Everytime I watch Japanese TV, in particular NHK news, in a hotel overseas there is something that feels fake about it and I could never pinpoint what that is But this morning I finally realized why just now. There is no background music at all in the segments, just the voices. Usually, Japanese TV programs, including news, use lots of incidental BGM here and there to spice up the segments. My guess is that they only have permission to use that music in Japan so when they broadcast outside the country they strip out that audio track. I also think the narrator is different but I can’t be sure.
Is NHK news in English? The English channel of the NHK broadcast here has no background stuff too (I’m guessing you never noticed because You watch the Japanese version here, I only watch the English.)It’s basically sounds like a person live translating the Japanese channel which is at a very reduced volume in the background.
Are you watching the “national NHK” or the “NHK international” channel? I sometimes notice while abroad that they have to black out some pictures. This mainly happens when they report about baseball games or golf tournaments in the USA. Apparently are they only allowed to show those pictures in Japan and not in other countries.
It’s the same for the On-line version,they black out some pictures,especially for sport images.
Rick: No, I’m watching NHK in Japanese. Now that I think about it, maybe there wasn’t any BGM in the Japanese version either..
J.: Not sure which version I’m watching although maybe it’s probably the international version. I can’t say why. I never paid much attention to blacking out. I’ll look for that tomorrow.
Simon: There’s an online version?
oops!!!I was talking about FNN:
http://www.fnn-news.com/
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