I wish you all a Happy New Year.

　For the twelfth consecutive year in 2022, Nippon TV captured the Annual Individual Viewer Ratings Triple Crown title by coming out on top of the charts in the All Day, Golden Time, and Prime Time categories for commercial broadcasters. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to our viewers. This year, Nippon TV celebrates its 70th anniversary since hitting the airwaves. To commemorate this milestone, we conducted a project callout across the Nippon TV Group and received nearly 1,700 proposals, out of which we are earnestly selecting the ones to pursue.

　Reflecting on the year that was, the broadcasting business was greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic's persistent fluctuation between increases and decreases in cases, as well as the inflation caused by the war in Ukraine and the Japanese yen's depreciation. With digitalization, it was also a time of accelerating changes in consumer lifestyles.

　To address these shifts in circumstances, we announced our Medium-Term Management Plan 2022-2024 in May 2022. Driven by its slogan “At the Forefront of Inspiration and Reliability,” we are steadily advancing initiatives for the future under the following three main pillars.

1. Bolster Content Creation and Dissemination
　We will seek to maximize profits with tie-ups between our strongest linear content and online platforms such as TVer and Hulu, as well as in-person events like concerts. Spearheading this pillar is our newly-established Content Strategy Division.
　Last fall, the theatrical adaptation of Studio Ghibli's anime “My Neighbour Totoro” won high acclaim in London. We will boost our efforts to increase undertakings of this kind and roll-out our content to overseas markets.
　Meanwhile, as fake news spreads across cyberspace, our News Division constantly strengthens its measures to obtain objective and reliable information through elaborate newsgathering and disseminate them across our linear and digital platforms.

2. DX (Digital Transformation) and Increasing Efficiency
　We are implementing cutting-edge IT to achieve multifaceted increases in efficiency across the workplace. Accordingly, content production reforms and work style reforms are forging ahead.

3. Growth of the Group
　Investments were a significant part of 2022, with the acquisition of Murayama, which excels in special interior design and display construction, the establishment of a VTuber (CGI YouTuber) company as part of our metaverse initiatives, the expansion of our education business, and, under our efforts to build a wellness economic zone, the purchase of shares of R-bies, which boasts an overwhelming share in Japan's marathon competitions and race time measurement market. Moreover, in accordance with our Sustainability Policy, we invested in a digital picture book company and an agriculture business. We will continue to make strategic investments to sustain the Group's expansion/growth and contribute to society.

　The Nippon TV Group aspires to become a consortium that wins further support from viewers, consumers, and corporations. “We will aim for the next pinnacle—and beyond.” That's the spirit that drives us in 2023, the 70th anniversary of the start of our broadcast, as we raise our aspirations and pursue challenges. I humbly ask for your support and encouragement in 2023.

Sincerely,

Akira Ishizawa
Representative Director, President and CEO
Nippon Television Network Corporation