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Answerman - How Do TV Ratings Apply To Anime?

And I think I've read that cable TV is much less common in Japan than the US

But most of those reruns are on cable TV, not on the original free TV. That itself limits access to said anime.
And you wrote it, there are so many different services in Japan, that if you will be lucky and your favourite anime was put online (which is still not guaranteed in Japan), chances are it will be on a service you will only use that one time and never again. And not even the most devoted otaku would pay for such a service. It is easier to pay for cable or satelite subscription in hope the cable channels may air your favourite anime in future (which may never happen, or may happen on a channel your provider doesn't offer) or wait for home media releases, than search like 15+ streaming services and pay for them. That's how things are in Japan.

But these days most anime is shown late at night, during hours rented out by the producers, and the programs are shown as infomercials. For those timeslots, the TV networks don't really care how many people watch, since they get paid by the show producers no matter what. And since it's so late at night, most people are watching the show online, or using recording devices to time-delay the show to watch later.

That presumes they're strictly limited by mobile data, a dangerous presumption indeed.

I've known this for awhile, and often wondered: is there still a point to pay to air this stuff on TV, when they could probably reach the hardcore/dedicated otaku audience just as well via streaming? That's money that could be going to animation studios instead.

DerekL1963 wrote:

That presumes they're strictly limited by mobile data, a dangerous presumption indeed.

Not at all. There are still some rural ISPs that offer either capped data only or charge exorbitant prices for unlimited.