Why Did I Travel All the Way to Kobe Only to Be Shown My Neighborhood Curry Shop? The Sad Financial Reality of Local Television
The television industry’s struggles are hardly news anymore.
Advertising money has moved online, production budgets have been cut, and viewers have shifted to streaming services. In this environment, local television stations with limited financial resources are the first to suffer.
During a recent trip to Kobe, I encountered that reality in a strange way.
The Unexpected Tokyo Local Program I Saw in a Kobe Hotel
When I stay at a hotel while traveling, I enjoy watching local television programs.
Regional weather forecasts, sale information from local supermarkets, and restaurants in shopping streets I have never heard of. They show the everyday life of a place that never appears in tourist guides.
In Kobe, I turned on the hotel television expecting to see something like that.
Instead, a familiar streetscape appeared on the screen.
It was Tokyo—and not just Tokyo, but my own neighborhood.
A television personality was wandering around the streets, introducing a curry restaurant and a vintage clothing shop.
“Why did I come all the way to Kobe just to watch a segment about the curry restaurant near my home?”
If it had been Shibuya or Ginza, I could have understood. Those places are nationally known and could serve as tourist information for people elsewhere in Japan.
But the program featured a somewhat obscure residential neighborhood in Tokyo.
What exactly was someone in Kobe supposed to enjoy about being shown a vintage clothing shop in a Tokyo residential area?
At least in my case, I could visit that shop during my usual walk if I wanted to.
It made my trip to Kobe by bullet train feel entirely pointless.
Buying a Tokyo Program Is Cheaper
Why does this happen?
The reason is probably simple: it is cheaper for a local station to buy and broadcast a program produced in Tokyo than to make one itself.
Hiring television personalities, assembling a crew, filming on location, and editing all cost a significant amount of money, even for a program lasting only 30 minutes.
A completed program, on the other hand, merely requires the purchase of broadcasting rights.
In the past, the idea was to show popular nationwide programs in regional markets as well. Now even extremely local programs featuring walks through Tokyo residential neighborhoods are being broadcast in other parts of the country.
Somehow, Tokyo local television has become national content.
Kobe has its own shopping streets, restaurants, and countless interesting places known only to local residents.
Yet its television stations are broadcasting a program about a curry restaurant in Tokyo.
It is a rather depressing situation.
Is It Impossible to Make Television Without Celebrities?
Local stations do have programs introducing neighborhood shopping streets and restaurants. The reporters, however, may be the stations’ own local announcers.
In other words, programs can be made without bringing in celebrities.
Yet stations remain trapped in the belief that “a television program needs celebrities,” and because they lack the budget, they buy programs from Tokyo instead.
Apparently, it is better to show a celebrity walking through a Tokyo residential neighborhood than a local announcer walking through Kobe.
That tells us a great deal about what television stations value.
The Future of Television I Found While Traveling
As I sat in a Kobe hotel watching the familiar residential streets of Tokyo, I had very mixed feelings.
I had come on a trip and wanted to see parts of Kobe I did not know.
Instead, television showed me my usual neighborhood.
Local stations cut production costs to survive, and in the process, local character disappears.
At this rate, the day may come when I can travel anywhere in Japan and watch a program strolling through my home neighborhood on the hotel television.
That would be annoying for people who love travel, but an extremely helpful service for people who prefer staying home.