The Tokyo Broadcasting TEB headquarters is a complex of buildings. The structures are a bit old and not very tall, only nineteen stories high, but the rooftop is covered with all kinds of antennas—some are round dishes, some are spires—which makes the building look especially tall and imposing.

In front of the main building is a large courtyard, with an entrance and exit guarded only by security, no main gate, and it’s wide enough to allow heavy cargo vehicles to come and go.

Besides the main building, from the outside you can also see two nine-story annexes, their rooftops also bristling with antennas, and the courtyard is enclosed by these three buildings.

There should be quite a few more buildings in the back, like studios and parking lots, but from the front gate, this is all you can see.

This is one of the four major private TV stations in Japan in this world!

But to be honest, Ryan Chandler, a traveler from a parallel world, still can’t figure out which Japanese private broadcaster in his original world Tokyo Broadcasting TEB most resembles.

In his original world, people in the industry liked to joke, “Japan only has five TV stations.” Of course, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but in a sense, it’s not wrong—Japan really does have only five major TV stations.

Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK, modeled after the BBC, claims to have no political stance and to be absolutely impartial, but in reality, that’s debatable. Anyway, its budget is reviewed by the Diet, but its operating expenses mainly come from viewer fees, and it generally doesn’t accept any other form of funding—which is true. According to the Broadcasting Act, as long as you can receive NHK’s signal, you’re obligated to pay to ensure its independent operation, free from government or capital influence.

And this is the only TV station legally allowed to broadcast nationwide. Japan’s “News Network” is also aired by this station.

Aside from this somewhat state-like NHK, the rest are commercial TV stations, commonly known as “minpou,” and there are four of them: Nippon TV NNS, TV Asahi ANN, TBS JNN, and Fuji TV FNN.

In theory, the signal range of these TV stations is supposed to be limited to a certain region to avoid influencing national public opinion, but by recruiting local stations as affiliates, they can basically achieve nationwide broadcasting. This is called the private broadcasting network.

For example, Chukyo TV, Tokai TV, Nagoya TV, and Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting are all in the Kanto region, but each has attached itself to one of the four major private TV stations, receiving programs from them and, to some extent, being managed by them, making them part of the four private broadcasting networks.

Of course, there are also stations that don’t join, or that form their own regional networks, but they’re all small-scale operations, running on a shoestring, and are much more enthusiastic about TV shopping than producing programs—for example, TV Tokyo formed a small network centered on itself, but has never managed to broadcast nationwide, only maintaining coverage in the Kanto region.

Finally, there’s the most uniquely Japanese aspect: all four major private TV stations are controlled or heavily invested in by newspaper companies.

In other words, in Japan, TV stations are the “little brothers” of newspapers, a situation that’s extremely rare worldwide.

For example, Nippon TV is affiliated with Yomiuri Shimbun; TBS JNN is affiliated with Mainichi Shimbun; Fuji TV is part of the Fuji Sankei Group; TV Asahi was founded by Asahi Shimbun; and even TV Tokyo, which wasn’t a major player in the 1990s, is affiliated with Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

Because of this, except for NHK, Japanese TV stations don’t really compete for news. Usually, the newspapers report first, and then the TV stations dig deeper, so as not to affect newspaper sales—Japan was once the country with the highest newspaper subscription rate in the world. This doesn’t mean people loved reading newspapers, but that you could only get the latest news from newspapers.

It feels a bit like history is moving backward, but that’s the reality.

So, Japanese commercial TV stations are more inclined to broadcast entertainment content, which led to the creation of the “production bureau” system—they have fewer news programs and more entertainment slots, so they need to produce more shows, which means cutting costs as much as possible. At the same time, with four giants vying for dominance, each wants to crush the others, so they need to focus on quality and craftsmanship to win.

Ryan Chandler was engrossed, trying to judge from the legal broadcasting regions which private broadcaster in his original world Tokyo Broadcasting TEB most resembled, but he was torn between TBS JNN and Nippon TV. At that moment, Ian Murphy arrived, calling out from afar, “Sorry, Mr. Chandler, for keeping you waiting.”

Ryan Chandler went up to greet her, smiling and replying, “Not at all, Miss Murphy, I just arrived early.”

It was time to sign the contract!

Chapter 10: Temp Worker, huh~

Ian Murphy was wearing a beige trench coat today, but still had thick shoulder pads—if she weren’t only 1.6 meters tall, she’d probably come across as pretty formidable.

After exchanging a few polite words with Ryan Chandler, she led him inside, smiling as she walked. “There are mainly two things today: one is to sign the contract; the other is to meet with Director Foster and get to know each other a bit. What do you think, Mr. Chandler?”