Early stages , circa 1961 (also shared with
Nippon Broadcasting System) In 1957, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued the "Basic Guidelines for the Frequency Allocation Plan for Television Broadcasting", planning to set up three new television channels in the
Yokohama area of
Tokyo, of which only one station was a private general television station, and the other two were educational television stations (what would be the future
NET TV and
Tokyo 12 Channel). Around the general private station's build-up, fierce competition was launched from radio stations, film companies and other circles, including the two private radio stations in Tokyo at that time,
Nippon Cultural Broadcasting (JOQR) and
Nippon Broadcasting System (JOLF). On January 10, 1959, Fuji TV began a trial broadcast. One month after the launch, on April 10, Fuji TV participated in the broadcast of the wedding of Crown Prince Akihito (the future emperor) and Michiko Masada, and broadcast a special program that lasted 15 hours and 41 minutes. Ehisa, a pro-Japanese group, was appointed to the board of directors of the Japanese newspaper company, which was held on July 21, 1992. The next day, Hiroaki Kanai left Nippon Broadcasting, Fuji Television, and the chairmanship of the company and the chairman of the Fuji Group. In 2008, Fuji Television on Demand got its own website. On April 1, 2006, Fuji Television split up the radio broadcasting and station license of
Nippon Broadcasting System into a newly established company with the same name. The remaining of the old Nippon Broadcasting System was dissolved into Fuji Television. This resulted in the assets of Nippon Broadcasting System being transferred over to Fuji Television. On October 1, 2008, Fuji Television restructured and became a certified broadcasting holding company and the second incarnation of "
Fuji Television Network Inc." took over the broadcasting business; this was the first time a Japanese commercial broadcaster restructured into a holding company with a wholly owned subsidiary taking over the station operations. On July 24, 2011, Fuji Television ended its analog signal. Fuji Television, which broadcasts
Formula One in Japan since 1987, is the only media sponsor of a Formula One Grand Prix in the world. Fuji Television has also licensed numerous Formula One video games until , due to change in arrangement of Formula One commercial rights after that season.
Decline and restructuring In the 2010s, Fuji TV suffered from sluggish ratings. In 2011, Fuji TV's triple crown position in ratings was regained by Nippon Television, and was surpassed by TV Asahi the following year, with the ratings dropping to third place in the flagship stations. In order to reverse this situation, Fuji TV promoted Chihiro Kameyama, who has produced many popular TV series, as president in 2013. After Kameyama took office as the president, he stopped broadcasting "It's not a big deal if you take the time to smile!" and other long-running programs, and implemented measures such as a large-scale personnel transfer of 1,000 people in an attempt to promote revitalization within the company. During the New Year's Eve week from 2015 to 2016, for the first time, Fuji TV's evening prime-time ratings were lower than those of Tokyo TV, ranking last among the flagship stations. However, Fuji TV's sluggish ratings are also due to the phenomenon of TV disengagement, which has led to a decline in overall TV ratings; real-time ratings have declined but the proportion of time-shifted ratings has increased. On the other hand, Fuji TV ranks second in ratings among the 13 to 49 age group, which is most valued by advertisers. Therefore, Fuji TV has invested more resources in program production for young audiences to improve advertising effects. Fuji TV is also actively investing in the development of new media fields, and FOD has become profitable. Fuji Media Holdings is also trying to make up for the negative impact of the downturn in the television sector by developing sectors other than television. Fuji TV began broadcasting the evening programs of its terrestrial station simultaneously on the Internet from April 11, 2022. In July of the same year, Koichi Minato, who had been the producer of many high-rating programs, became president of Fuji TV, later signed a cooperation agreement with French media conglomerate
Groupe M6 after the failed merger with
Bouygues-owned
TF1 Group in a following year. After taking office, he implemented a number of measures to strengthen the field of entertainment programs such as variety shows and dramas. One of them is to start broadcasting "Pokapoka" in 2023, and resumed the broadcast of live
strip variety shows in the weekday noon time after nearly 9 years. Fuji Media Holdings announced that it had acquired the broadcasting rights of the
Asian Games along with
TBS Holdings, beginning with the
Hangzhou 2022 event on its 65th anniversary.
Sexual harassment scandal and aftermath On January 27, 2025, President Koichi Minato and Chairman Shuji Kanoh announced their resignations, taking responsibility for the broadcaster's handling of sexual assault allegations against former presenter
Masahiro Nakai. It was decided that Fuji Media Holdings (FMH) executive Kenji Shimizu would assume the presidency the following day, to deal with declining viewership ratings and company restructuring, following an emergency board meeting convened to address the situation. Shimizu, who came from the anime division, previously served as a producer for "
Dragon Ball" and "
Chibi Maruko-chan". His minimal involvement with the variety shows division, which caused the recent problems, was a key factor in his appointment as president. On Fuji TV and FMH's regular board meeting on the 27, President Shimizu revealed February's revenue 90% loss due to companies stopping ads in response to the scandal, as well as the unknown outlook for the April program reorganization period. According to Fuji TV, as of January, 311 companies and organizations had their commercials replaced with public service announcements. President Shimizu responded to the press after the meeting. He announced the launch of the "Revitalization and Reform Project Headquarters". He apologized to all involved and said it was a mistake to continue having Nakai on. The Project's representatives announced the launch of a working group to prevent recurrence and reform the corporate culture, with six measures, already taken, including strengthening the effectiveness of the compliance system, imposing tougher penalties on compliance violations, harassment, and human rights violations, clarifying and thoroughly publicizing the scope of those who can use the reporting system, formulating guidelines for dining out and meetings, implementing education and training on human rights and compliance, and initiating "dialogue" as part of human rights due diligence. FMH announced that Hisashi Hieda, General Counsel to the Board of Directors, resigned on February 27 as member of the Management Advisory Committee, which provides advice and recommendations on matters such as the appointment of directors. With directors' average age so high, including Hieda's (87), FMH President Osamu Kanemitsu informed on the planned change of the board of directors, reducing the number of directors and its age, and focusing on how to revamp the management system to restore trust. On March 3, 2025, Fuji TV announced its weekday 11 p.m. variety timeslot, originally set up in 1998, would be reduced from 40 to 30 minutes in April. It started as a 20-minute slot, later expanded to 30 minutes, then to 40-minutes in 2017, except for the Tuesday
Kansai TV production timeslot. It has produced programs such as ''
, Love Ride, among others. In addition, the Thursday midnight anime slot "Noitamina" will move to Fridays at 11:30 p.m. in April, with The Dinner Table Detective'' starting on April 4. As of September 27, 2025, about 40% of the sponsors Fuji TV had in 2024 had returned, the latest being Suntory Holdings, Toyota, NTT Docomo, etc., which resumed in July. Meiji Yasuda and Nippon Life were expected by the end of September, beginning of October. All commercials were fully return by October coinciding with the Fall restructuring, including
Bushiroad and
Cygames for anime blocks. ==Branding==