JAITS

The Japanese Association of Independent Television Stations (ja:全国独立UHF放送協議会, Zenkoku Dokuritsu Yū-eichi-efu Hōsō Kyōgi-kai, literally National Independent UHF Broadcasting Forum), (abbreviated JAITS) is a group of Japan's reception fee-free commercial terrestrial television stations which are not members of the major national networks that has flagship in Tokyo and Osaka.

Its members sell to, buy from and co-produce programs with other members. While a few of them, namely Sun Television and Television Kanagawa sell more than the others, it does not mean the former control the others in programming. It forms a loose network without exclusivity. They form permanent and ad-hoc subgroups for production and sales of advertising opportunity.

Name

The title is supposed / provisional. The Japanese documents for the association refer to the acronym JAITS but the fully-spelt English name has not been disclosed yet.

Its Japanese name have the word UHF because all of the member stations broadcast in the UHF in analog, in contrast to major networks primarily broadcast in the VHF in analog. All the Japanese terrestrial television is switching to UHF digital. In 2011 all the analog television (both VHF and UHF) transmission is planned to shutdown.

Independent UHF Stations

	Broadcasting station	Call sign	Broadcasting area (Prefectures)
tvk	TV Kanagawa / テレビ神奈川	JOKM-(D)TV	Kanagawa
MX	TOKYO MX / 東京MX	JOMX-(D)TV	Tokyo
SUN	SUN-TV / サンテレビ	JOUH-(D)TV	Hyogo
KBS	KBS Kyoto / KBS京都	JOBR-(D)TV	Kyoto
TVS	Teletama (TV Saitama) / テレ玉 (テレビ埼玉)	JOUS-(D)TV	Saitama
CTC	Chiba TV / チバテレビ	JOCL-(D)TV	Chiba
GBS	Gifu Hoso / 岐阜放送	JOZF-(D)TV	Gifu
GTV	Gunma TV / 群馬テレビ	JOML-(D)TV	Gunma
MTV	Mie TV / 三重テレビ	JOMH-(D)TV	Mie
TVN	Nara TV / 奈良テレビ	JONM-(D)TV	Nara
BBC	Biwako Hoso / びわ湖放送	JOBL-(D)TV	Shiga
GYT	Tochigi TV / とちぎTV	JOGY-(D)TV	Tochigi
WTV	TV Wakayama / テレビ和歌山	JOOM-(D)TV	Wakayama

Characteristics of the independent stations

How much are they independent?

In the strict (North American) definition of "not affiliated with any networks", the only independent terrestrial television station in Japan would be The Open University of Japan, which produces almost all its programs in-house.

The JAITS and the Japanese public take "Independent UHF Station" (独立U(HF)局, dokuritsu Yū(-aitch-eff) kyoku) for not being members of large networks, in which the Tokyo's stations almost control other members' programming. Those networks are also affiliated with large national newspapers. On the other hands, the JAITS stations are often affiliated with prefectural or metropolitan newspapers and prefectural governments, whose degree of influence may vary.

Here is the description of characters of the independent commercial terrestrial television stations in Japan. Currently all such stations are members of the JAITS.

Market

Their areas of coverage are located in Kantō, Chūkyō and Kansai regions which are the most urbanised in Japan. Their reachable population is large. If the population was too small they could not have number of viewers and sponsorship to sustain the station. However their coverage are within major network stations' official coverage, except TXN network members TV Osaka's, TV Aichi's and TV Setouchi's which are adjascent to. Multi-channel cable television may cover significant parts of the areas. Externally sourced popular contents are often too expensive to buy therefore they are very difficult to beat major networks in viewing rates.

Programming

Compared with major network stations, the JAITS stations have the lower average ratings (meaning the cheaper sponsorship fee) in the large reachable population. The later beginning and the earlier ending hours of live and / or scheduled programs allow flexible programming. Some Japanese animations (anime) of single episode or short series are broadcast and are called "UHF anime". They broadcast brokered programming such as religion and infomercials. Some stations also run their own shopping programs.

See also

• Independent station (North America)
• Independent station (other parts of the world)