December 24, 2021 Announcement of Occurrence State of Broadcasting Cessation Incidents (FY2020) and Amendment of Occurrence State of Broadcasting Cessation Incidents (FY2019)

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) demands that broadcasters regularly report the state of their equipment (occurrence state of broadcasting cessation incidents) pursuant to the Broadcast Act (Act No. 132 of 1950) and the Regulations for Enforcement of the Broadcast Act (Radio Regulatory Commission Rules No. 10 of 1950).
Recently, MIC has made a report on the broadcasting cessation incidents that occurred in fiscal 2020 (from April 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021).
Furthermore, MIC found errors in a part of data on the occurrence state of broadcasting cessation incidents (fiscal 2019) announced on October 30, 2020, and MIC corrects the same.

1. Overview

• 1.
  Occurrence state of broadcasting cessation incidents in fiscal 2020

  • Terrestrial and satellite broadcasting: 291 incidents (including 20 serious incidents)
  • Cable broadcasting: 93 incidents (including four serious incidents)
• 2.
  Durations of broadcasting cessation and causes of incidents

  • As for terrestrial and satellite broadcasting cessation incidents, there was a relative majority of 125 incidents with a duration shorter than 15 minutes (about 43% of the total). On the other hand, the number of accidents lasting 10 hours or more was 24 (about 8% of the total). The most frequent cause of cessation incidents was malfunction in the facilities, which resulted in 123 incidents (about 42% of the total), followed by 60 incidents due to natural disasters (about 21% of the total).
  • As for cable broadcasting cessation incidents, there was a relative majority of 34 incidents with a long duration (10 hours or more) (about 37% of the total). The most frequent cause of cessation incidents was malfunction in the facilities, which resulted in 32 incidents (about 34% of the total), followed by 29 incidents due to natural disasters (about 31% of the total).
• 3.
  MIC found errors in a part of data on the occurrence state of broadcasting cessation incidents (fiscal 2019) announced on October 30, 2020, and MIC corrects the same.

2. Details

• Occurrence State of Broadcasting Cessation Incidents (FY2020)
• Amendment of “Occurrence State of Broadcasting Cessation Incidents (FY2019)”
• Following the amendment of “Occurrence State of Broadcasting Cessation Incidents (FY2019),” some figures in “Occurrence State of Serious Incidents (FY2020)” have also been corrected.

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  The published material is in Japanese only.