SOFTBANK CORP. (Head Office: Minato-Ku, Tokyo; Representative and President: Masayoshi Son; hereafter SOFTBANK) and Yahoo! Japan Corporation (Head Office: Minato-Ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Masahiro Inoue; hereafter Yahoo Japan) today began operating TV Bank Corp. (Head Office: Minato-Ku, Tokyo; Representative and President: Masayoshi Son; hereafter TV Bank), a joint venture established by the two Internet companies.
SOFTBANK and Yahoo! Japan will concentrate their human resources and know-how related to moving-picture content services on TV Bank in order to strengthen the SOFTBANK Group’s business in such services. Specifically, TV Bank will procure moving-picture contents, develop distribution and search systems for moving-pictures, operate the systems, and create and operate web pages for the services.
On December19, 2005, a new portal, Yahoo! Streaming (http://streaming.yahoo.co.jp/), operated by TV Bank began providing access to about 100,000 moving-picture titles, mostly free of charge. Yahoo! Streaming is intended to become a business model in which content services are accompanied by moving-image commercials so that the portal site operator can earn revenue from advertisers. Under this business system, TV Bank will significantly expand the number of titles to be provided free of charge while most of the contents which had been provided only to paid subscribers in the past will be also offered to general viewers free of charge. In addition, TV Bank will try to improve both pay-to-view and free-of-charge contents both in terms of quantity and quality by receiving significant support from major content providers both at home and abroad which have formed partnerships with TV Bank. Furthermore, viewers can access moving-picture contents being provided by portals other than Yahoo! Streaming by utilizing the newly-added content search function. We hope to build the world’s largest-scale search index for moving-picture contents as soon as is feasible.
In addition to the above services, Yahoo! Streaming plans to add a function that allows viewers to contribute their own videos to the portal. Under this function, called “moving-picture contribution,” moving pictures taken or produced by viewers and contributed to the portal will be posted as contents on web pages operated by the portal. Starting from January 2006, Yahoo! Streaming will actively solicit viewers to submit their own videos by sponsoring contests on a regular basis. Initially, TV Bank will accept contributions from viewers via mail. Viewers will be able to contribute their videos via the Internet around the spring of 2006 by which time the function enabling on-line contributions will be available.
Internet contents, which had been mainly provided in the form of text information in the past, have been increasingly shifting towards moving-picture information and voice information, thanks to the rapid advancement in the broadband infrastructure. Against this business background, SOFTBANK and Yahoo aim to make Yahoo! Streaming and other moving-picture content services a major pillar of their next-generation business operations by linking up with content providers and advertising agencies.
| Corporate Name | TV Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Location of Head Office | Higashi-Shimbashi 1-9-1, Minato-Ku, Tokyo |
| Capital | 1,505 million yen |
| Capital Reserves | 1,495 million yen |
| Start of Operation | December 19, 2005 |
| Shareholders |
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Two main types of contents are being provided by Yahoo! Streaming – one being offered free of charge and the other being offered as a pay-to-view service. Free-of-charge content services, which account for most of the services being provided by the portal site, adopt a business model in which the portal operator’s revenues are generated with advertising fees being paid by advertisers as their moving-image commercials are inserted in video contents. Contents for pay-to-view services adopt a business model in which viewing fees paid by viewers become the main revenue sources for the site operator. Collected advertising revenues and viewing revenues are divided between TV Bank and the content providers according to the number of viewings and the amount of revenues collected after commission fees are deducted.
It is possible to accurately count the number of moving-image commercials inserted in web contents which have been actually viewed by consumers. Based on these data, TV Bank plans to distribute contents that reflect viewers’ tastes and behavioral characteristics. The Company will try to exploit and expand the market for moving-image commercials in cooperation with advertising agencies such as Dentsu Inc., Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc., Asatsu-DK Inc., cyber communications Inc. and Digital Advertising Consortium Inc. The Company will provide a large number of advertisers with opportunities to promote sales and marketing of their products and services, while targeting not only broad-based potential customers but also selective potential customers in an effective manner.
As for cooperation with domestic terrestrial television broadcasters, Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) has been participating in an experiment of our project. Negotiations are also underway with Nippon Television Network Corp., Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc., Fuji Television Network Inc. and TV TOKYO Corp. over the selection of specific contents, how to provide such contents and when to offer the service.
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