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Answerman - Why Are Funimation And Crunchyroll Getting Married?


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boznia



Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 189
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 3:55 pm Reply with quote
Lemonchest wrote:
Which makes one wonder, depending precisely on how this deal plays out, if they're in danger of falling foul of anti-trust laws; not that any regulatory body is likely to care about anime.

No way that would be possible. Monopolizing a genre of streaming is not the same as monopolizing streaming as a whole. Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, a new company with deep pockets, etc., could go big into anime if they wanted to. Unless someone comes along and takes control of all internet streaming in the US as a whole (realistically, I imagine only ISPs could do that), anti-trust laws are irrelevant.


Last edited by boznia on Fri Sep 09, 2016 4:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief


Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 1684
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 4:00 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
Psycho 101 wrote:
I suspect this also might wind up eventually lowering the amount of shows produced each season.


Do you actually think that the R2 industry licensing less anime to the R1 industry would make the R2 industry produce less anime anually? R2 only cares about it's own discs/manga/LN/merch sales. The R1 could drop dead tomorrow and R2 would still make the same ammount of shows per year, if only out of stupid pride.

Not true. The huge amount of money going into the industry from both the US and China has greatly contributed to the quantity of shows being produced. Now that the revenue is contracting, we can expect production to follow suit. We just don't know by how much.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 5:08 pm Reply with quote
jsevakis wrote:
Now that the revenue is contracting, we can expect production to follow suit. We just don't know by how much.


I do not think revenue from streaming will contract, it will simply standardize. So the obviously popular shows (second seasons, franchises, big productions) will no longer skyrocket in price since there will be no more back and forth bidding. But average shows will probably stay at summer 2016 price levels.

We will know for sure next season (fall), since if the revenue really falls behind projected budgets, there will be noticeably lower quality animation across the board.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 5:38 pm Reply with quote
That merged Funiroll logo in the thumbnail is simultaneously cute and horrifying.
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Somewhere



Joined: 27 Sep 2013
Posts: 361
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 6:26 pm Reply with quote
peno wrote:

If it was just a week or two, it wouldn't be that big of a fuel for piracy. I still remember the fansubbing era and mostly if you got the episode in two weeks from Japanese airdate, it was small miracle. Of course there were some fastsub groups, who could produce a sub within a days of Japanese release date, but their subs were usually really bad. And not only subtitle-wise, sometimes even the video and/or audio quality was bad (I remember Naruto Shippuden fansubs, who used letterboxed SD video). Not to mention you never knew if the group will actually finish the show you started to watch. So, if it was only a matter of week or two to wait for episode being done in quality subs and have the peace that the show will eventually be finished, I guess many people would still go with it, even though they may not be happy about it. If it was anything more then that, however, that may really be problem. Still, let's hope that we will not get even to those 1-2 weeks era.


I think that the plurality of viewers have a different preference of the speed/quality balance, assuming that the preferences cross over with that of the online manga fandom. That is, I think that the plurality would be fine with passable subs released within 1 week.
Being first by a few days, being free, and possessing kind-of-maybe-readable-if-you-try-REALLY-hard English has proven to be an alluring combination on at least the manga side of things.



{Edit: Please refrain from excessive quoting.. I edited your post for you. ~ Psycho 101}
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peno



Joined: 06 Jul 2016
Posts: 349
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 6:41 pm Reply with quote
Of course, there always will be people like this, who don't want to wait any longer and will take whatever available, just to have it ASAP, I never denied that. But, and this may be naïve, I just want to believe that majority value quality and is willing to wait for it (though even their patience has limits, I am sure).
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Somewhere



Joined: 27 Sep 2013
Posts: 361
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 6:57 pm Reply with quote
It also depends a lot on social groups. Like if person A gives in to the temptation of watching whichever the first available version is and wants to talk about it with friends B / C /D.., then there may be pressure on them to lower their personal standards to watch something earlier to be able to join in on the conversation. And if say, C succumbs, pirates, and talks with A about the latest whatever, B and D now have more pressure on them to decide if they want to join in before A and C move on to the next episode. So there's also a kind of a domino effect combined with peer pressure going on, in addition to the speed/quality balance.
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Saku-dono



