Fuji TV targets AI support across live-action dramas by 2027
Cartoon · AI-generated
The broadcaster plans to make AI available across its drama slate by October 2027, while choosing its use scene by scene. Trials have cut workloads by up to 80 per cent in selected production tasks.
Fuji Television plans to make generative artificial intelligence available across its live-action drama slate by October 2027, while leaving the choice of production technique to the needs of each scene. The Japanese broadcaster announced the target on 5 November, setting out a gradual expansion rather than a commitment to create every image with AI.
The groundwork includes an AI Centre in Fuji’s digital strategy division and an AI Sandbox at Wangan Studio, which began operating in September. Production and technical teams are working with AI company ANDENT to test uses in real programmes. Fuji produces 16 prime-time drama series a year and says it will weigh AI alongside filming, visual effects and computer-generated imagery on a project-by-project basis.
One existing example is Emergency Room 24 Hours, the medical drama starring Yosuke Eguchi and Nanako Matsushima, which began airing in October 2026. Directors used AI in pre-production to visualise planned shots and share them with colleagues. The technology also contributed to image work in medical sequences and scenes of accidents that would be difficult to recreate through filming alone.
In the first episode, the production combined an AI-generated fictional aerial view with smoke added to depict an explosion. Fuji says trials have cut the workload by as much as 70 to 80 per cent in particular video-production processes. The broadcaster cautions that this figure applies only to selected tasks, not to the overall labour or budget for a drama.
From the October 2026 season, Fuji intends to make at least one drama each quarter an AI-enhanced production, using the Sandbox to build experience and share findings. Its longer-term goal is to have a system that can support AI use across all its dramas by October 2027, where suitable. Fuji Media Holdings has also signalled plans to extend AI work to related video businesses, with group-wide development ambitions reaching towards fiscal 2029.
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Source: Noah Wire Services · Original