The Japanese pay-TV network that broadcasts Grand Slam tennis tournaments, along with Kei Nishikori's sponsors, crashed back down to earth Tuesday after riding the local hero's coattails in his run to the US Open final. Nishikori's straight-set loss to Marin Cilic on Monday evening saw the stock price of Wowow Inc, the Japanese broadcast rights holder for all four Grand Slam tournaments, drop more than 4.5% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by lunchtime Tuesday. Wowow's stock had closed up 7.5% Monday, after being up more than 11% at one point, as new customers clamored to subscribe in time to watch the first Asian man to appear in a Grand Slam final. Wowow spokesperson Aya Matake told SBD Global, "Over the weekend we had 10 times as many inquiries as usual, but by Monday that had grown to 20 times as many. Our customer center just couldn't cope at times." Wowow has been broadcasting the Australian, French and US Open since '92, adding Wimbledon in '08. With Nishikori's historic success in N.Y., a number of networks made offers to Wowow to show the final, but it granted only replay rights to public broadcaster NHK, with which it cooperates on Wimbledon broadcasts.
Noodle-maker and Nishikori sponsor Nissin Foods' stock was down more than 1.5% by midday, while Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo clothing brand, was flat. Fast Retailing's stock jumped 3% last week when Nishikori and Novak Djokovic's victories lined up an all-Uniqlo semifinal. The main Nikkei stock index was up around 0.5% at midday.
Gavin Blair is a writer in Tokyo.
CASHING IN: BLOOMBERG's Miyazawa & McCombs reported billionaire Tadashi Yanai and his Fast Retailing Co. will pay Nishikori a 100M yen ($941,000) bonus after his loss in the US Open final, "in addition to payments in his endorsement contract."
Yanai will give 50M yen ($471,000) of the reward and the company "will cover the rest after Nishikori made history as the first man from Asia to play in a Grand Slam tennis final" (BLOOMBERG, 9/9).
