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Japan's Internal Affairs Ministry: Anime Comprises 80% of Broadcast Exports

Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications released its 2018 "Analysis of the State of the Expansion of Broadcast Content Overseas" report on June 2. According to the study, the value of broadcast content exports in fiscal year 2018 was 51.94 billion yen (about US$474 million), a 16.8% increase from the previous year, and a 3.7-fold increase from 2013's 13.78 billion yen (about US$125 million in current conversion).

Internet streaming rights comprise the largest share of the market at 33.5%, followed by merchandising rights at 31.8%, broadcast rights at 23.3%, format remake rights at 8.1%, video and DVD rights at 2.0%, and other income at 1.3%.

All categories have seen an upward trend from the previous year except for video and DVD rights, but Internet streaming rights sales are notable for an 8.5-fold increase from its 2013 amount. That category now amounts to a total of 17.39 billion yen (about US$158 million).

Anime is the dominant genre in both exported broadcast content and program rights sales, comprising 81.1% and 82.6% of the sales, respectively.

As for export regions, Asia dominates sales for exported broadcast content at 50.5%, followed by North America at 30.2%, Europe at 11.0%, others at 4.5%, and worldwide at 3.9%. Asia similarly dominates sales for program rights at 61.0%, followed by North America at 23.6%, Europe at 6.8%, worldwide at 4.6%, and others at 4.0%.

Images via Ministry of Internal Affairs report

Sources: Ministry of Internal Affairs report, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)