Mainichi Broadcasting System

• 1. Introduction

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  Mainichi Broadcasting System, known on air as MBS, opened its new office tower at 11:07:09 in the morning on the 4th of April 2014. That timing was built to echo its own channel number and its radio dial position of 1179 kilohertz. Only a broadcaster confident in its own history would stage a ceremony around a stopwatch. That confidence took decades to build. How does one company end up running television, radio, and even a satellite channel from a single address in Osaka? Why would that same company later split its radio and television arms into separate businesses? And what does a station's channel number have to do with how it got its start in the first place?

• 2. Fourth in Osaka

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  On the 1st of June 1958, New Japan Broadcasting changed its name to Mainichi Broadcasting. The company built a television studio on the 8th and 9th floors of the Mainichi Osaka Kaikan's south building, still under construction. It also put up a transmitting station on the summit of Mount Ikoma. Kansai Education and Culture Broadcasting, which had applied for an educational television license, merged into the new company. Eighty-eight employees from Osaka Television Broadcasting joined MBS as well. Radio Tokyo TV chose to keep its network ties with Osaka Television Broadcasting instead of MBS. That left MBS short of programming, so it pushed its planned launch from the 1st of December 1958 back to March 1959. On the 1st of March 1959, it set up a network relationship with Nippon Educational Television, later renamed NET and eventually TV Asahi. At 10 in the morning that same day, MBS TV officially went on air.

  Despite being the oldest station in Japan to start radio broadcasting, MBS was only the fourth television station to launch in Osaka. It launched roughly the same time as Asahi Broadcasting Television, about a month behind. MBS, Asahi Broadcasting Television, and Kansai Television all launched before their respective Tokyo key stations, TBS Television, TV Asahi, and Fuji Television. None of the three had a formal network tie at the time of their founding. Yomiuri TV and TV Osaka, by contrast, were built specifically to join their key stations, so they opened later.

  In 1963, Mainichi Broadcasting's daily ratings stood at 7.5 percent, trailing only NHK and Asahi Broadcasting's 8.1 percent. Its evening average of 14.6 percent also trailed Asahi's 15.9 percent. Most of its entertainment programming in these early years came from NET. Its own productions stayed largely educational, a legacy of the quasi-educational license the station started with.

  In 1967, regulators reclassified the MBS TV license from quasi-educational to general comprehensive status. That change opened the door to more entertainment programming. On the 1st of April that year, MBS began broadcasting in color. By October 1970, every in-house program was produced in color. During the 1970 World Expo, MBS aired a daily program called Good Morning Expo and produced a series of related specials. That same era pulled Mainichi Broadcasting into an awkward partnership with a struggling Tokyo station, testing both its patience and its programming choices.

• 3. The Channel 12 Problem

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  In the mid-1960s, Mainichi Broadcasting helped the Japan Science and Technology Foundation establish Tokyo Channel 12. The new station quickly ran into financial trouble after launch. In 1967, MBS began airing some of its own self-produced programs on Channel 12, but conditions did not improve. Financial circles then considered merging Channel 12 into Mainichi Broadcasting. The Mainichi Shimbun opposed the merger, and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun chose instead to rebuild Channel 12 on its own. The merger never happened. MBS kept a cooperative relationship with Channel 12 anyway, continuing to air its own programs there.

  In 1971, Mainichi Broadcasting Corporation pulled NET TV's program '23rd Show' from its schedule, judging its content too vulgar. The decision caused a sensation across the Japanese television industry. That same year, MBS's daily average rating reached 8.8 percent, putting it in first place for the first time. Its television division's revenue also surpassed Asahi Broadcasting's for the first time in 1971. Three years later, a shake-up among Japan's national newspapers would hand Mainichi Broadcasting an entirely new set of network partners.

• 4. Newspapers Rewrite the Map

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  In the early 1970s, Japan's four national newspapers began trading their shares in rival television stations. The Asahi Shimbun and the Yomiuri Shimbun handed their TBS shares to the Mainichi Shimbun. The Asahi and the Mainichi Shimbun handed their Nippon Television shares to the Yomiuri Shimbun. The Nikkei's stake in NET TV transferred to the Asahi Shimbun. The Asahi Shimbun then asked Asahi Broadcasting to join the NET and ANN network. After learning of these moves, TBS invited Mainichi Broadcasting to join its own network in the summer of 1974. MBS agreed.

  On the 19th of November 1974, TBS and Mainichi Broadcasting jointly announced that MBS would join the Japan News Network. The change took effect on the 1st of April 1975. Compared with the ANN period, MBS's weekly prime-time programming broadcast nationwide fell from 5 hours 50 minutes to 3 hours 50 minutes. National broadcasts outside prime time fell from 6 hours 35 minutes to 4 hours 55 minutes. Mainichi Broadcasting stopped airing Tokyo Channel 12's programs at the same time. MBS and Asahi Broadcasting also carried out large-scale program exchanges around the switch. That new alliance with TBS was about to turn Mainichi Broadcasting's fortunes around in ways its own newsroom had not predicted.

