×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Answerman - Why Don't Netflix Anime Get Home Video Releases?


Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:10 pm Reply with quote
That all makes sense. But then follows the obvious question: if Netflix has exclusive rights, why don't they sell physical discs? Or they could subcontract out the work, or sublicense it. It seems like Netflix is ignoring a potential revenue stream here.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
SolHerald



Joined: 07 Oct 2012
Posts: 99
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Still mad about LWA.

But since I only watch stuff on Netflix during free trials at least they don't get any money from me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯

AkumaChef wrote:
That all makes sense. But then follows the obvious question: if Netflix has exclusive rights, why don't they sell physical discs? Or they could subcontract out the work, or sublicense it. It seems like Netflix is ignoring a potential revenue stream here.


Sounds like a lot more work for them when they can just hold a show hostage and get you to keep subscribing to them. For example I just want a LWA bluray (and maybe one for GitS:SAC2045 if it ends up being good), but if they sell them to people who are only interested in a few titles then they don't have someone giving them 12-16 bucks a month. They hope to get you subscribing for one show and then bait you with other shows and keep you subscribed for as long as possible.


Last edited by SolHerald on Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:38 pm; edited 8 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:27 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
First, Netflix often does ask for exclusivity across every platform for a period of years -- usually three, I'm told -- just as a normal part of throwing so much money at the title.


So the answer potentially could be 3 years. Once the exclusivity period expires then, if Netflix doesn't re-up, another streaming platform such as Funimation or Sentai could get the physical rights ( From Netfilx or the Producer, whichever has them ) and streaming to go with them. A lot of that would depend on Netflix' streaming numbers, low enough they let it all go back to the Producer, high enough and they pay to keep part or all of it.

Mark Gosdin
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Aresef



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 909
Location: MD
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:38 pm Reply with quote
Even the stuff that isn't anime, depending on the contracts Netflix has, takes a while to come out. The second season of Stranger Things, for example, took more than a year.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Zendervai



Joined: 06 Apr 2012
Posts: 197
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:38 pm Reply with quote
AkumaChef wrote:
That all makes sense. But then follows the obvious question: if Netflix has exclusive rights, why don't they sell physical discs? Or they could subcontract out the work, or sublicense it. It seems like Netflix is ignoring a potential revenue stream here.


Netflix only ever does official home video releases for their gigantic smash hits, like Stranger Things. The stuff that becomes outright pop culture phenomenons. You do get stuff like Dreamworks eventually doing home video releases of at least parts of their animated shows, and the occasional other thing (not counting stuff where Netflix just has the rights for one country), but Netflix seems to be extremely controlling over the rights.

I think it might be likely that with Knights of Sidonia at least, Polygon may have actively solicited for a home video release, considering all the changes made for it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Raebo101



Joined: 17 Mar 2010
Posts: 792
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:45 pm Reply with quote
All I want... is for Saiki K seasons 2 & 3 to get dubbed. Is that too much to ask for? Neutral
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5407
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:07 pm Reply with quote
I will remind the person asking the question that Funimation and Sentai have released some Netflix and Amazon titles on disc; so, it is not impossible. I also think that Sentai seems more than willing to just get BD rights and nothing more.

answerman wrote:
I understand, as a media hoarder, that many of us still want to own our favorite titles -- either as shiny discs, or as a paid item on Amazon or iTunes.

Not me. Shiny discs or nothing.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
KitKat1721



Joined: 03 Feb 2015
Posts: 952
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:14 pm Reply with quote
There have been a few Netflix anime to get a blu-ray release (Seven Deadly Sins, Knights of Sidonia, Fate/Apocrypha) so I've got to still hold some hope that shows like Devilman Crybaby will eventually.

Unfortunately, I have less hope for more underrated shows like Hisone & Masotan
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:17 pm Reply with quote
SolHerald wrote:

Sounds like a lot more work for them when they can just hold a show hostage and get you to keep subscribing to them.

It doesn't have to be ANY work for them at all. That's why I mentioned subcontracting or sublicensing physical media rights.

Quote:
They hope to get you subscribing for one show and then bait you with other shows and keep you subscribed for as long as possible.


Of course that's their intent. The question is why not cover both bases? There are customers who won't subscribe no matter what, so it's not always a case of one vs. the other. Also, there are people who subscribe AND might buy the shows. I subscribe to a handful of streaming services but I also end up buying most of what I watch simply because I don't trust a streaming service to always have the title I want there for me to watch it. I think that streaming and physical media are two very different things that don't really compete much with each other.

