This bodes well for us

[Mark Nornes]

Hi,

News that should warm the hearts of researchers and fans alike: both  
Fuji and NHK are making new moves into internet distribution. Fuji  
will be offering 30 programs (a combo of free, pay per view, and  
monthly fees), and this starts on April 1.

NHK will be doing something similar in December with 20 shows, but it  
will also include more than a thousand older shows as well. (They are  
clearly moving towards a full scale opening of their archives sometime  
in the future, as is clear if you rummage around in their website for  
long enough).

Mark Schilling at Variety has the straight dope:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982967.html?categoryid=1009&cs=1
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982973.html?categoryid=1009&cs=1

Markus