• 5. The Triple Crown Years

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  Through the 1970s, TBS was nicknamed the hero of private broadcasting, holding a leading position across Japan's commercial television industry. MBS's ratings climbed once it switched networks to join TBS. From October 1975 to March 1980, MBS won what was called the triple crown of ratings. In the first half of 1978, it ranked first in prime-time ratings for 26 consecutive weeks. That same year, MBS's revenue reached 30.15 billion yen and its profit reached 5.12 billion yen. Both its television and radio divisions ranked first in revenue among Osaka stations.

  Starting in the late 1970s, Mainichi Broadcasting took the lead among private Osaka stations in adopting electronic news gathering equipment. That technology sharpened its news reporting and editing. In 1978, it opened a branch in Bonn, JNN's 11th overseas branch. In 1986, it opened a second overseas branch, in Manila. MBS began broadcasting in stereo in 1982 and added data broadcasting in 1986. In 1989, it introduced a Satellite News Relay system.

  By 1986, Mainichi Broadcasting had reclaimed the top spot in advertising revenue among Osaka's stations. In 1987, its turnover reached 53.518 billion yen, with profit of 6.233 billion yen, high records at the time. Riding Japan's bubble economy, revenue climbed to 64.949 billion yen in 1990, with profit reaching 9.489 billion yen. MBS had invested in Japan Satellite Broadcasting in 1983, getting ahead of the coming satellite and cable television era. In 1989, it partnered with Sumitomo Corporation to launch SVN, Space Vision Network, its own satellite channel venture. In 1993, SVN was renamed GAORA and became a sports-focused satellite channel. While its finances climbed through Japan's boom years, Mainichi Broadcasting was also quietly opening doors far outside Osaka.

• 6. Partners Near and Far

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  Mainichi Broadcasting became an associate member of the European Broadcasting Union in 1969. It signed cooperation agreements with broadcasters including WGN-TV in the United States, CBLT-TV in Canada, Czechoslovak Television, ZDF in West Germany, and TF1 in France.

  In 1962, Mainichi Broadcasting opened a branch office in New York, becoming the third Japanese television station to establish a base there. In 1964, it placed weight on international cultural cooperation by hosting the Kansai performance of the Vienna Boys' Choir.

• 7. Splitting the Company

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  On the 1st of April 2017, Mainichi Broadcasting's trade name changed to MBS Media Holdings. Both its television and radio broadcasting businesses were then taken over by a newly formed company called the New Mainichi Broadcasting.

  On the 28th of May 2020, MBS announced plans to spin off its radio division into a separate company, MBS Radio. The split finished on the 1st of April 2021. MBS Radio Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of MBS Media Holdings, took over the radio broadcasting license and business that day. Mainichi Broadcasting itself became a television-only operation, changing its callsign from JOOR-DTV to JOOY-DTV. That television-only company still runs its operations from one physical address in Osaka, a building with its own layered history.

• 8. The Chayamachi Campus

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  On the 1st of September 1990, MBS completed its current headquarters building. It stood on the former site of the Hankyu Department Store Distribution Center, in Chayamachi, Kita-ku, Osaka. Headquarters functions from the Mainichi Osaka Kaikan and departments from the Senrioka Broadcasting Center both moved into the new building. To mark the move and the station's 40th anniversary, MBS produced a special program running two days on television and five days on radio.

  Most of the ground floor became an open atrium, used for live broadcasts, recordings, and public events. A shop first called Mzono Shop, then Nebula, and now the MBS Goods Shop, opened there. A branch of Tully's Coffee opened alongside it, in space that had been a restaurant called Starship in 1990. The second floor opened as a concert venue named Galaxy Hall. It was later converted into Galaxy Studio, used for live programs and public recordings. On the 31st of March 2001, MBS opened a broadcasting studio called MBS Studio in USJ, inside Universal Studios Japan.

  On the 1st of December 2003, MBS launched digital broadcasting alongside fellow Osaka stations ABC, KTV, YTV, and TVO. In July 2010, the company announced a new base-isolated building of 15 floors above ground and one floor below. An Osaka City location-promotion subsidy helped fund it, and construction started in April 2011. At noon on the 24th of July 2011, MBS and other Kansai stations ended analog broadcasting.

  The new structure, completed on the 4th of September 2013, was named B Building. The original building was renamed M Building, after the initials of MBS. B Building houses two television studios, offices, and a heliport, standing about 36 meters tall. Counting its radio towers, the structure reaches roughly 117 meters. The relay truck depot once based in Senrioka moved there too. On the 20th of April 2015, the station's master control room moved into a new system inside B Building.

  In 2018, to mark MBS TV's 60th anniversary, construction began on a Live Center inside M Building's second floor. The project aimed to strengthen ties between the news and production departments. Studio C, known as Galaxy Studio, was renovated into an Information Floor linked to live programming. The Live Center began operating on the 28th of January 2019. The building's first-floor Chapla Stage was folded into the Live Center in the same renovation. Nearly three decades after its original 1990 opening, the Chayamachi campus still runs on that live-broadcast core.