Abstract:

According to the results of Nationwide-Ratings-Survey conducted by NHK in November 1993,19.4% of Japanese households could receive DBS -channels. When NHK began its regular 24 hours-DBS-service with 2 channels in June of 1989 the percentage was only 3.5. In the short period of time since then, it has shown a rapid increase. NHK has been conducting 3 types of surveys on DBS. One is the nationwide ratings survey of all family members (7+) in 1000 selected households having DBS-Receiving-Contracts with NHK from all areas of Japan. It is the time series mail-survey from June of 1990. it is conducted twice a year (June and November), and it consists of a chart in a television-viewing diary form in 5 minute intervals over 24 hours during a 7-days period. Others are nationwide ad hoc surveys examining audience-needs for DBS channels by distribution-and -collection method, and telephone surveys in the Tokyo area to examine audience reaction and evaluation for each individual program. On this report, findings on the following themes by NHK's surveys are presented. 1 Who are the DBS receivers? How has the receiver's profile been changed by penetration growth? 2 How has programing changed through the expansion of receivers? 3 How do people use DBS channels, and how has it been changing through penetration growth? This is to describe the process of popularization of DBS channels in Japan using survey data.