Japanese Baseball on TV

Yep, it sure is infuriating. But this has been happening for some time now, and I'm not sure what we poor viewers can do about it. All complaints appear to fall on deaf ears.

Ever heard of a Protest or a Petition?

Many thanks.

Pussyten

On cable (and CS satellite) J-Sports 1 and 2 (and presumably 3, but I don't get 3), G+ (the Giants' channel), and Sky-A (mostly Hanshin and Kintetsu last year) all show games from start to finish. G+ sometimes does what they call a "relay nighter" where they show the game until NTV takes over at 7:00, then finish the game beyond 9:24. Sky-A appears to do a similar thing with some Hanshin games and the ABC network. But I've been in baseball heaven with J-Sports (formally J-Sky Sports).

I hate it when the BayStars play the Giants at home because those are the only games that I don't get to see from start to finish (as they're on broadcast TV only, with their 7:00 to 9:24 time schedule). I've become very spoiled with J-Sports that I rarely watch baseball on NTV, TBS, Fuji, etc. any more. Ironically, I'm watching more baseball than ever before, but because I'm no longer watching the standard channels, my viewership isn't being counted with regard to ratings.

Unfortunately, the broadcast TV stations are run by the same Old Boys' Network that the ball clubs are run by, and nobody is interested in change. The satellite (and cable) channels are fuelling some change, but they don't have the mind share that the big broadcast networks have.

The only NPB owner who has both the resources and power to really make a change in NPB is Hawks' new owner, Son. But Son-san was recently "put in his place" at last week's Owners' Meeting for trying to jump start a True World Series by talking with MLB officials on his own rather than reaching a consensus with the other owners first. I don't think that Internet broadcasting will change the way the broadcast channels do things, but Son-san has a great chance to help further the decline of broadcast network baseball viewership if he doesn't limit Internet broadcasts to only Yahoo! members.

The answer is sponsorship. Companies pay a lot of money for the slots before and after the baseball games. Commercial stations have to ensure that these paying customers are kept happy.

Scheduling is also a problem - for a one off event maybe you can delay or cancel the following programmes, but not every night when your featured game overuns. There are just too many games to disrupt the schedule for.

I agree that it's frustrating and I welcome the NHK BS service and cable channels which are able to show complete games. They are able to have different priorities to the commercial channels.

Guess they have never heard of the Heidi game in Japan. That's why you haven't see games cut off in the U.S. ever again after that.

Christopher, you're right of course, but it beats me why a sponsor of the following program would want to lose a huge audience watching the end of a closely fought Tigers-Giants game for instance. If the game's not on, the real fans turn off and either go to the Internet or the radio (or now cable).

The obvious solution is to have a split screen - even a small box containing the game would be enough to keep the fans tuned in. It's not very difficult to set up. The commercial channels are very much aware of the problem - I once met the person at ABC in Kansai (I think it was), whose job it was to switch the programs over. The stations do receive complaints all the time about this issue, and so it's a mystery why they're not more responsive.

One other solution would be for the teams to insist that the networks play the whole game or lose it to a rival network. That's what would happen in my native Australia. But of course you're not supposed to do business like that in Japan.

Don't some of the broadcasters have a stake in cable channels as well? Cutting off games if they run over certain times would serve to make their cable TV channels more attractive.