A committee advising communications minister Heizo Takenaka has proposed that NHK be allowed to show commercials to raise money for its international broadcasting service, the panel chairman said Thursday.

Currently the public broadcaster's stations are commercial-free, relying only on viewer fees to run its services.

The members also proposed that NHK strengthen its international service over the Internet, said Chairman Satoru Matsubara, a professor at Toyo University in Tokyo.

For that purpose, Matsubara said the panel members agreed NHK should be allowed to air commercials to raise funds.

NHK's international service "is necessary for the sake of national interests. Public broadcasting should be firmly maintained," Takenaka told a separate news conference after the panel met Thursday.

However, some members said overseas broadcasting for Japanese should be scaled down, given new, alternative means, including the Internet.

The massive organization is concerned about its future as a growing segment of the public is refusing to pay the required, but unenforced, user fees.

Earlier the day, Hisashi Hieda, chairman of the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan and chairman of Fuji TV, said the association is opposed to the idea of allowing NHK to air commercials to raise revenue for international channels.

The association "has the position that NHK should run its business with reception fees" only, Hieda said.

"There should be greater national discussion about whether there is a need (for an international service) and (if so) how it should be financed," Hieda told reporters.