NHK World TV, NHK’s international TV service in English, will launch a VOD service on its website on Monday, June 15.
The broadcaster said it is starting the service in response to requests from global viewers for opportunities to see programmes again.
The service is available free of charge both in Japan and overseas. The service will start with 13 programs mainly transmitted within the past one week or two as a way to catch up with programmes viewers may have missed.
Major debate programmes and travel programmes containing useful information for visitors to Japan will stay for longer periods.
The VOD line-up of programmes will steadily be expanded, considering the site access and user requests, along with clearance of their intellectual property rights.
NHK already has an extensive on-=demand service in Japan and offers an international version called NHK World Premium for international viewers. These programmes are in Japanese only.
The new NHK World TV VOD service is aimed at an international English speaking audience. In 20111, NHK also released its NHK World TV iPad application offering English-speaking users the latest news and video clips from NHK’s International broadcasting service (as shown on the picture above).