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NEWS: Profits Continue to Drop at Japanese Channel WOWOW


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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15296
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 5:12 am Reply with quote
Quote:
WOWOW's executives claim that the general weakness of the dollar against the yen is the major reason for the shortfall.


Thanks for nuking Japan again, Bush.
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Wyvern



Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Posts: 1555
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 5:27 am Reply with quote
Looks like next season's crop of WOWOW shows will all have Musashi Gundou-level animation quality.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2231
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 6:39 am Reply with quote
Wait, why does a weak dollar hurt Wowowow? It should HELP them. They buy most of their programming from the US, after all... they show mostly western movies and TV shows, the anime part is only a fraction of their programming.
And with a weak dollar it should be CHEAPER to purchase the rights to the shows they broadcast.

Unless they are heavily invested in the US markets.... which would seem to be a foolish thing for a media company.
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ConanSan



Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 1818
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 6:48 am Reply with quote
samuelp wrote:
Wait, why does a weak dollar hurt Wowowow? It should HELP them. They buy most of their programming from the US, after all... they show mostly western movies and TV shows, the anime part is only a fraction of their programming.
And with a weak dollar it should be CHEAPER to purchase the rights to the shows they broadcast.

Unless they are heavily invested in the US markets.... which would seem to be a foolish thing for a media company.
The same way the weak dollar is giveing everyone a sizable kick where it counts. Japan isn't mututaly exclusive from said kicking.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 7:14 am Reply with quote
The weak Dollar is a smoke screen. In actuallity the Dollar has strengthen in recent weeks. It's one reason that a barrel of oil looks cheaper. No It's more to do with the drop in advertising revenue that is the main cause for this loss. It's happening to just about every broadcaster in the world that relies on ad selling for their profits. Don't blame Bush entirely. Blame Wall St. and every stock market around the world.
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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 7:41 am Reply with quote
Where are these channels keep coming from? Comcast blows!
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halo



Joined: 11 May 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 8:36 am Reply with quote
prime_pm wrote:
Where are these channels keep coming from? Comcast blows!


Japan.
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hikaru004



Joined: 15 Mar 2004
Posts: 2306
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:10 am Reply with quote
Mohawk52 wrote:
The weak Dollar is a smoke screen. In actuallity the Dollar has strengthen in recent weeks. It's one reason that a barrel of oil looks cheaper. No It's more to do with the drop in advertising revenue that is the main cause for this loss. It's happening to just about every broadcaster in the world that relies on ad selling for their profits. Don't blame Bush entirely. Blame Wall St. and every stock market around the world.


So basicaly, US advertising on WOWOW has dropped leading to a decrease in revenue. US advertisers didn't want to pay WOWOW's prices. They should say things more clearly.
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BleuVII



Joined: 19 Sep 2006
Posts: 672
Location: Tokorozawa, Japan
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:15 am Reply with quote
Yeah, international business is tricky. I work as an English teacher in Japan, so whenever the dollar gets really weak, I let out a whoop and take upwords of 300,000Y to the bank to transfer back to my account in the USA. But I'm not a business. Businesses tend to play both sides of the field whenever they can, so when either side of the field does badly, it hurts them.
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melonbread



Joined: 09 Jan 2008
Posts: 317
Location: UK (London)
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:16 am Reply with quote
This is terrible, WOWOW have created stuff like Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy, so much awesomeness, and with incredible animation quality. It will be a huge shame if less anime is produced, or worse that it is produced at lower quality...
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samuelp
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Joined: 25 Nov 2007
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Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:36 am Reply with quote
melonbread wrote:
This is terrible, WOWOW have created stuff like Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy, so much awesomeness, and with incredible animation quality. It will be a huge shame if less anime is produced, or worse that it is produced at lower quality...

Wowowow doesn't make anime, they finance and air it. So with them in trouble less anime might get made, sure, but they could easily be replaced with money from somewhere else. It's not like is an actual animation studio like Gonzo went under, because that would mean actually animators and people losing their jobs.
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Emerje



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 7336
Location: Maine
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 11:27 am Reply with quote
hikaru004 wrote:
Mohawk52 wrote:
The weak Dollar is a smoke screen. In actuallity the Dollar has strengthen in recent weeks. It's one reason that a barrel of oil looks cheaper. No It's more to do with the drop in advertising revenue that is the main cause for this loss. It's happening to just about every broadcaster in the world that relies on ad selling for their profits. Don't blame Bush entirely. Blame Wall St. and every stock market around the world.


So basicaly, US advertising on WOWOW has dropped leading to a decrease in revenue. US advertisers didn't want to pay WOWOW's prices. They should say things more clearly.


I'd be surprised if there's any US advertising on WOWOW. Like Mohawk said it seems like advertising is an issue world wide, just look at the figures listed in the article. When a company likely works with billions of dollars, tens of millions is a little painful, but survivable. However the advertising loss of over half a billion dollars is a substantial loss. Now, i wont pretend to fully understand everything here, but keep in mind that it's not only the US that invests in the US, foreign companies do too which means that if we're having economic troubles they're going to feel it to some degree as well. If Japanese companies are taking losses from our problems then they're the ones not as likely to be willing to pay WOWOW's advertising prices or even advertise at all. What I think really hurts WOWOW is the same thing that's hurting us in the US. Since they're primary programing is western television then they're paying western prices. If the US economy is down then prices are going to be up and if the prices are then that costs WOWOW more to import which in turn means a smaller profit. If the only way they can recover that loss is through raising their advertising prices then they stand a chance of losing advertisers which, and I could be waaaay off here, seems like it could be what happened here.

Emerje
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Dargonxtc



Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 4463
Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 12:02 pm Reply with quote
A 2% drop in subscriptions and advertising sales, surely the biggest way the company makes money, leads to a 40% drop in profits. Rolling Eyes


Oh wait! That's a mistake in the article. The original article says that subscriptions and ad revenue will rise 2%.


Either way, the company isn't actually losing money. It just won't be making as much.
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kokuryu



Joined: 07 Apr 2007
Posts: 915
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 1:10 pm Reply with quote
How is the weakness of the US dollar hurting WOWOW?!?!?

Can we order WOWOW here in the US?

I have always been denied trying to get a subscription to WOWOW and AT-X...
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ConanSan



Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 1818
PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:10 pm Reply with quote
kokuryu wrote:
How is the weakness of the US dollar hurting WOWOW?!?!?

Can we order WOWOW here in the US?

I have always been denied trying to get a subscription to WOWOW and AT-X...
To be fair, do you hvae the meens to watch these channels?
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