Nippon TV names new CEO & reveals plan to turbocharge global co-pro division

Old Enough

Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV has appointed Akira Ishizawa as its president & CEO, and revealed plans to turbocharge its international content strategy.

Ishizawa, who previously served as senior executive operating officer, takes on his new position immediately while former CEO Yoshikuni Sugiyama becomes chairman.

Akira Ishizawa

Expansion plans

The new global strategy, meanwhile, aims to accelerate large-scale co-development and co-production projects with streamers, broadcasters and producers around the world. It will be overseen by Mikiko Nishiyama, previously MD of International Business Development, who has been promoted to EVP.

The company said it is looking to build on its scripted and unscripted formats, while also forming new strategic creative collaborations with international partners to create original content for global audiences.

The Japanese broadcaster has struck a number of major co-pro deals in recent months. In April, it partnered with Turkish production and distribution firm Sera Film to co-develop a new unscripted format for the global market, while in March its parent company Nippon TV Holdings struck a co-production deal with Disney.

That pact will see the companies working together on local language content, including drama series, animation and variety shows, to be aired on Disney+ for both Japanese and global audiences.

Meanwhile, in February, Nippon TV and UK prodco Envision Entertainment announced Connected, a new scripted crime drama format, as the first project to result from the co-production partnership they struck in 2021.

Earlier this year, the company’s reality format Old Enough! was acquired by global streaming service Netflix, expanding upon the partnership struck between Netflix and Nippon in November 2021, which saw the streamer pick up 30 series from the Japanese network for its Asian subscribers.

Investment in content

The company added that Nippon TV Holdings, where Ishizawa will also be president and CEO, is to maintain an investment budget of ¥100bn ($735m) to strengthen and expand its media content business and “to enter new areas with the aim of achieving sustained growth in corporate value.”

Ishizawa added: “We aim to become a company that is at the forefront of inspiration and reliability with an expansion strategy centered on strong content and formats, taking on challenges in new business areas.”

He added: “As the newly appointed president, it is my goal to strengthen the overall vision of the company to produce and deliver content for global viewers. With this goal in mind, we have established a new content strategy division within the company that specializes in co-creating content with global partners.”