NHK+

» see plus.nhk.jp as it lived, on the wayback machine

~ the eulogy ~

NHK+ was japan-only at the licensing layer, which is a different border than the ones this site usually writes about. Most dead services were regional because a company decided which markets were worth the trouble. This one was regional because the app was an extension of a household fee contract, and the contract only existed inside one country. There was no version of me in Ankara who could have had an account, no matter how patient the VPN.

It went live in april 2020. What it did was plain: NHK General and NHK Educational streamed live, with seven days of catch-up on anything you had missed. Up to five screens could run in the same household at no extra charge. You registered, proved the address was paying the reception fee, and the app opened. No separate subscription, no ads to sit through. It was built for people whose antenna reception was bad, and it turned into the way a lot of Japan watched television.

By the end of september 2024 there were 6.68 million registered IDs on it, and about 2.64 million people opened it in an average week. Those are not Netflix numbers and they were never supposed to be. NHK+ was a public utility with a login screen, and the login was the only interesting thing about it, which is exactly what killed it.

~ the dossier ~

~ the law that built it ~

In 2024 Japan revised the Broadcast Act. Simultaneous streaming and catch-up streaming stopped being optional extras that NHK offered on the side and became essential services it was required to deliver, so that people without reception equipment could still get the programming they were paying for. The change took effect on 1 october 2025.

That sentence sounds like housekeeping and it was not. Once internet distribution is a legal obligation, it needs its own contract and its own definition of who counts as a subscriber. NHK+ had been a courtesy bolted onto the television fee. The law said the internet side had to stand on its own, which meant it had to be rebuilt from the contract up.

~ the day it died ~

On 1 october 2025 NHK+ stopped and NHK ONE started. NHK ONE was assembled out of five separate apps, with the radio player and the school service going into the same pot as NHK+. One login covering everything NHK makes, which is the shape every broadcaster in the world has been converging on for a decade.

The catch was the paperwork. Fee contracts for the new service began on 18 november 2025, and every NHK+ user had to apply rather than simply carry over. About 6.18 million people were expected to make the move. By 13 october, 1.68 million had applied.

~ what got buried with it ~

The thing NHK+ had, and the thing NHK ONE gave away, was that it asked nothing of you after the first day. You were already paying. The app was just the payment showing up somewhere useful. Converting that into an active application form turned millions of passive entitlements into a decision, and a decision is where most people stop.

plus.nhk.jp still answers, and it sends you to www.web.nhk. The domain outlived the service by pointing at its replacement, which is the most a dead streaming app can hope for.

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