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TOKYO — Fuji Media Holdings, the parent company of Fuji TV, Japan’s leading commercial network, plans to derive a larger percentage of its profits from non-TV sources, including pic production, catalog sales and real estate.
Although TV still accounts for a lion’s share of the company’s income, Fuji forecasts softening revenues from TV advertising in the medium-to-long-term, necessitating a greater diversification of revenue. The plan is to boost net profits from non-TV activities by 47% or $150 million for the period ending in March 2013. This would raise the percentage of non-TV contribution to consolidated net profits from 25% last fiscal year to 31% in the 2012 fiscal year. Among Fuji’s hottest non-TV businesses are Cecile, a catalog sales biz it bought in 2009. Net profits from what Fuji describes as its “lifestyle information business,” is expected to rise 57% to $27.6 million in fiscal 2012 compared with the previous year. Also making a growing contribution to profits is Fuji’s film and music division, whose net profit is expected to rise 12% to $35 million in the current fiscal year. Fuji’s time-travel dramedy “Thermae Romae,” helmed by Hideki Takeuchi, has taken $50 million after bowing in late April.
