NHK, Japan's Public Broadcaster, Starts Giving Its Videos Away

Few things are ever certain in this world, but one of them is that whatever trends in the media industry might seem dominant at any particular moment here in the U.S. will almost certainly be directly contradicted in Japan.

So, it is with great pleasure that I break this news: While U.S. publishers of all types struggle with how to erect paywalls and therefore better monetize their online content, the giant Japanese public broadcasting system, NHK, has suddenly decided to start giving video content away free — for anyone (in Japan, at least) to use in any way they wish, as long as it is for non-profit purposes.

The NHK Creative Library launched today, on Halloween. The videos seem to be mainly of animals, vehicles, the network’s popular stuffie character Domo-kun, as well as travel shots including underwater vistas, tourist scenery, and so forth.

They are all of professional quality, and extremely useful for anyone interested in boosting their online traffic.

In addition, as part of today’s launch, user-generated videos of Domo-kun made by Japanese kids are part of these free offerings. It appears that one of the network’s main goals is to spur educational use by children (as well as bloggers) of its excess footage from the many programs it creates every year.

Each video is one minute in length. Some have sound, and NHK is also providing an online editing toolkit and sharing tools for users. NHK claims users will be able to post the video clips to YouTube (which would of course allow worldwide usage) but so far that appears to be a challenge, especially for anyone who:

(a) cannot read Japanese; and

(b) is not an engineer.

In other words, I couldn’t do it.

Nevertheless, I thought this development worthy of a Halloween Night post. So far, I admit, I am not sure whether this is exactly a trick or a treat, but maybe ambiguity is a candy of its own stripe.

What do you think?