According to GEM Partners’ “Video Distribution/Broadcasting/Video Software Market User Analysis Report”, in 2018 the usage rate of subscription video distribution services exceeded that of pay TV, and the usage rate of free video distribution using an advertising model also continued to increase, reaching 51.3%.
The history of video distribution in the television, newspaper and internet media industries has not been a smooth one, from the dawn of the industry to the present day. There is a history of unknown challengers, the “Video Addicts”, overcoming various trials and errors and failures. In this series of articles, our interviewer Tsuchiya will look back on the history of various challengers over 12 articles.
Goro Kawagoe
Nippon Television Network Corporation
ICT Strategy Headquarters, Data Strategy Division, Division Manager
After working in development, design and management at an IT company, he joined Nippon Television Network Corporation in October 2013. After joining the company, he was involved in the development and technical management of free distribution with advertising, such as Nittele Free and TVer, as well as the construction of the group’s distribution infrastructure. He then launched the Data Strategy Division in October 2018 and is currently promoting the use of data across the company.
## I was really attracted to the idea of showing TV station content on the internet
**Brightcove (hereafter BC) Tsuchiya**: I would like to start by saying that I am honored to be the interviewer for this first interview, and I thought that I would like to speak with Mr. Kawagoe, who has been involved with this since the early days, so I asked him to be interviewed. I think that the first catch-up (missed program) distribution in Japan was released in January 2014, which was also when our company was involved in the app development, but could you tell us briefly about your career to date and the background to the release of this service?
**Mr. Kawagoe of Nippon Television Network (NTV)** The first one was the “NTV Anytime, Anywhere Campaign” released in January 2014. I myself was a job-hopper, and had been moving from one system development company to another. In the process, I gained experience not only in programming, but also in the upstream processes of requirement definition and basic design.
**Mr. Tsuchiya of BC** Before you joined NTV, you had worked not only for system development companies, but also for business companies?
**NTV Kawagoe** Yes. While I was working there, I was approached by the company I’m currently working for. I’ve always worked in the IT industry, so at first I wasn’t really interested in TV stations themselves, but I was fascinated by the idea of a service that would show TV station content on the internet, and that’s what made me decide to change jobs.
**BC Tsuchiya** When you changed jobs to Nippon Television, how far had the service content been decided?
**NTV Mr. Kawagoe** Yes, when I was approached, the plan was to distribute all of the programs, but as we worked out the details, we realized that there were various things we couldn’t do, such as the rights issues, so we started with about 5 programs.
**BC Tsuchiya** I think the TV industry is completely different from the industry you have worked in until now, but were there any things that surprised you or that you were confused about?
**NTV Kawagoe**: The workflow of TV. To begin with, I didn’t even know that the content broadcast on TV was being transported on tape. I also didn’t know that the commercial positions were being created with blackness added, so it took me a long time to understand each of these things one by one. The workflow was to create a program, bring it on tape to a Nippon Television Group affiliate, and then encode it to MP4. I couldn’t see that workflow at all.
**BC Tsuchiya** Did you have any experience of working with video and IT at your previous job?
**NTV Kawagoe** Not at all (laughs)
**BC Tsuchiya** I remember when I first met with you in 2013, you said to me, “I don’t know a lot of things, so please teach me anything you can.”
**NTV Mr. Kawagoe** However, I really felt that they welcomed me with a lot of respect, even though I came from a completely different industry. When we were implementing the catch-up distribution, I was able to get involved in the planning, sales, network, rights management, and other departments, so I think it was a good environment for me personally. In my case, I kept asking people for help. In that environment, I asked Mr. Tsuchiya a lot about the video technology side.
## Without any major problems, I thought, “Brightcove is beautiful.”
**BC Tsuchiya**: Can you tell us about the launch of the ‘NTV Anytime, Anywhere Campaign’?
**NTV Kawagoe**: When a new service is released, everyone might do the same thing, but I was refreshing, refreshing, refreshing (lol) on my computer while pressing F5 at the moment the TV broadcast of the drama ended. It was like I was waiting for the moment the service was released.
