October 29, 2024
Actual Results of Subtitled Broadcasts, etc. in FY2023

 The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) promotes the spread of people-friendly broadcasts, such as subtitled television broadcasts, considering aged people and people with seeing or hearing impairments. As a part of this initiative, the results of the subtitled broadcasts, commentary broadcasts, and sign language broadcasts aired in FY 2023 have now been compiled. Accordingly, the MIC has decided to open the same to the public.

 The MIC surveyed subtitled broadcasts, commentary broadcasts, and sign language broadcasting in FY 2023 and summarized the results. (See Notes 1 and 2)
 In October 2023, the MIC amended the "Guidelines for Information Accessibility in the Broadcasting Field" (formulated in February 2018), and each broadcaster is now promoting efforts based on the guidelines.

 [Subtitled broadcasts]

	Percentage of subtitled programs in broadcasts targeted by the "Guidelines for Information Accessibility in the Broadcasting Field" (Note 3)	Percentage of subtitled broadcast time in total broadcast time
NHK (General, Broadcasting Center) (Note 4)	100.0% [±0.0 points]	91.7% [+1.1 points]
NHK (Education)	97.2% [+1.8 points]	88.4% [+2.5 points]
Five key stations in Tokyo (Note 5)	100.0% [±0.0 points]	70.4% [+1.1 points]
Four quasi-key stations in Osaka (Note 6)	100.0% [±0.0 points]	68.7% [+0.2 points]
Four wide-area stations in Nagoya (Note 7)	100.0% [±0.0 points]	62.6% [+0.1 points]
101 affiliated local stations (Note 8)	89.4% [±0.0 points]	58.1% [+0.5 points]
13 independent stations (Note 9)	46.5% [+1.8 points]	18.2% [+0.4 points]
NHK (BS/BS Premium) (Note 10)	64.6% [+15.8 points] /94.8% [+2.6 points]	63.6% [+14.4 points] /89.2% [+5.8 points]
NHK (BS Premium 4K/BS8K) (Note 11)	85.0% [-6.2 points] /73.0% [-3.2 points]	88.0% [+1.9 points] /82.4% [+ 4.5 points]
Five commercial-broadcasting-key-station-affiliated BS operators (2K broadcasting/4K broadcasting) (Note 12)	59.0% [+1.5 points] /53.4% [-5.2 points]	30.9% [+1.3 points] /32.4% [+1.8 points]

*Values in brackets show a comparison with the previous fiscal year.

 (Reference 1) Japan Broadcasting Corporation, also known as NHK (General, base broadcasting stations) (Note 13)
 ・Percentage of subtitled programs in broadcasts targeted by the guidelines: 95.1% [+ 0.2 points]
 ・Percentage of subtitled broadcast time in total broadcast time: 87.7% [+ 1.0 point]

 (Reference 2) NHK (General, other broadcasting stations) (Note 14)
 ・Percentage of subtitled programs in broadcasts targeted by the guidelines: 92.2% [+ 0.3 points]
 ・Percentage of subtitled broadcast time in total broadcast time: 85.9% [+ 1.0 point]

[Commentary broadcasts]

	Percentage of commentary programs in broadcasts targeted by the "Guidelines for Information Accessibility in the Broadcasting Field" (Note 15)	Percentage of commentary broadcast time in total broadcast time
NHK (General, Broadcasting Center)	18.9% [- 0.5 points]	15.2% [- 0.3 points]
NHK (Education)	22.1% [+ 0.5 points]	20.0% [+ 1.5 points]
Five key stations in Tokyo	19.9% [+ 0.7 points]	7.4% [+ 0.6 points]
Four quasi-key stations in Osaka	17.4% [+ 1.0 points]	6.2% [+ 1.3 points]
Four wide-area stations in Nagoya	21.9% [+ 1.6 points]	6.1% [+ 0.6 points]
101 affiliated local stations	12.8% [+ 1.9 points]	5.3% [+ 0.6 points]
13 independent stations	1.4% [± 0.0 points]	0.6% [- 0.1 points]
NHK (BS/BS Premium)	8.8% [+ 5.4 points] /14.3% [+ 1.7 points]	4.8% [+ 2.8 points] /10.1% [+ 1.1 points]
NHK (BS Premium 4K/BS8K)	17.8% [+ 10.1 points] /14.8% [- 0.5 points]	14.2% [+ 6.9 points] /9.9% [± 0.0 points]
Five commercial-broadcasting-key-station-affiliated BS operators (2K broadcasting/4K broadcasting)	2.4% [+ 1.1 points] /2.4% [+ 1.1 points]	1.4% [+ 0.7 points] /1.4% [+ 0.7 points]

*Values in brackets show a comparison with the previous fiscal year.

 (Reference 3) NHK (General, base broadcasting stations)
 ・Percentage of commentary programs in broadcasts targeted by the guidelines: 18.5% [- 0.6 points]
 ・Percentage of commentary broadcast time in total broadcast time: 14.8% [- 0.3 points].

