NHK BS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Type | Free-to-air satellite |
|---|---|
| Country | Japan |
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | NHK Broadcasting Center, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan |
| Programming | |
| Language | Japanese |
| Picture format | HDTV 1080i (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SD feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | NHK |
| Sister channels | NHK General TV NHK Educational TV NHK BS Premium 4K NHK BS8K |
| History | |
| Launched | 1 December 2023 |
| Replaced | NHK BS1 |
NHK BS is a satellite television broadcasting service offered by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The channel was created in 2023.
NHK was repeatedly asked by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to cut costs, and to take advantage of the high image quality of satellite broadcasting, NHK was also asked to reduce and organize the channels of its basic satellite broadcasting by image quality.
On October 11, 2022, NHK announced a plan for the reorganization. The company announced that channel reorganization would be implemented on December 1, 2023 and that BS Premium, which had been broadcast since April 1, 2011, would be discontinued by the end of March 2024.[1] At that time, two tentative names were presented: "New BS2K", based on BS1; and "New BS4K" which was integrated with BS Premium and BS4K.
On April 19, 2023, less than eight months ahead of the reorganization, the reorganized channel line-up was officially announced.[2][3][4] Since the channel would be broadcast in 2K image quality, it was named "NHK BS" as the "entry channel" (starter channel) for NHK's satellite broadcasting, with the hope that "when you think of NHK satellite broadcasting, you think of this!". The channel color inherited the blue color of BS1.
The Japanese government's policy is to progressively improve satellite television broadcasting quality. However, NHK BS' role as the main channel for NHK satellite broadcasting was transferred to NHK BS Premium 4K, relaunched on the same day, with programming selected from the previous two channels with 2K quality broadcasting. The resolution is 1440 x 1080 pixels. The bit rate is approximately 17.8Mbps.
Jun Matsumoto, who starred in the historical drama Dosuru Ieyasu in the year of the reorganization, was appointed as the main personality promoting the series of reorganizations.