TOKYO —

Avex Broadcasting & Communications Inc, a new company founded by Avex Entertainment and NTT Docomo, announced Wednesday that it will produce and broadcast dramas, variety shows, music shows and animation exclusively for cell phones through its new service BeeTV.

Twenty-one programs, all of which run for less than 10 minutes, have already been given the green light, and guests from 7 of those programs assembled in a Tokyo hotel on Wednesday. Singer-celebrity Akiko Wada, 58, said: “Until now, many shows have just dabbled on the surface of issues. We’re going to get right into it in the new shows. I want to take on issues people are comfortable talking about because Akiko Wada is listening.”

Actor Hayato Ichihara, 22, who will play a businessman trying to get married in “How to marry a 40-year-old woman in 90 days,” said that he watches news and martial arts on his cell phone when he is on the train or in between filming scenes. He said “I hope people make good use of their time by watching my drama.”

BeeTV starts airing its programs on May 1 and can be seen for 315 yen a month.

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5 Comments

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  Richard_III at 02:28 PM JST - 2nd April

  I used to have the impression that Japanese people were quite creative and original. Sounds like exactly the same crap on the TV.

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  IchyaWarFare at 02:28 PM JST - 2nd April

  Are there people who would actually pay for this?

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  IvanCoughalot at 03:54 PM JST - 2nd April

  “Until now, many shows have just dabbled on the surface of issues. We’re going to get right into it

  Vs.

  Twenty-one programs, all of which run for less than 10 minutes

  Yep, plenty of controversial, in-depth analysis going to happen there.

  “I hope people make good use of their time by watching my drama.”

  That's an either/or, surely?

  I wonder if we will see any truly ground-breaking, innovative broadcasts, such as - oh, just thin king out loud here - somebody eating something in a restaurant and saying - no, screaming - how delicious it is, while about six of the same flavour-of-the-month, one-trick-pony tarentos watch in little boxes and agree that it does indeed look delicious?

  And Richard III - come on now, you've been here far too long to maintain that fiction, surely? Creative and original? My ring.

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  IvanCoughalot at 04:39 PM JST - 2nd April

  What does this woman do, by the way? Other than scare children?

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