Letters from DAIBA TOKYO - フジテレビ

Hello from the Sports Department

Mar 10, 2010

Dear Friends,

Thank you for dropping in on “Letters from DAIBA” to read my debut article here. My career at Fuji TV has been in the Sports Department for 25 years straight, which is almost half of my life!

As this is the first post by the Sports Department for this blog, it may be a good opportunity to let you know about our program production for this year’s Winter Olympic Games.

Japanese sports fans have had a lot of excitement over the two weeks during the Games because of the good results of the Japanese athletes in events such as Mogul, Speed Skating and Figure Skating. The memory of Yu-Na Kim and Mao Asada competing to be the Queen (Princess to be accurate?) of Figure Skating at the Olympic Games in Vancouver, is still fresh in our minds.

Broadcasts of the Olympic Games is rather unique in Japan, as the 6 major terrestrial TV networks jointly promote the event under the name of the Japan Consortium (JC), unlike the usual way where there is only one rights holder in a territory. Which events to broadcast is determined by drawing lots among the 6 broadcasters should their wish-lists conflict.

Thanks to this mechanism, Japanese TV audiences can enjoy most of the events featuring Japanese athletes live by surfing through the various programs provided by the major networks.

In order to transmit the allotted events and to provide coverage for news, we sent a crew of 61 members from various divisions including engineers, directors, commentators and so forth. Their base camp for the two weeks was located in the IBC (International Broadcasting Center) compound, sharing space with the other Japanese JC networks’ staff.

Life in the IBC is literally a great hardship as we had to cope with the time difference between Tokyo and Vancouver, which is almost 17 hours.

Events start from around 10 a.m.local time. From around 2 p.m., the IBC crew transmits news and reports for the morning news shows in Japan. After some evening competitions, ending around 10 p.m., they have to prepare for the late-afternoon and evening news shows, even though it is 12 to 2 a.m. there. During the day, they produce events feed for the stand alone Olympic Games broadcast. Daily sports news shows air from 11:55 p.m. in Japan, that is, from 6:55 a.m. Canadian local time! No time to rest, sleep or eat for our production team.

Eating is important as anything else. A kind of wisdom to survive is to take a quick bite at any chance available. Bento Boxes and instant noodles are a blessing for the starving production team. A large locker at the center of the IBC room contains treasured food stock, consisting of retort-packed foods and instant noodles to satisfy our Japanese taste buds.

Medalists sometimes visit the IBC studio shortly after their event to appear live on the news shows. When welcoming them to Fuji’s room, we can applaud them directly and can hear their relaxed voices. This is the occasion when the crew’s hardships are totally rewarded. Seeing the euphoric smiles on the athletes’ faces is absolutely rewarding for us.

The Olympic Games seem to be a blessing in disguise not only for the athletes but also for the broadcasting people as well.

Barco

Posted by.Barco | Individual | Comment (0)

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