Hiroyuki Fukuda Tapped as New Nippon TV President

Nippon TV has named Hiroyuki Fukuda as its new representative director, president and COO, succeeding Akira Ishizawa.

Fukuda assumed the new role at the start of this year, replacing Ishizawa, who has become representative director of the newly established Yomiuri Chukyo FS Broadcasting Holdings Corporation. Fukuda was previously executive VP and executive officer. He also serves as president of Studio Ghiblia and as a director of HJ Holdings, which operates Hulu Japan. He has been with Nippon TV since 1985.

“In 2024, Nippon TV maintained the position at the top of the individual viewer ratings share for the Golden Time category, albeit tied with a competitor,” Fukuda commented. “Although the share of our strategic core target (viewers aged 13 to 49) remained high, enabling us to achieve lucrative advertising sales, the second-ranked broadcaster is fiercely trying to catch up. With the downward trend in PUT (Persons Using Television) showing no signs of slowing down, we face the immediate and urgent challenge of acquiring and maintaining the volume of our individual and core target demographics. Increasing the share of revenue from sources other than broadcasting is an important goal, but we must start by fundamentally reviewing our approach to the annual viewer ratings battle and building a strong timetable for our broadcasting business. Morale across our content creation teams remains tremendously high, and barring any errors in our approach, we will recover. Strengthening the timetable is also an initiative that will form the basis for expanding our content business.”

Fukuda added, “Meanwhile, our high level of dependence on our broadcasting business remains the biggest risk. In the upcoming “New Medium-Term Management Plan 2025-2027,’ we aim to further expand and develop the ‘content-centric strategy’ stipulated in the current plan as the Nippon TV Group that is highly valued in the global market, one that boasts powerful IP assets and contributes to people’s well-being. To achieve this, we will work to transform our business portfolio and reduce our dependence on broadcasting revenue. Active proposals from relevant departments and group companies are already underway. Furthermore, striving to transform our business through technology, we are actively promoting the use of AI concierges to improve the efficiency of the content creation process and our very own Ad Reach Max (Nippon TV’s proprietary technology that provides a platform for advertising slot transactions), which aims to create new value in ad sales.”

He concluded, “At a time of drastic change in the media industry and the business environment in general, I feel that I have been fated to take on this role as ours battle for survival is reaching its climax. With the support of approximately 10,000 executives and employees across our 60 subsidiaries within Nippon TV Holdings, I am committed to leading our group in my own way.”