Aso Broadcasting System

The Aso Broadcasting System is a Japanese multicultural television network. It is currently the most popular multicultural television network in the country. The network is owned and operated by Kabushiki Gaisha ABS.

History
ABS started broadcasting on the 1st of October 1987. The station launched as the first full-service English-language television network in Japan, to great fanfare from the English-speaking population of Japan. The station started broadcasting on channel 10 in Tokyo.

The station's early programming lineup mostly consisted of subtitled programmes from Nippon Television and TV Asahi. ABS also produced it's own news programmes under the name "ABS N6", and was broadcast across the network nationwide at 6pm on weekdays (hence the "N6" name). This programme became ABS's flagship newscast.

In 1995, ABS launched ABS Sat1, a BS broadcast satellite channel which transmits additional programmes to complement the national feed.

The station launched its international outside broadcast satellite service on September 15, 1997. ABS claims that the service was launched "to give the world a taste of Japan's most unique entertainment, and news from a Japanese viewpoint, all in the English language". The same year also marked ABS' 10th year of operation.

ABS HD was launched as a 1080i high definition simulcast of ABS's national feed on the 15th of April 2007 as part of the station's 20th anniversary. The service shut down in 2011, when the main ABS television channel started airing in full 1080p HD.

At noon on the 24th of July 2011, ABS ceased analog television transmissions on channel 10, after 24 years of operation. The analog transmitter, along with the ABS HD digital channel, were taken offline at midnight on that day. The main feed was upgraded to HD to compensate for the loss of the dedicated HD channel.

After realising that it had shifted from the English-language broadcasting of Japanese programming to airing a wide spectrum of programmes from East Asia and abroad, it officially repositioned itself as a "multicultural" network. It stressed, however, that its core Japanese bilingual schedule would take up most of the network's prime-time hours.

Affiliates
The ABS Television Network is served by a banded union of 8 stations.