Forum - View topicAnswerman - Is Anime Streaming Consumer-Friendly Right Now?
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Sakagami Tomoyo
Posts: 940 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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Not quite true. It's historically been the case that producing or reproducing things took non-trivial amounts of effort, therefore costs and/or scarcity were an issue, therefore you couldn't always get everything you want. But with recent technological advances, many things have become trivial to produce or reproduce. Media is an interesting example in that it still requires significant effort to produce to begin with, but reproduction is one of the most trivial things possible these days. If I had to come up with a way to fix the situation, it would be to give free range to one and all to reproduce works as they please, and support creators via tax-funded patronage. There's a lot of details for there to be devil in with this idea, for sure, but the capitalistic approach of "these people make it, other people buy it from them" is falling apart at the seams.
Frankly, that it's streaming or nothing is entirely contrary to my needs to begin with. I am frequently in positions where it's either impractical or impossible to stream video, but want to pass the time in my preferred way - watching anime. If I can download it to take it with me and watch on my choice of device, that works for me. If it's cheap enough (compared to buying DVDs/Blu-rays) I'm even willing to tolerate DRM, if it's approached as a "rental" rather than the pretense that I'm buying it and supported on enough variety of platforms. If I'm paying enough to call it buying, it needs to be DRM-free in a standard format. Otherwise, I'm better off making use of other means to watch to begin with and buy DVDs/Blu-rays of anything I think is decent. I know no media companies want to offer anything DRM-free because it allows piracy, but it doesn't appear to have sunk in to them yet that the piracy happens anyway. As for the frustrations of international fans, end region locking. I know the reasons it exists, but if they want people to use these platforms, they need to sort out those issues and just let them. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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The limited commercial version of Hulu is considerably cheaper than Netflix, and even more so now that they have dropped the price temporarily (in response to Netflix increasing theirs.). If you go with the completely commercial free version, the prices are identical. I don’t see how charging less than Netflix, but including some commercials, is a bad business model, especially when you can pay the same as Netflix and get rid of them all together. Hulu’s model is set up around offering next day access to new episodes of broadcast network and cable content, as well as some originals. Netflix is primarily set up around offering access to exclusive content, with an ever shrinking amount of third part content. While they are both streaming services, their business models are slightly different. |
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lostbirdinatree
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I discovered Hidive has managed to let simulcast episodes go free after one week (at least, they promise it on Classicaloid s2 and Dynamic Chord with countdown timers). However, while this may mean I get two more shows this season, they've still locked away their simulcasts from the spring and summer seasons, since they count as "Hidive exclusives".
I think they already do that...for the first episode or so. That's how I tried out Kado, Tsukigakirei and Kenka Bancho Otome's dubs back in the spring. Like BlackPoint, the main thing I'd like is the removal of region lock. I know that may not be feasible with all anime since licensing goes to different regions depending on deals and such like people have explained, but there are a lot of N. America-exclusive shows in services' catalogues I'd like to see and I don't want to have to dodge all these region locks when other regions can watch for free legally. |
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luffypirate
Posts: 3186 |
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I like what Anime Strike is getting, but I don't want to pay an additional subscription for it.
HIDIVE and Tubi TV have been getting some great robot shows. |
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epicwizard
Posts: 420 Location: Ashburn, VA |
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I checked FUNimation's site back a few minutes ago and you're right. The availability of the simuldubs for free users varies from show to show. Some shows have all the simuldubbed episodes available for free users (Assassination Classroom, Izetta: The Last Witch, Attack on Titan), other shows only have a few or some of the simuldubbed episodes available for free users (My Hero Academia, MHS Ride On). All FUNimation needs to do now is make the simuldubbed episodes for newer shows available for free users a week after they premiere rather than months later, and I'll be satisfied. |
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omegafinal
Posts: 125 |
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Pretty much. There are some shows I'd like to watch on Amazon...but yeah. Though I'm okay with Netflix's price. The lack of simulcasting due to their format and structure, did have that unfortunate setback of turning something I was looking forward to watching in a season to something I'll hope to have time to watch in the future, it's a hype/interest thing.
This remains me of an old multipart video series that critiqued fansub subtitling techniques, which pretty much summed that up, and I agree. (I think I remember the reaction from the fansubbing community being quite negative.)
Somewhat tangential, GOG.com's business model works the same way, but with video games, new and old, and they have been going strong for years. (Though it does also help that they're part of the same family that developed the Witcher series.) |
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moogrin
Posts: 43 |
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I haven't actually had problems on any of my Android devices, just my Roku TV. Which as I said used to work great with the Crunchyroll app at least until it suddenly got all buggy. I definitely acknowledge that it can be tough to build something that works across platforms, but that Roku TV is the main thing I like to watch anime on, so if Crunchyroll's app won't work on it, I'm not very incentivized to keep paying for it. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Then I don't follow why you don't like Crunchyroll's system. The royalties from your subscription go to the anime that you watch, so if you don't watch something, your money doesn't go to help produce it.
