The Road to Public Utilization of Broadcast Archives

A symposium themed “Public Utilization of Broadcast Archives” was held as part of the 2023 NHK BUNKEN FORUM in March 2023. Based on the recording of the session, this paper examines how to utilize the enormous number of past broadcast programs and source materials as well as solutions to challenges, following the course of discussion at the symposium. Chapter I analyzes the survey on the needs for the use of broadcast archives held in the three prefectures of the Hokuriku region. While the survey finds a high demand for the utilization of public cultural facilities, many respondents cite that such facilities are in fact hard to access. In Chapter II and onwards, the author reports what was discussed at the symposium, starting with the examination of the potential of broadcast archives, which is followed by remarks that the high fee to be paid to NHK when using broadcast archives and low searchability have become hinderance to the cultural development of research, education, and other fields. Chapter III features the commentary by Kensaku Fukui about the principle of the Copyright Law that poses a challenge to the utilization of content including the usage in archives as well as recent trends such as the expansion of the “Limitation of Copyright” rules that exempts the authorization of copyright owners and new methods for obtaining authorization more easily. This chapter also reports questions and answers. In Chapter IV, the author presents and assesses his suggestions for promoting the public use of broadcast archives. Finally, from the viewpoint of the public utilization of broadcast archives, the author poses questions—what the role of NHK is as a public service media and what the receiving fee is paid for.