 (Reference 4) NHK (General, other broadcasting stations)
 ・Percentage of commentary programs in broadcasts targeted by the guidelines: 18.6% [+ 3.8 points]
 ・Percentage of commentary broadcast time in total broadcast time: 14.9% [+ 1.8 points]

[Sign language broadcasts]

	Sign language broadcast time per week (average per station) (Note 16)
NHK (General, Broadcasting Center)	35 minutes [- 25 minutes]
NHK (Education)	4 hours 33 minutes [+ 31 minutes]
Five key stations in Tokyo	31 minutes [+ 5 minutes]
Four quasi-key stations in Osaka	19 minutes [- 1 minute]
Four wide-area stations in Nagoya	24 minutes [± 0 minutes]
101 affiliated local stations	23 minutes [+ 1 minute]
13 independent stations	1 hour 23 minutes [+ 1 minute]

*Values in brackets show a comparison with the previous fiscal year.

 (Reference 5) NHK (General, base broadcasting stations)
 ・Sign language broadcast time per week: 31 minutes [- 13 minutes]

 (Reference 6) NHK (General, other broadcasting stations)
 ・Sign language broadcast time per week: 31 minutes [- 13 minutes]

 ○ Corrections to previously announced actual results of subtitled broadcasts, etc.
 We identified some errors in the reports from broadcasters concerning the actual results of subtitled broadcasts for FY 2018 through FY 2022. We will correct the aggregate results of some satellite broadcasts.

 (Note 1) When multi-organization is performed, the broadcast time is the total broadcast time for each channel.

 (Note 2) See Appendix 1 through Appendix 4 for the individual actual results of each broadcaster.

 (Note 3) A survey conducted during a two-week sampling period (*)

 * The sampling period is typically the first week of June (Monday, May 29 through Sunday, June 4, 2023) and the first week of December (Monday, November 27 through Sunday, December 3, 2023). However, if there is a specific reason, the sampling period may be shifted to the two consecutive weeks before or after the aforementioned dates.

 Programs in broadcasts targeted by the guidelines are all programs aired over 18 consecutive hours, from 6:00 to 25:00, excluding the following broadcasts:
 ・Programs that cannot be technically subtitled (e.g., live programs where multiple people currently have conversations at the same time)
 ・Foreign language programs
 ・Music programs mainly constituting instrumental music performances
 ・Programs that cannot be subtitled due to rights processing reasons

 (Note 4) The figures for NHK (General, Broadcasting Center) represent the actual results for stations covering Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, and Kanagawa Prefectures.

 (Note 5) The figures for the five key stations in Tokyo represent the average of the actual results for Nippon Television Network Corporation, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc., Fuji Television Network, Inc., TV Asahi Corporation, and TV TOKYO Corporation.

 (Note 6) The figures for the four quasi-key stations in Osaka represent the average of the actual results for Mainichi Broadcasting System, Inc., Asahi Television Broadcasting Corporation, Kansai Television Co., Ltd, and Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation.

 (Note 7) The figures for the four wide-area stations in Nagoya represent the average of the actual results for CBC TELEVISION CO., LTD, Tokai Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Nagoya Broadcasting Network Co., Ltd., and Chukyo TV. Broadcasting Co., Ltd.

 (Note 8) The figures for 101 affiliated local stations represent the average of the actual results for terrestrial television broadcasters other than those listed in Notes 4 to 7, Note 9, Note 13, and Note 14.

 (Note 9) The figures for the 13 independent stations represent the average of the actual results for Tochigi Television Co., Ltd., Gunma Television Co., Ltd., Television Saitama Co., Ltd., Chiba Television Broadcasting Corporation, Tokyo Metropolitan Television Broadcasting Corporation, Television Kanagawa, Inc., Gifu Broadcasting System, Inc., Mie Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Biwako Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Kyoto Broadcasting System Company Limited, Sun Television Co., Ltd., Nara Television Co., Ltd., and Wakayama Telecasting Corp.

 (Note 10) NHK BS1 and NHK BS Premium were reorganized into NHK BS on Friday, December 1, 2023. As a result, the "percentage of subtitled broadcast time in total broadcast time," "percentage of commentary programs in broadcasts targeted by the guidelines," and "percentage of commentary broadcast time in total broadcast time" for NHK BS Premium were calculated based on the values aggregated from Saturday, April 1 to Thursday, November 30 of the same year.

 (Note 11) NHK BS4K was reorganized into NHK BS Premium 4K on Friday, December 1, 2023.

 (Note 12) The figures for the five
commercial-broadcasting-key-station-affiliated BS operators represent the average of the actual results for Asahi Satellite Broadcasting Ltd., BS-TBS, Inc., BS TV TOKYO Corporation, BS Nippon Corporation, and Fuji Satellite Broadcasting, Inc.

 (Note 13) The figures for NHK (General, base broadcasting stations) represent the average of the actual results for the Osaka-, Nagoya-, Hiroshima-, Fukuoka-, Sendai-, Sapporo-, and Matsuyama-based broadcasting stations.

 (Note 14) The figures for NHK (General, other broadcasting stations) represent the average of the actual results for all broadcasting stations, excluding those specified in Note 4 and Note 13.

 (Note 15) Programs in broadcasts targeted by the guidelines are all programs aired between 7:00 and 24:00, except those that cannot be provided with commentary due to reasons, such as rights processing.
 The "broadcasts that cannot be provided with commentary due to reasons, such as rights processing" include the following:
 ・Programs that cannot be provided with commentary due to rights processing reason
 ・Programs that use two or more audio tracks, such as bilingual broadcasts and secondary audio broadcasts.
 ・5.1-channel surround broadcast program
 ・Programs that do not have space for the main audio

 (Note 16) Sign language broadcast time per week = {Total sign language broadcast time per year/366 days (leap year)} × Seven days