Similar to the way it works on Crunchyroll, in that respect. The difference is whether you want to pay a, typically, lower cost per episode to watch the series, with it entirely up in the air how long that content will stay in the back catalog, or a higher cost per episode to add the series to your "digital collection", and have access to the episodes you have paid for without an ongoing subscription payment.
This is where impulse control comes in ... it is straightforward to cut the total bill, by rotating what you subscribe to. When I was living in the US, aka streaming anime access heaven, I'd stay subscribed to Crunchyroll and Netflix, and sometimes have HBO, sometimes have Hulu, sometimes have Funimation, etc. If I wasn't in Beijing now, it'd be similar, but HiDive would take the place of Funimation, and Amazon Prime would be included in the rotation when I had saved up to make some purchases. Catch up on content when subscribed, let it build up when not subscribed, there's always something to watch on Netflix or in my Crunchyroll queue. But there are only so many available hours in the day. There's the issue of "but if you do that, you can't stay current with the shows being talked about on twitter ..." ... and, yeah, you want everything and want it right away, you have to pay for the privilege. But if you are willing to wait a month or two or three and then catch up, it's cheaper. |
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omiya
Posts: 1827 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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...and there is still a place for some full-time creative artists. Last edited by omiya on Sat Oct 14, 2017 5:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
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TheAncientOne
Posts: 1871 Location: USA (mid-south) |
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It must have been some time since you've looked at Hulu, since they no longer have a free version (look to Yahoo! View for that content), and they have had a commercial-free tier since September 2015: https://www.hulu.com/press/hulu-add-commercial-free-viewing/
Students can get a reduced cost Prime account, which cuts the cost for that to $5.49 per month. I've suggested before that AS would see a lot fewer objections if they simply made it available to non-Prime users for a higher price ($7-$8 per month). Forbes reported in June of this year that 64% of US households have Prime, which means that "double paywall" exists only for a bit over one third. |
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Wrangler
Posts: 1346 |
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This is almost depressing...anime just payfor Advertisement and its technically a commercial for the most part. Ok, more so now than way back in the two decades ago in better years.
That's sad. Given all the paywalls popping up everywhere, interest especially for young kids is going be non-existence to support this art form we call dear. I don't got good feelings for what accrues next. |
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Shiflan
Posts: 418 |
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I agree that a lot of the paywalls can be annoying but honestly anime has never been as cheap or as accessible as it is today. Back in the 90's there were no streaming services. If you wanted to watch anime you either had to rent tapes from a very limited selection at your local video store, or you had to shell out big bucks to buy them. It was normal for a domestic release to cost $20 or more for just 2 episodes. If you imported from Japan like many fans did did you would spend about $50-75 for a 1 hour tape or LD; movies cost about $100 (or more). You could expect to spend about $700 for a standard 26-episode TV season at import prices. These days you can spend less than $10 a month and have access to far more anime than you could ever hope to watch. For the cost of buying a season of your favorite show you can access pretty much ALL the streaming services for an entire year! I'm not claiming the current system is perfect. But it certainly is a heck of a lot cheaper than anime was in the not-too-distant past. |
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Kadmos1
Posts: 13557 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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I would argue that Crunchyroll is the most consumer-friendly stream because of the following: they often get the most anticipated season shows, the sheer size of their catalog, that they often announce when there are delayed streams, and that they list their available regions for a specific title. I also have has issues with their video player. So, from a technical standpoint (streaming rate, subtitling quality, and video player quality), they might not be the best.
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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Buy yourself a Google Chromecast dongle. Crunchyroll supports Chromecast so you can connect to a show on your Android phone then cast it to your television. Most major services like Netflix also support Chromecast. The one big exception is Amazon because they want people to buy Fire TV devices instead. |
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edmg7
Posts: 10 |
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This mindset is pretty much why I don't get all the frustration and bitterness of some fans in both this comment section and that of the original article. With all the salt towards not getting everything they want I could swear the anime community was composed of girls named Veruca. My sad attempts at humor aside, I always thought people bought media based on what they could access. You only have Playstation consoles? Well you still have tons of great games even if you can't play Halo or KOTOR. Only got local channels because your family didn't pay for cable or satellite? ABC, NBC, PBS, and WB still have good shows (even Fox used to). Before Spotify was a thing your music was limited to either what you bought or what radio stations you could pick up (which was almost never all kinds of music). I don't see how anime is any different. I have access to Funimation and Hulu (also Netflix but I don't really use it for anime), and just counting this past summer season that let me watch 5 of the 6 shows I wanted to see. That seems like a pretty sweet deal to me all things considered. |
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