka group worked out their final reports in early June. Both of the reports clearly stated that the payment of the viewing fees to NHK should be made obligatory by law. The report by the Takenaka group recommended that the viewing fees be reduced and also the number of channels operated by NHK be cut down. But the support for making the viewing fee payment compulsory saved NHK. If the payment be made obligatory, refusal to pay would be clearly defined as violation of the broadcast law, and the payment could be enforced by law.
There is a strong opinion held by some NHK insiders that " It is questionable how effective it could be to obligate the payment of the fees. It is already obligatory under the existing law to have contracts with NHK to receive NHK broadcasting. The refusal to pay the fees would not end unless such refusal be subjected to punishment by law as early as possible."
To deal with the viewers' non-payment of the fees, NHK seems to be takings measures in two steps. As the first step, NHK will make the payment obligatory by law for the time being. If such measure does not work out as expected, punishment by law for the viewers who refuse to pay the fees will be introduced as the second step. By making the fee payment obligatory, NHK might be able somehow to avoid a "bankruptcy," however the crisis is not likely to be resolved easily.
