All articles by Mark Schilling – Page 17
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Sega partners with Omega, Suncent
Sega Enterprises has struck a partnership with Japanese production outfits Omega Pictures and Suncent CinemaWorks under which it will promote and distribute their movies at its newly-opened Net@ chain of game arcades in Tokyo."This is only the start of our plans with Omega and other film companies for integrating films ...
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Itochu launches internet distribution venture
Japan's Itochu trading house is setting up a joint venture with as-yet-unnamed partners to distribute films via the internet starting early next year.Called eMovie (Japan), the new company is capitalised at $280,000 (Y30m) and Itochu projects annual sales of $47m (Y5bn) by 2003. The company will acquire digital versions of ...
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Japan's NTV, NTT plan secure web-casting venture
Japanese private broadcaster Nippon Television (NTV) and telecom NTT are planning a joint venture to provide copyright management and security services to companies broadcasting content, including films and TV programmes, over the internet.The partners intend to recruit a wide range of companies, including TV networks and internet service providers, as ...
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Japanese rivals join forces for digital venture
Sony Corp, Toshiba Corp and Matsushita Electric are teaming up to develop interactive services for digital satellite TV. The three partners are also recruiting other companies, including Hitachi and the Tokyo Broadcasting Network, to join the alliance.The three electronics giants plan to launch a company this autumn to develop payment ...
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Japan's Hitachi develops digital satellite venture
Japan's Hitachi is developing a data broadcasting system that will automatically beam content such as films, music and restaurant information from a communications satellite to the internal hard drives of subscribers' dedicated digital receivers. Subscribers can then view the content at their leisure. Hitachi is assembling a consortium of partners, ...
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Industry turns out for closure of Shochiku studios
Nearly 700 film industry figures and other guests, including director Yoji Yamada and veteran stars Chieko Baisho and Rentaro Mikuni, turned up for the ceremony held yesterday (June 26) to mark the closing of Shochiku's historic Ofuna Studio complex.First opened in 1936 near the seaside town of Kamakura, the Ofuna ...
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Sony, Fuji end stakeholding talks
Electronics giant Sony Corporation is no longer considering taking a significant equity stake in leading Japanese commercial network Fuji Television Network, the companies announced on Friday.Hisashi Hieda, the president of Fuji Television Network, added that Sony is not the only investment partner Fuji is considering, but declined to name names. ...
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Asmik Ace to release Kadokawa film library on DVD
Asmik Ace Entertainment, the film production and distribution arm of Japan's Kadokawa Publishing media group, will release of total of 63 Kadokawa films on DVD starting this August. Titles will range from the 1976 hit The Inugami Family to the 1997 box office smash Lost Paradise. With Kadokawa's belated entry ...
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Buena Vista makes record DVD shipment with Tarzan
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has shipped 150,000 DVDs of Tarzan to Japanese stores - a company record for an initial DVD shipment in Japan and the second highest number industry-wide since Warner Home Entertainment released The Matrix on DVD in March.In co-operation with the Fuji TV network, Buena Vista is ...
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Toei celebrates anniversary with Genji adaptation
As part of its 50th birthday celebrations, Japanese major Toei is set to produce a Y1bn ($9.3m) adaptation of The Tale Of Genji, a classic of world literature written by Murasaki Shikibu.The script, by Akira Hayakawa, does not focus on the novel, but the writer, a courtier who began to ...
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Japan's ASMSE enters film finance arena
Japan's Association of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (ASMSE) is planning to back further feature projects following completion of its debut film Home Sweet Home which is set for domestic release this August.ASMSE, a Tokyo-based business organisation with fifty member companies, has developed a financing scheme that bypasses banks and ...
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Japan's Gaga spins off publishing arm
Japan's Gaga Communications has spun off its Publication Department, which publishes Video Insider Japan and Digital Media Navigator magazines, into a wholly owned subsidiary, Gaga Publishing. The new company is expected to begin operations in the first part of August. Gaga founder Tetsu Fujimura will be chairman with Hikaru Kobayashi ...
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Japan registers 60% increase in Internet users
The number of Internet users in Japan rose 59.7% to 27.6 million in 1999 according to a report by Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). The report also found that Internet penetration in Japan now stands at 21.4%, which ranks it 13th worldwide, and that subscribers to i-Mode and ...
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NTV wraps Japan's first 3D CGI feature
Japanese television network Nippon Televison (NTV) has completed production on Japan's first all 3D, all computer generated feature film, The Aurora. Based on an original script by Michiru Shimada and made over a period of nearly three years under director Yoshinori Kanno, The Aurora is an undersea adventure featuring a ...
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Toei Video resurrects Battles Without Honour
Japan's Toei Video is reviving its signature Battles Without Honor Or Humanity television series, originally launched by cult Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku in 1973. Based on true accounts of gang wars in Hiroshima, the nine-part series, which ran until 1979, not only established Fukasaku's reputation, but gave a new lease ...
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Japan's Dance waltzes into Korea
Japanese title Shall We Dance' is poised to repeat its overseas box office success in Korea where it has outperformed Erin Brockovich, racking up 100,000 admissions in its first week.The 1995 comedy, directed by Masayuki Suo, opened in Korea on 69 screens on May 13. The film looks set to ...
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Satellite Theatre scores major coup with Shiri buy
Shochiku-owned movie channel Satellite Theatre has made its first major acquisition, purchasing all broadcasting rights to hit South Korean actioner Shiri, which has grossed $15m (Y1.6bn) at the Japanese box office. Channels such as Satellite Theatre which broadcast on communications satellites usually rely on their parent companies, including majors such ...
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NTV, Wowow to launch digital broadcast service
Japanese broadcasters Nippon Television (NTV) and Wowow have reached a basic agreement to jointly provide broadcasting services on a digital communications satellite, beginning as early as spring 2001.The satellite is to be launched this summer in the same position as a digital broadcast satellite that is scheduled to start transmitting ...
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Toei, Toho join forces for multiplex venture
Japanese distributor-exhibitors Toei and Toho have agreed to co-operate in the multiplex construction business, due to high costs which have left local exhibitors struggling to keep up with foreign players.Under the terms of the recently-signed agreement, Toei will join Toho in its existing plans to construct a multiplex in Japan's ...
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Toho forecasts third year of record net profit
Toho, Japan's largest film distributor and exhibitor, has forecast after-tax net profit of Y6.7bn ($62.0m) in 2000, for a gain of 2% compared with the previous financial year. If Toho achieves this figure, it will mark the company's third straight year of record net profit. However current profit is expected ...