Forum - View topic

How Much Does It Cost to License Anime Series?

for catalog content, licensees are sometimes willing to pay a bit more than they otherwise would have (or might be expected to pay a bit more) if they want to pick up a pre-existing subtitle script or dub

Does this mean the original licensor own the rights to the subtitles or dub? I've been curious about that, whether someone would have to pay the English company that did the translation to buy the subs/dubs, or pay them royalties, or whether it goes through the Japanese company.

ADV Court Documents Reveal Amounts Paid for 29 Anime Titles (2012): animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-01-30/adv-court-documents-reveal-amounts-paid-for-29-anime-titles

I don't think we're in a bubble. Yes, costs have increased massively, but this is because revenue from streaming platforms is way up. Increased production costs and competition do play a part in this, but increased revenue is the primary driver. Licensees are offering MGs that they calculate based on expected revenues from the shows.

The early 2000s bubble was entirely speculative and competition based, and not related to real-world performance.

I am as equally disturbed by the low wages being paid to animators in Japan, but keep in mind that "full production costs" is only for the A+ shows. Most shows are not getting that much from overseas licensing.

Something needs to be done about animator pay.

I wonder how much it can cost
To acquire the exclusive license for upcoming anime Chainsaw man ( including rights for streaming, to sublicense, broadcast on tv, physical media for example like Attack on Titan)

OTOH, hey, Chris, why not tell us how much ANN paid for licensing rights when ANN tried to get into the licensing game?

However, acquiring cheap catalog rights from Japan poses an entirely different challenge. If the show is only worth a couple hundred dollars per episode, some licensors won't consider it worth the effort to bother with the sale. Acquiring really old titles poses an even bigger challenge; the older the show is, the harder it is to even determine who actually owns the rights for the show and find the materials.

Quote:

If the show is only worth a couple hundred dollars per episode, some licensors won't consider it worth the effort to bother with the sale

Lord Geo wrote:

OK, if Chris brought this up then that has to mean that it's actually happened at least once or twice in the past.

Once or twice is a massive understatement.

skemono wrote:

Does this mean the original licensor own the rights to the subtitles or dub? I've been curious about that, whether someone would have to pay the English company that did the translation to buy the subs/dubs, or pay them royalties, or whether it goes through the Japanese company.

Depends on the licensing contract. By default, the company that makes the translation "owns" the rights to it (there's some copyright nuance here that I won't get into). But sometimes the licensing contract can stipulate that the rights to the translation made by the licensee go to the licensor. This is pretty common, and I suspect that it's the norm right now, but I haven't asked anyone about it recently.

In the past there certainly were cases where new licensees had to license translations from a third party (past licensees, or licensees in a different territory).

-t

Man, I did not realize how much licensing costs had ballooned in the last decade. I recall that $250,000 sounded like a realistic number for a middle of the road 13 episode series years ago, but those days are clearly gone.

ADV Court Documents Reveal Amounts Paid for 29 Anime Titles (2012): animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-01-30/adv-court-documents-reveal-amounts-paid-for-29-anime-titles

As an example provided in the court documents, the series 009-1 was acquired for $25,000 an episode. This title was not very popular at all and would need to sell about 10,000 units to break even on licensing costs alone, at a time when other sources indicate half of that was what a good title sold.

However, one line really caught my interest:

Quote:

If the show is only worth a couple hundred dollars per episode, some licensors won't consider it worth the effort to bother with the sale

OK, if Chris brought this up then that has to mean that it's actually happened at least once or twice in the past. Now I REALLY want to know what anime were actually considered "too cheap to license out" by Japanese licensors.

We trying reissue but they will not respond. Even met with them. They do not care of old titles as company changes ownership.