Fuji Media Holdings, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Kou Toyoda, President and COO; hereinafter “FMH”) and ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that they have agreed to conduct a joint study of the Asia Media Network Vision (*1), a new project that will have, at its core, television programming in various Asian countries. The study is to be conducted through FI Media Project, Inc. (hereinafter, “FIM”) that was jointly established in November 2012. As a first step toward advancing the joint project, the plan is to create programming in two areas: the music rights business and the TV shopping business. The plan is to start broadcasting in April this year in four countries (Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia) in addition to Japan, where the program will be aired on Fuji Television Network, Inc., through a business partnership with five media groups and television networks (*2) in the four countries.

The music rights business will be developed in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia. The program slated to be created will produce original music by artists in Asia and will be aired via terrestrial broadcasting companies and/or specialty music channels in each country. The expectation here is to expand the business through music publishing rights spawned by the program. The TV shopping business will be developed in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. The production of original shopping programs is to be in tune with each country’s culture and language. The programs will be aired on Fuji Television Network, Inc. in Japan and on specialty shopping networks in the other Asian countries. Independent websites have been built for these businesses, with a community being built by utilizing SNS and merchandise being sold via the Internet.

The Japanese side, which has a strong content production capability, will be in charge of all aspects of program production (to be recorded at the Wangan Studio of Fuji Television Network, Inc.). Preparations to air in each country will be made after processing such items as the casting of the program and copyrights to the music involved. This business is expected to be promoted even more as it is to run parallel to the Cool Japan Strategy (*3).

By positioning FIM as a new platform, FMH and ITOCHU will work on substantiating the possibilities of content distribution and TV shopping businesses in Asia and aim for business expansion into the future.

*1) Asia Media Network Vision:
By entering into a business partnership with multiple television networks in Asia, this vision is to build a network that is based mainly on programs being aired in multiple networks in Asia. The vision also aims to conduct businesses that are related to programming.

*2) Five media groups and television networks in four countries:

*3) Cool Japan Strategy
A strategy that aims to expand Japan’s creative industry, such as fashion, food and content, which is very popular overseas and aims to transform and monetize the added value that is generated by the industry’s popularity.

Overview: FI Media Project, Inc.

Program overview

Music rights business

TV shoping business