TV executives in Japan are trying to figure out what is to blame for the recent precipitous drop in TV viewing.

Blithely ignoring their mind-numbingly monotonous cookie-cutter programming, they claim to have found the culprit in Nintendo Wii.

According to one senior executive of the country’s largest commercial television channel, Fuji TV, families who used to tune in to its colourful diet of soap operas, panel games and comedy variety shows may, instead, be drifting away and choosing to spend the same, economically-critical “golden hour” time playing on their Wii.

His comments come as Japanese television executives are reeling in horror at recent figures from Japan’s audience-tracking firms: last week was the first in nearly two decades where no single show on any commercial station attracted more than a 9 per cent audience share.

“The quality of programming has always been a little cyclical in Japan, but there has never been a period of decline like the one we are seeing now. There are outside factors at work. One is people watching TV on their cell phones where we can’t track them, but the really big factor is the time people are spending on the Wii,” an executive of TBS, another major commercial channel, said. He added that the “theft” of audiences was taking place because television producers and programming directors were used only to the idea of competing for time with other channels.

Anyone who has watched Japanese TV for more than five minutes can certainly come up with a list of problems that could be corrected to make the viewing experience better. Some that spring to mind are: Broadcast some quality movies on Friday night; Develop more personalities other than the five or ten who seem to be on just about everything; Stop filling the airwaves with shows that consist of one or two people droning on and on into a static camera; Put people on whose talent consists of more than just yelling in Osaka dialect.

Please add your own, below.

Thanks to Timothy.