Streaming sort of replaces broadcast TV or cable: it's just something you turn on and browse. Physical media is for something you want to come back to, or you want to collect. I think that netflix happens to be chasing one market but largely ignoring the other.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:18 pm Reply with quote
I have to think that the price Netflix would want for sub licensing for home video has to be worth it. We've seen Funimation release season 1 of Seven Deadly Sins and Sentai do the same with Ajin, but it might take a while before Netflix would agree to a price that they can afford. Obviously, Netflix wants to have reasons for people to subscribe, so they probably don't see sub licensing as a lucrative prospect until later when it seems like they've gotten all the viewers for a series that they are going to get.

That said, being able to get merchandise, but not discs, is getting annoying. My Yumeko Jabami figure serves as a constant reminder that I can't buy season one on disc.



Raebo101 wrote:
All I want... is for Saiki K seasons 2 & 3 to get dubbed. Is that too much to ask for? Neutral


That would be great. Season 1 was exactly my type of humor. Although the fact that it wound up on Netflix tells me it must have been a dud for CR/Funi.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:42 pm Reply with quote
AkumaChef wrote:
That all makes sense. But then follows the obvious question: if Netflix has exclusive rights, why don't they sell physical discs? Or they could subcontract out the work, or sublicense it. It seems like Netflix is ignoring a potential revenue stream here.


They certainly could subcontract it, if they were Cartoon Network, which is fully aware it ISN'T in the disk business--I'm not accusing the current streaming Netflix of being a "Disk-killer", it just that there's one business Reed Hastings won't put the name on, unless something like Seven Deadly Sins became "trademark" to attract a breakout-audience deal.

Although, of course, whenever CN wants to dabble in disk sales, they already have a corporate studio that just happens to have a disk label already, never mind that owns one of the major anime disk/manga companies to begin with.
Netflix doesn't. Heck, it's only been nine years since you used to get those red envelopes in the mail.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Chrno2



Joined: 28 May 2004
Posts: 6171
Location: USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:59 pm Reply with quote
This is an interesting piece of information. Now that explains it. But thing is why hold the show hostage, I mean people still do have to watch the show. I mean people watched shows on TV, but you have ads to make up the money. Then people went out and bought the DVDs. So I had a question years ago, which was why anyone would still want to watch the show after they already watched it on TV? But I knew why. Then there is stuff that goes back into syndication. If people are paying for the service some are watching the series some aren't. Some are watching it and want to still own it others are just going to wait because they might have missed a few episodes. Or they might check in later. But they want to still own too. Whatever the case, someone is still supporting the service there is no reason to hold the show hostage. I hear this same issue with Amazon Prime. Land of the Lustrous was released there. Someone stated they'll never release it, but the show was released eventually by Section 23.

So is this what's going to happen to 'Devilman Crybaby', 'Cutie Honey', or other shows?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address My Anime My Manga
MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5296
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:07 pm Reply with quote
As far as I know Amazon are not trying to keep these shows as exclusives, just now a trailer for Kokkoku home release has gone up, Welcome to the ballroom is getting a home release. Grimoire Of Zero, Scum's Wish, Made In Abyss and Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress have also had home releases. They just seem to care about the initial broadcast, and then afterwords do not care who gets it and how else it is distributed.

KitKat1721 wrote:
Unfortunately, I have less hope for more underrated shows like Hisone & Masotan
Well that sucks, because that and LWA are the only ones currently that I really want(Cyborg 009 vs Devilman is only 3 episodes so I don't mind )


Last edited by MarshalBanana on Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:19 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2404
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:10 pm Reply with quote
The Marvel Netflix shows could barely get Blu-rays pressed and they are among the biggest streaming successes of any platform, so good luck and have fun playing the waiting game is all i have to say. This is actually a bit of a problem for my profession. Libraries would love to get timely discs releases for the big streaming hits but we either wait at least a year or never get the shows full stop.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5407
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:15 pm Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
Raebo101 wrote:
All I want... is for Saiki K seasons 2 & 3 to get dubbed. Is that too much to ask for? Neutral


That would be great. Season 1 was exactly my type of humor. Although the fact that it wound up on Netflix tells me it must have been a dud for CR/Funi.

Or Netflix said: f.uck CR/Funi, I want that show.

Chrno2 wrote:
I hear this same issue with Amazon Prime. Land of the Lustrous was released there. Someone stated they'll never release it, but the show was released eventually by Section 23.

LotL was a Sentai licensed show from the start; they were bound to release it on disc.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next
Page 1 of 3

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group