**BC Tsuchiya** It was a new initiative within our company, and I was in a rural area at the time, so I remember checking the Android app at the hotel there. The catch-up service was also being rolled out on other media, so I remember comparing the quality of several services at the same time.
**NTV Kawagoe** I remember that we were talking about how Brightcove was beautiful without any major problems.
**BC Tsuchiya** At first, we were distributing for free without advertising, but when we started advertising, I remember that we had a discussion with Forecast Communications and Mr. Kawagoe around spring 2014 about the specifications for advertising distribution on a whiteboard.
**NTV Kawagoe** That’s right.
**BC Tsuchiya** From the discussions we had at that time, the basic specifications haven’t changed, have they? I mean, it’s still the industry standard for premium advertising.
**NTV Kawagoe** Yes. I think the specifications we decided on at that time were accepted smoothly within the company, including by the sales team at the time, including in terms of usability.
## We only had about three months to develop it
**BC Tsuchiya** What was the most difficult thing about the launch?
**NTV Kawagoe** We only had about three months to develop it (laughs). We had to develop the front-end user interface, and also the CMS on the back-end, so I think the short deadline was pretty intense.
**BC Tsuchiya** It’s a common IT problem (laughs). The kick-off meeting was in early November 2013, so it was actually less than three months.
**NTV Mr. Kawagoe** Also, at the time, we were also providing programs to GYAO, but we needed to deliver the advertising slots for the program trailers using the exact same specifications as the “NTV Anytime, Anywhere Campaign”.
**BC Mr. Tsuchiya** If you delivered it from the advertising server managed by Nippon Television to the GYAO player, it would be easy technically, right?
**NTV Mr. Kawagoe** That’s right, but at the time, due to various restrictions, we weren’t able to use a third-party distribution system, so we had to send each piece of material to GYAO’s ad server and have them set it up. This was very difficult from an operational point of view. NTV was the first to implement this system, and we felt a little regret that we had started off with an un-eco-friendly approach… After that, we argued that we should switch to a third-party distribution system. At a certain technology exchange meeting, we had a meeting with people from each TV station’s affiliated company to request that third-party distribution be approved, and in the end, GYAO agreed. I think that the two companies’ intentions matched up well, and somehow they were able to approve it.
**BC Tsuchiya** That’s a big step. From the outside, it’s not always easy to do things like that. If you get people together who know about the technical feasibility and the ideal form, it’s easy to decide, but it takes a long time to actually make it happen.
**NTV Kawagoe** That’s right. When it comes to other companies, TV stations are no exception.
**BC Tsuchiya** You mentioned each TV station, but at the time when TVer had not yet started, how did the TV stations communicate and collaborate with each other in terms of technology?
**NTV Kawagoe** I think there were meetings to discuss broadcast technology, but in terms of internet services, there may not have been much communication before the TVer study group was formed. I think communication was born as a result of the study group for the service that would later become TVer.
**BC Tsuchiya** I see, in that sense too, the existence of TVer is significant. Regarding the catch-up service, while TBS, TV Tokyo and Fuji TV were following suit, how did you feel about the moves of the other stations?
**NTV Mr. Kawagoe** There were many people, myself included, who were pleased. I think that everyone was more or less saying “do it quickly”. We were also actively sharing information with various stations, and we were conscious of making the launch as easy as possible. So, as various stations launched their services, the TVer review meetings also began. I really feel that this was a good trend.
Despite being a pioneer who created something out of nothing at the time, Mr. Kawagoe’s humble attitude is very impressive.
He is currently not in charge of the catch-up service, and is said to be in the Data Strategy Division. Next time, we will continue the interview with Mr. Kawagoe about his work in this division. Please look forward to it! [Click here for the second half](https://www.brightcove.com/ja/resources/blog/video-addict-vol1-ntv-2)
