It’s not good…in a pair of emails I received as a subscriber this week, NHK announced their Jme streaming service in North America (US and Canada) will be shutting down at the end of March 2027. It’s mainly a financial decision between declining subscribers and increased costs making it unsustainable. It launched a few years ago to replace a similar service and just announced earlier this week they were shifting from offering monthly, 6-month and annual plans to monthly only starting in November, with current annual & 6-month subscribers given a discount from the monthly rate of $25.99. The service included live streams of NHK World Premium, which features live broadcasts of all top tier Grand Sumo Tournament matches and a dedicated Grand Sumo channel with replays of the broadcasts 4 times daily in Japanese & English and the Japanese version of the 25-minute highlights program 3 times daily. So this means NHK’s sumo coverage in the US will be limited to NHK World Japan, which is available on participating cable/satellite providers and is available FOR FREE online and as a smartphone, tablet and smart TV app with no login or paid television service required and no restrictions on viewing (it is available worldwide with very limited exceptions, I think mostly Russia). The apps and website feature both live programming and a vast selection of on demand content, all in English. This includes some other sumo-themed programs besides the daily tournament highlights. Although, as I learned this past tournament, with a proper VPN setup you can get the ABEMA service outside Japan (and get around geoblocking by making it think you’re physically in Japan) and their daily live streams, the free version includes all matches up to Juryo but maybe not the top tier.
Jme will be available until the end of March so it can still be used to watch the next 3 tournaments. After that, the only way to get NHK World Premium in the US without a participating cable provider is by subscribing to Sling. It will be available via a specific service in Canada as well. This won’t affect my planned sumo coverage, although being able to watch the original Japanese broadcasts was a nice bonus.