Wowow

Wowow
	Wowow's headquarters at Akasaka Park Building in 2012.
Japan;
City	Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo
History
First air date	November 29, 1990; 33 years ago (pre-opening); November 30, 1990 (actual); December 1, 2000 (digital)
Last air date	July 24, 2011 (analog)
Technical information
Licensing authority	ARIB
Links
Website	wowow.co.jp

Its headquarters are located on the 21st floor of the Akasaka Park Building in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. Its broadcasting center is in Koto, Tokyo.

On October 1, 2011, Wowow expanded their single channel broadcast satellite service to provide four high-definition TV channels: Wowow Prime (WOWOWプライム), a general entertainment channel, Wowow Live (WOWOWライブ), covering sports, documentaries, movies and live performances, Wowow Cinema (WOWOWシネマ), a 24-hour movie channel and Wowow Plus.

Overview

Wowow was the first 24/7, 3 channel, full high-definition broadcaster in Japan.

Wowow began pre-opening broadcasts on November 29, 1990, with service beginning the following day, on November 30, 1990. Digital broadcasting began on December 1, 2000. The network began with 207,753 subscribers (31.5 billion yen in sales), growing to 2,667,414 two years later (64.5 billion yen in sales). As of December 2011, Wowow claimed approximately 2.56 million subscribers to its digital service. On July 24, 2011, Wowow shut down its analog broadcast.

Wowow mostly rebroadcasts movies, but is also well known for showing (and even co-producing and/or assisting in the production of) original anime series such as The Big O, Brain Powerd, Overman King Gainer, Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran, Trinity Blood, Cowboy Bebop (the complete uncut version), Shinreigari/Ghost Hound, Crest of the Stars, Ergo Proxy, X/1999, SHUFFLE!, Paranoia Agent, Now and Then, Here and There, Le Chevalier d'Eon, the 2016 Berserk series as well as the Anime Complex block. Due to the looser broadcast standards for satellite television in Japan, Wowow has become a primary means of widespread distribution for anime with themes or subject matter that the broadcast networks cannot show. Several anime studios have partnership deals for distributing their more mature series, with the famed Studio Madhouse among them.

The channel's name is a double "Wow", and the three W's also stand for "World-Wide-Watching".

Previously, Wowow's headquarters were in another facility in Akasaka.

Programming

Wowow also broadcasts Japanese-dubbed American television series such as Friends, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Sex and the City, The Sopranos, Cold Case, Grey's Anatomy, Medium, The 4400, Animaniacs, South Park, and The Simpsons, among others. Wowow has also screened Ultimate Fighting Championship events for Japanese audiences, the Korean drama My Lovely Sam Soon and the UK comedy sketch show Little Britain, as well as the British drama/action show Ultimate Force under the name SAS: British Special Forces.

Sports

Wowow has broadcast all four tennis Grand Slam Championships since 2008. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. They broadcast UFC Japan on February 26, 2012, and have since continued to broadcast UFC events.

Current broadcast lineup

President

The president and CEO of Wowow is, as of March 2021, Akira Tanaka.

References

External links

WOWOW satellite website
WOWOW satellite website (in Japanese)
Wowow at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

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