Japan News Network

In 1956, when there were only four commercial television stations in Japan (Nippon Television, Tokyo Radio and Television (hereinafter referred to as KRT), Osaka Television Broadcasting, and Chubu Nippon Broadcasting), the television network was quite loose. Nippon Television and KRT in Tokyo had to sell their programs to the two commercial stations (Osaka TV Broadcasting and Chubu Nippon Broadcasting) outside of Tokyo as much as possible in order to recoup their production costs and meet the needs of advertisers. This puts the two stations in an advantageous position by allowing them to freely choose the programs they want to syndicate.^{[3]: 100 [4]: 7}On 15 November 1956, four commercial television stations signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Television Broadcasting Program Exchange among Four Companies, which specifically stipulated matters related to the syndication of programs.^{[4]: 11–12}Later, Hokkaido Broadcasting and RKB Mainichi Broadcasting joined the agreement, and the four-company agreement was expanded to a six-company agreement. There were no major changes in the contents of the agreement at that time.^[4]: 12

The agreement later expanded into 10 member stations as Sanyo Broadcasting, Nishinippon Broadcasting, Yomiuri TV, and Television Nishinippon joined into the agreement. With that, the contents of the agreement were drastically changed, centering on special contributions.^{[4]: 12–13}In October 1957, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued licenses for 34 commercial TV broadcasters as it became the period of rapid expansion of commercial broadcasters in Japan.^{[4]: 18–19} The opening of commercial television outside the metropolitan area meant that the importance of interconnection was increasing.^{[4]: 22–23}During this period, only a limited number of frequencies available were allocated to few broadcasters, resulting in limited affiliation options for the succeeding broadcasters.^{[4]: 23–24}

In October 1958, Osaka Television Broadcasting, RKB Mainichi Broadcasting, and Sanyo Broadcasting were explicitly part of the same syndication as KRT, while the Nippon Television syndication consisted of Yomiuri TV, Television Nishinippon, and Nishinippon Broadcasting, and the other three were cross-networked with a slight advantage for KRT.^[4]: 23

At that time, Nippon Television, which had its own highlight programs such as baseball broadcasts, was trying to expand its network through the broadcasting rights of sports events.^[4]: 24 In response to the increasing competition with the broadcaster at that time, it then aired drama and news programming.^[4]: 24The lack of nationwide coverage for commercial broadcasting in Japan makes it even more crucial for local operators to work together while gathering news.^{[4]: 24–25}In June 1958, KRT, Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting System, Osaka Television Broadcasting, RKB Mainichi Broadcasting, and Hokkaido Broadcasting began to exchange news materials through a network agreement.^[4]: 25

The broadcast of the wedding of Crown Prince Akihito (later the 125th Emperor, now Emperor Emeritus) and Crown Princess Michiko (now Empress Emerita) on 1 April 1959, played an important role in bringing about the final signing of the news agreement.^{[4]: 33–36} On 1 August 1959, with the signing of the new news agreement, the first true national commercial TV network in the country - Japan News Network - was formally established.^[4]: 1

The charter members of the network were: KRT (now known as TBS Television), the network flagship station, Hokkaido Broadcasting, Tohoku Broadcasting, Shizuoka Broadcasting, Shin-etsu Broadcasting, Broadcasting System of Niigata, Hokuriku Broadcasting, Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting, Osaka Television Broadcasting (which later merged with Asahi Broadcasting Corporation), Nihonkai Telecasting, Sanyo Broadcasting, RCC Broadcasting, RKB Mainichi Broadcasting, Nagasaki Broadcasting, Kumamoto Broadcasting, and Minaminihon Broadcasting.^[4]: 1–2Upon the establishment, it already had 16 stations or covered about 80% of Japan's population at that time.^[4]: 1–2Prior to its establishment, there were proposed names for the network which includes Sakura News Network and All-Japan News Network (not to be confused with All-Nippon News Network, which was established in 1970), but it then adopted the current name at the end.^[4]: 2 As stipulated in the network agreement:

• TBS and the member affiliates of the JNN network agreed, upon the creation of JNN, to share news information between the networks while providing both national content for JNN programming produced by TBS and regional news items for their respective programs within their broadcast markers
• TBS' non-news programming are to be aired on the JNN network as well
• TBS prohibited the regional members from airing programming, including news, from its competitor stations

In the early days, each station was free to replace the title of the news program, but on 31 March 1975, after the affiliation change in Kansai from Asahi Broadcasting TV to Mainichi Broadcasting, all network member stations' news branding was unified on the JNN system, with TBS-produced newscasts airing on the regional stations while regional broadcasters provided local content and reporters and news crews for the national programs.^{[4]: 149–152}

Until 1992 (when i-Television in Ehime became the last broadcaster to be affiliated with JNN), multiple broadcasters either dropped their affiliation with JNN (such as Nihonkai Telecasting when Broadcasting System of San-in started broadcasting^[4]: 38) or have joined JNN upon their establishment (such as Iwate Broadcasting Company,^[4]: 38 Ryukyu Broadcasting,^[4]: 38 and Aomori Television^{[4]: 153–156}). At present, it consists of 28 full-time stations. There are no JNN member stations in Akita, Fukui, Tokushima, and Saga prefectures.

Stations are listed mostly in Japanese order of prefectures which is mirrored in ISO 3166-2:JP, with exceptions for the Kantō region, Aichi-Gifu-Mie, Kansai region (except Mie), Tottori-Shimane and Okayama-Kagawa, which form single wide broadcasting markets respectively. Some broadcasters listed here also have radio operations (either under a single company or as a subsidiary of its holding company).

Single asterisk (*) indicates former primary affiliate

• Official website (in Japanese)
• JNNネットワーク [JNN Network] (in Japanese). TBS Holdings. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
• TBS NEWS DIG (official) on YouTube (in Japanese)