I've been watching a lot of NHK World lately. There's always 30 minutes of news starting at the top of every hour, but when it's not news time they air programs about various aspects of Japanese culture (food, architecture, anime and manga, I saw something today about this British lady living in Kyoto). It's in English, and if it is't available through your cable/satellite provider then you can watch online at
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/w/movie/ for free.