| This thesis studies the program-type diversity of Japan's video distribution industry in the multichannel era. Many U.S. media studies suggest that whereas broadcast networks attempt to maximize audience with similar, mass appeal content under limited channel capacity, more diverse presentations can be offered as the number of channels increases with the advent of multichannel media. It is assumed that diverse programming would increase the likelihood of maximizing the satisfaction of a wider range of viewers. In Japan, however, multichannel media is not widely accepted, and even subscribers to the media mainly watch the retransmission of broadcasting. The key to understand these phenomena might lie in the programming of broadcasters. If Japan's over-the-air broadcast networks offer diverse types of programming to meet various viewers' preferences, cable television may not be perceived as adding significant diversity. We discuss how much diverse programming is attained by Japan's over-the-air broadcasting and cablecasting with comparative research of those programming schedules. It is discovered that while more program-type options per hour are available on cablecasting, in the aggregate broadcasting provides diverse programming nearly equivalent to cablecasting. |
