Owned by CyberAgent, Inc., AbemaTV, a self-styled internet television station, is an interesting app for a number of reasons.
First, despite showing programs people actually might want to watch, the app is split into a freemium part—with a number of channels—and a subscription part, that had a wider selection of content.
Second, is the format it uses for its “broadcasts” or streams; instead of weekly episodes it usually plays an episode, or 2 back-to-back, every day until the series has finished.
Third, the variety of non-traditional channels that resembles cable TV.
For example, AbemaTV has a channel that just airs professional mahjong, one that just shows commercials, while another plays reality TV shows, such as Jersey Shore and Ex On The Beach.
A real-time commenting system in the sidebar, as opposed to comments constantly scrolling across the screen like NicoNico Douga, for users to interact with one another turns every viewing a “social” activity, which has become more popular on other streaming platforms as well. Since AbemaTV also lets you see how many people are watching a given program, and the numbers are not insignificant by any means.
AbemaTV Trends
The biggest story when it comes to AbemaTV, was it gaining the rights to broadcast the 2022 World Cup via its live streaming service.
This was seen as a huge success here in Japan, thanks to the ability to watch the games via streaming on smartphones and other mobile devices as well as a unique choice of commentator: Honda Keisuke, a former Japanese international footballer known for his unique personality and style of communication.
The highest viewership for AbemaTV’s coverage of the 2022 World Cup was the final, which saw over 20 million Japanese tuned in to see Argentina take on France.
These numbers were a huge achievement for AbemaTV and it will be interesting to see if they continue to build on this success in 2023 and beyond.