TV Asahi (call letters JOEX-TV, literally translates into TV Morning Sun) is a Japanese television network which opened in 1957. TV Asahi has been broadcasting the mega-successful, long-running Doraemon anime series since the 1979 anime. Doraemon is widely considered one of TV Asahi's flagship television shows.
Headquarters[]
In 2003, the company headquarters moved to a new building designed by Fumihiko Maki. The address is: 6-9-1 Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Some of TV Asahi's departments and subsidiaries such as TV Asahi Productions and Take Systems are still located at TV Asahi Center, which is TV Asahi's former headquarters between 1986 and 2003. It is located at Ark Hills, not far from its headquarters.
History[]
TV Asahi began as "Nihon Educational Television Co., Ltd." on November 1, 1957. It was first set-up as an educational television channel, which was (and still is) quite rare in the television industry.
However, the idea of a TV station that centered around learning, especially in such early times for that sort of station, eventually proved to be a failure. In 1960, the station was relaunched as a general-purpose television station. It's most notable programming at the time were manga cartoons (anime) and foreign movies. NET justified the airing of these programmes under the pretext of "nurturing a child's emotional range" and "introduction of foreign cultures". The name then changed to NET TV. In 1967, NET started broadcasting in color.
NET renamed itself to NET General Television in 1973, and in 1977, was renamed again as the Asahi National Broadcasting Co, Ltd.
The company was finally rebranded under the name "TV Asahi Corporation" (株式会社テレビ朝日, Kabushiki Gaisha Terebi Asahi) in 2003, with the station itself being simply referred to as TV Asahi. Their logo (pictured above) was also established. It is still used to this day.
Involvement with Doraemon[]
See Doraemon (1979 anime) and Doraemon (2005 anime)
TV Asahi owns the animation studio Shin-Ei Animation, who is the main animation studio that produces Doraemon and TV Asahi currently owns distribution rights to both shows. TV Asahi is also a co-producer of the English dub version of Doraemon.
Doraemon airs on the 24 stations of the All-Nippon News Network simultaneously (national broadcast) and delayed on the two secondary affiliates in Fukui and Miyazaki prefectures. Outside of these areas (Yamanashi, Toyama, Kochi, San'in) the series airs on affiliates of other networks. This syndication method is common for television programs produced by networks who don't have a station in a certain part of Japan, and also happens with some TV Tokyo programming.
Trivia[]
A remake of the original TV Asahi building in Ropongi Hills, mostly distinguishable by the curved glass exterior.
- There is a parody of TV Asahi in the Doraemon anime called TV Asabi. It is used as a name of Doraemon's local television broadcaster in the programme. Unlike the main logo, only the cuboid-like graphic is removed, which led to only, the name TV Asabi used. It is used twice for Gian's concert, and once as a television studio in I am Mari-chan.
External Links[]
- TV Asahi's official site (Japanese)
- TV Asahi's Corporate Site (English)