Japanese Broadcasters Expand AI Production, Including Sports Coverage

Nippon TV is using AI to produce baseball streams and analyze live sports footage, while TBS applies generative tools to drama effects.

Japanese broadcasters are extending artificial intelligence from back-office work into program production, including sports coverage, visual effects and video formatting. A Sept. 24 report by Nikkei Asia described the push to contain production costs. Broadcaster disclosures and research from the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute document several of the deployments.

Nippon TV’s viztrick AiDi system uses computer vision to track athletes and balls in soccer and golf broadcasts, estimating information such as distance and speed. In baseball, it can follow play, switch camera views and generate on-screen graphics using scoreboard data, according to the NHK institute’s April report on Japanese broadcasters’ AI use.

At Giants Town Stadium, Nippon TV installed four AI-equipped cameras and began using them in 2025 for online streams of Yomiuri Giants minor-league games. The system enables broadcasts without a conventional on-site camera crew, the report said. NBC Sports adopted AiDi in January 2026 for use across multiple live-event broadcasts, according to the institute.

Separately, TBS has used generative AI to produce visual effects for the second season of its drama VIVANT. Its in-house VFX staff described using Google’s Nano Banana to create detailed still imagery, then Veo 3 to animate it. A TBS staff member said explosions and flames that can require extensive conventional CG work could be produced by one employee in a matter of days using the AI workflow.

The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute found that Japanese broadcasters began using AI for operational efficiency around 2022 and expanded into content production in late 2024. Its report also identified costs associated with checking and correcting AI-generated material before broadcast, as well as concerns about inaccurate or inappropriate output.

The broadcasters have not disclosed comparable, companywide savings figures for these production uses.

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Nikkei AsiaStaff Writer

「VIVANT」で生成AIが使われたのはこのシーンだ！～TBSドラマ初の本格利用～【調査情報デジタル】 | TBS NEWS DIG (2ページ)

3年ぶりに帰ってきた日曜劇場「VIVANT」。今回の第2シーズンでは、ところどころに生成AIを利用してつくられたシーンが登場する。生成AIの本格利用はTBSドラマとしては初となる。どういう経緯で導入され、そして実… (2ページ)

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