Japan’s TBS launches company to fulfil global strategy, builds new studio

Japanese broadcaster TBS is launching a new company to implement its global strategy and is also constructing a new studio.

Tatsuo Sugai

The plans come as part of TBS’s content expansion strategy, dubbed EDGE (Expand Digital, Global and Experience), under its ‘Vision 2030’ programme.

Under the EGDE strategy, TBS is establishing a new company with a ¥30bn (US$264.9m) content production budget, which will begin full-scale operations in March 2022 as a wholly owned subsidiary of TBS.

The company, which TBS will expand all over the world, will plan, develop and produce dramas and other content for global platforms.

The new studio, meanwhile, will be built in TBS’s Midoriyama Studio City for completion in March 2023.

Additionally, digital comic platform Manga Box, in which TBS acquired a 49% stake last year, will become TBS’s consolidated subsidiary this year as it generates IP for TBS’s portfolio.

Tatsuo Sugai, board director at TBS Holdings, said: “I am thrilled that TBS now has the foundation to create content that people around the world can enjoy. With a new production company, high-spec studios and a subsidiary manga platform, we will further accelerate the production of quality content originating from Japan, such as dramas, animations and variety, and create moments of joy for people across the world.”