With its loss-making gamble of obtaining Japan streaming rights for all FIFA World Cup games, CyberAgent’s youth-focused internet broadcaster, Abema, is hoping to engage users with different features as it jostles for a place in Japan’s competitive streaming market.

A free, centralized viewing option for the World Cup is something of a new experience for viewers in Japan, who in the past relied on major TV broadcasters — or in limited cases livestreaming services — to watch World Cup matches.

Susumu Fujita, president of AbemaTV, which runs the service, said the purpose of securing the rights was to improve awareness of Abema.

Maki Iwase of CyberAgent’s investor relations team said viewership has trumped company expectations.

Daily active users passed 10 million for the Germany vs. Japan match, 14 million for Japan vs. Costa Rica and 17 million for Spain vs. Japan, Iwase said, while weekly active users passed 30 million during the week of Nov. 28, a record high for the platform.

Abema may have shelled out as much as ¥20 billion ($146 million) to secure the rights to the games.

The cost of broadcasting the World Cup has steadily increased over the years — in 1998, the first time Japan qualified for the World Cup, NHK reportedly paid FIFA just ¥600 million for full domestic coverage. Soaring costs combined with the often inconvenient game times for viewers in Japan deterred broadcasters from purchasing rights.

Abema has viewed this lack of competition as an opportunity to gain new viewers.

By pitching itself as a “freemium” service, Abema has one advantage over the big international streaming services — according to DataReportal research, Japanese viewers are less likely than global peers to pay for digital content. This is in part due to the country’s older population and ingrained viewing habits, said Simon Kemp, the research firm’s chief analyst.

“In an American context, where people would be used to paying fairly significant amounts to access cable TV, the idea of paying for Netflix is a straightforward transition,” Kemp explained. In contrast, Japan has more free-to-air TV programming, and viewers largely have had their needs met.

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Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/12/12/business/abema-world-cup-rights/