NTV, Amuse offer shows online

Drama 'Restaurant' will stream 33 episodes

By MARK SCHILLING

TOKYO -- Nippon Television Broadcasting, one of Japan's five major networks, has linked with talent shop and media conglom Amuse to webcast an NTV drama series afterit airs on NTV's terrestrial stand, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

The series will use tunes from Southern All-Stars, a top Amuse pop band, as themes for the drama, while casting it mainly with Amuse talent. The partnership will help clear the often formidable rights hurdles that confront Japanese broadcasters who want to webcast their content since the talent will sign off on terrestrial and Internet rights.

The 33 episodes of the drama, called "The Surf Rider Restaurant" (The Naminori Restaurant), will be beamed Nov. 1-9 on NTV. The day following their terrestrial broadcasts, the episodes will be available on NTV's mobile phone site. The episodes, which users can download for a fee, will stay on the site until mid-November.

Pubcaster NHK is planning to launch a similar webcast service, NHK On Demand, in December. Programming will be in two broad categories -- recently broadcast shows including news and dramas, which will be webcast for a week after their airing on NHK's regular broadcast channels, and library shows, including docus and concerts.