It seems that the days of the primetime slot on the TV are over! Times Online is reporting that the Japanese prefer to play on the Nintendo rather than watch TV at primetime. What’s more interesting is that the 7 – 9 PM slot of viewing TV is usually selected by parents.
In fact, a senior executive of Fuji TV said that families nowadays choose to spend the economically-critical ‘golden hour’ time playing on their Wii rather than watch its colourful diet of soap operas, panel games and comedy variety shows. Most of the other representatives of television companies agree to this view.
An executive of TBS which is a major commercial channel said, “The quality of programming has always been a little cyclical in Japan, but there has never been a period of decline like the one we are seeing now. There are outside factors at work. One is people watching TV on their cell phones where we can’t track them, but the really big factor is the time people are spending on the Wii.” He also stated that the ‘theft’ of audiences was taking place as television producers and programming directors were used only to the idea of challenging for time with other channels.
Reports from Japan’s audience-tracking firms indicated that no single show on any commercial station attracted more than a 9 per cent audience share. These figures were the worst in nearly two decades and Japanese television executives are feeling the pressure. However, a representative from TBS remarked that the Wii still has to compete with important sporting events such as Olympic Games, football World Cup or even the Japanese baseball season finale.
Whatever it is, the Nintendo Wii is making waves all around the world and in Japan, it outsold the PS3 six to one.