Although Tokyo is at the center of Japan's media industry, the proliferation of independent television stations in the Kanto area excluded the prefecture. In 1985, governor
Shunichi Suzuki requested a UHF frequency for a television station limited to Tokyo. On January 30, 1991, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications granted the UHF channel 14 allocation for Tokyo. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, as well as the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, revealed their license bid, with 159 candidates. The crisis began to be sorted by June of 1997, after
FM Tokyo stepped up and bought a controlling stake in the broadcaster. As part of the transaction, FM Tokyo's president Wataru Goto and Odakyu Electric Railway chairman Tsutomu Shimizu were appointed as president and vice president. Goto and Shimizu decided to drop the ambitious news format and reposition the channel as a more generalist broadcaster with a strong local focus. Although news programming was retained, albeit in a reduced form and in a more traditional format, the station began adding more entertainment programming, including locally oriented variety shows and coverage of local sports, as well as late-night anime, and
infomercials during off-peak timeslots. This improved the station's ratings and finances, and the company became profitable by 2002. The service was relayed nationwide as part of the now-defunct
DirecTV service from April 1998 to September 2000, when its services ended.
Sports on Tokyo MX In June 2002, the station broadcast two matches of the
2002 FIFA World Cup. In 2022, Tokyo MX became the broadcaster of
2022 FIFA World Cup in
Qatar from November 20 to December 18 with
Abema/
TV Asahi,
NHK, and
Fuji TV as a part of
Japan Consortium. Since January 15, 2023, Tokyo MX has officially obtained the broadcasting rights for every
FC Tokyo's matches from
J1 League along with the broadcasting rights for
2026 FIFA World Cup in
Canada,
Mexico, and
United States. ==Programming==