Joined: 14 Feb 2014
Posts: 801
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:11 pm Reply with quote
Funimation knew they won't survive given their sh*tty quality releases so they went to pay Crunchyroll to save their arses... Laughing
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TheAncientOne



Joined: 06 Oct 2010
Posts: 1868
Location: USA (mid-south)
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:25 pm Reply with quote
Takkun4343 wrote:
Why do people still think Hulu is strictly subscription-only when I'm still able to view episodes of Initial D and Oreimo from Hulu without a subscription?


Perhaps because of news articles like these?:

animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-08-09/hulu-ends-free-streaming-as-yahoo-launches-own-service-with-anime/.105163

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/08/08/hulu-free-streaming-option/88389528/

https://consumerist.com/2016/08/08/hulu-kills-off-free-streaming-service-goes-subscription-only/

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/hulu-ending-free-streaming-switching-to-subscripti/1100-6442428/

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/hulu-going-subscription-only-yahoo-view-picks-free-tv-show-streaming-549537

http://liliputing.com/2016/08/hulu-going-subscription-will-end-ad-supported-video-streaming.html

http://tvline.com/2016/08/08/hulu-not-free-subscription-services-yahoo/


I suspect you had a free account at Hulu (so that you could have a queue/favorites and view age-restricted shows). Try this: Use a different browser where you aren't logged in, and try viewing anything and see what happens. (I would suggest simply logging out, but I wouldn't be surprised if you find your "I can view" situation has changed when you try to log back in).
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:45 pm Reply with quote
mangamuscle wrote:
jsevakis wrote:
Now that the revenue is contracting, we can expect production to follow suit. We just don't know by how much.


I do not think revenue from streaming will contract, it will simply standardize. So the obviously popular shows (second seasons, franchises, big productions) will no longer skyrocket in price since there will be no more back and forth bidding. But average shows will probably stay at summer 2016 price levels.

We will know for sure next season (fall), since if the revenue really falls behind projected budgets, there will be noticeably lower quality animation across the board.


It's not going to hit budgets that fast. Heck the fall shows are already at some stage of production. Whatever effect this has on revenues will take longer to affect production than one month or even a few months unless these companies are really badly off.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13540
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:53 pm Reply with quote
In comparing Amazon Prime to Netflix, at least Amazon Prime is better at having an actual simulcast ("Kabaneri") versus Netflix just releases it in bulk ("Kuromukuro"). If I am subscribing to Netflix, I expect there to be an actual simulcast. I kind of feel like people are getting gypped with this.
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TheAncientOne



Joined: 06 Oct 2010
Posts: 1868
Location: USA (mid-south)
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:57 pm Reply with quote
DeTroyes wrote:

Since LG, Samsung & Sony between them cover the vast majority of the market (I think < 80%), you'd think those three at least would be supported. Or at the very least, prompt everyone to get together and come up with a standard set of protocols for device apps that would work across all systems.

The problem is that when someone is buying a smart TV, odds are they are just shopping for a TV. Then there is the problem of those that go to the trouble of setting it up for streaming (connecting to WiFi or internet), but never install any app beyond what comes installed by default.

