Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo
Tokyo, 25 July: Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) said Tuesday [25 July] it plans to cut radio programmes for Italian, German, Swedish and Malay speakers to shift emphasis on television programmes for its international services, marking the first reduction in the number of languages used to run its programmes.
Currently, NHK transmits shortwave radio programmes in 22 languages. The reduction is scheduled to take effect in October next year.
Shortwave radio programmes for Europe, excluding Russia, and for North America and Hawaii will also be trimmed, according to NHK. French programmes will be limited to audiences in Africa and those in Spanish restricted to Latin America, it said.
The move comes along with a decline in demand for those radio programmes, according to NHK. Television and the internet are taking on greater roles than radio in Europe and North America, it said.
More than 100m yen [856,000 US dollars] will be saved as a result of these reductions and the funds will be used to increase programmes in English, according to NHK.
(Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 1238 gmt 25 Jul 06 via BBC Monitoring/R. Netherlands Media Network Weblog)