An Analysis of the Service Ecosystem of the Japanese Pay-Television Industry from the Perspective of Service Dominant Logic

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the circumstances surrounding pay-TV industry in Japan. According to SDL (Service Dominant Logic) theory, the paper considers the industry as a service ecosystem that is a self-adjusting system of components connected by service exchange. The study analyzes and illustrates the ecosystem using information from audience measurements by TV viewing meter and survey, media marketing research, economic statistics, observation of marketing activities and interviews with businesspersons in the industry. This paper argues that it is meaningful to consider the situations surrounding the pay-tv industry as a service ecosystem that consists of various components such as platforms, cables, satellites, channels, productions, TV sets, set top boxes, and family viewers. This consideration has to lead to a better understanding of the situation where each component is mutually nested. The paper concludes that although competitive video on demand services on the web are expanding gradually, the coverage rate of pay-tv remains stable in the Japanese market. The pay-tv ecosystem embraces strength to survive in the market for the moment due to attributes of audience and its prevention system against churn.