In contrast, when someone purchases a Roku, Apple TV, etc., you can bet they did so to stream TV, and likely are more familiar with searching for additional apps to install beyond the default ones.
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Razor/Edge



Joined: 05 Jun 2015
Posts: 607
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:02 pm Reply with quote
Aniplex has plenty of titles on Crunchyroll (including dubs). I wonder how they will respond to this. TBH, i'm surprised they haven't tried to force people into using Daisuki and putting their shows exclusively on that platform. I do worry that Sentai is going to be in trouble. Several of their titles are only on Hulu now and Hulu doesn't seem that interested in anime. Will they turn into Discotek and Media Blasters and stop being able to license newer shows? As a precaution, i'll probably start focusing on buying up their series that I want, just in case the worst happens. I was excited when I read about this yesterday, but now it seems like there could be downsides to it as well. Japan won't be happy about lower licensing prices, and that might make another Japanese company try to enter the American market to cut out the middle man and get the all the profits themselves. The anime market is definitely going to be different now, and only time will tell if it's a positive or a negative.

Somewhere wrote:
It also depends a lot on social groups. Like if person A gives in to the temptation of watching whichever the first available version is and wants to talk about it with friends B / C /D.., then there may be pressure on them to lower their personal standards to watch something earlier to be able to join in on the conversation. And if say, C succumbs, pirates, and talks with A about the latest whatever, B and D now have more pressure on them to decide if they want to join in before A and C move on to the next episode. So there's also a kind of a domino effect combined with peer pressure going on, in addition to the speed/quality balance.

And if you participate in discussions on anime websites, those 4 people in your example just became a couple thousand. If you'd want to wait for the delayed stream and not be spoiled, you'd pretty have to avoid anime internet sites altogether. No matter the spoiler tag policy on websites, there will always be those people that will try to ruin things for everyone. Having a week delay, especially for a paid service, just isn't going to fly for most anime fans. They will go to torrents or other websites to be caught up. The patient ones are maybe 50% at most. Some people will join them, which will lead to faster releases of maybe only a few days or so after something airs. As long as it's faster than the week delay, fansubs will become prominent again. And obviously Crunchyroll would lose subscribers. Hard to say how many, as I have no way or knowing how many people subscribe exclusively for the newest shows.

I guess hope it never happens so we won't have to worry about what the repercussions are. There already will be repercussions from this deal from the Japanese side of things, so let's deal with things as they happen.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:31 pm Reply with quote
AnimeLordLuis wrote:
I believe that this is a good thing for the US Anime market and that Funimation + Crunchyroll won't monopolize on it because if you watch the FuniRoll video it's up on both of there websites they both say that they are doing this for Anime fans so they won't betray there loyal fans who made them what they are in the first place. Very Happy


That's sarcasm, right? You're being sarcastic? What made CR what it is in the first place was piracy which got them money which got them legitimacy.

With Funimation, it was DBZation so that's not much better once you factor in the number of offsets they've produced of the series over the years.

But, sure, for da fans.
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Jonny Mendes



Joined: 17 Oct 2014
Posts: 997
Location: Europe
PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:28 pm Reply with quote
jsevakis wrote:

Not true. The huge amount of money going into the industry from both the US and China has greatly contributed to the quantity of shows being produced. Now that the revenue is contracting, we can expect production to follow suit. We just don't know by how much.


Anime is still mostly maintained by the Japanese market. Nobody buys anime related products like the Japanese. And in the future anime will be even more dependent of Japanese market. I don't expect to be a big drop of the amount of anime produce as long as the Japanese market stay as is now. Sure there are more money now than ever from streaming abroad, but is that what driving the anime market to the number of shows per year we have now? I don't think so.
Is the Japanese market that are sustain it.

Right now are more money coming from China but that will become less and less relevant because China is know for first buying everything from abroad until they start making their on versions later. Soon or later there will be a flood of Chinese anime-like cartoons and anime will have difficulties not only with keeping the China market and others markets too, because for sure they will be allot cheaper to license than anime.


Funimation And Crunchyroll have to be carefully when biding for licenses because if they try to bring the prices down too much now that they more or less dominate the market, that will backfire. If Japanese companies feel that they are not getting enough money, they simply can skip the middle man and create a company to streaming themselves (not a really big possibility but is better be carefully).




{Edit: Please refrain from excessive quoting.. I edited your post for you. ~ Psycho 101}
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