Forum - View topicNEWS: Sentai Filmworks Licenses Sword Oratoria Anime, Plans Simulcast on Anime Strike
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5454 Location: Iscandar |
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No. This is not being petty. Crunchyroll and Funimation's license arm raise was phasing out Sentai and other companies out of the anime market. Sentai is being smart, not petty, by choosing to associate with deep pockets Amazon in order to remain a viable anime publisher. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I dunno.. I think that's what their goal is, but I don't think it's going to work out for them. Of course, I don't know how much money they are getting for putting it on Amazon, if that's how the deal worked out, but it seems like, considering they are entirely a middle-man in the streaming market, focusing on getting their shows in front of as many eyeballs as possible in order to boost their home video would be the best strategy for them. It is only going to hurt eventual home video sales if fewer fans have seen the show. Of course, this all assumes that Sentai sub-licensed the streaming rights to Amazon, rather than the other way around, which changes absolutely everything. If Amazon got the show and are selling the home video rights to Sentai, yes, good for them. But if Sentai got the show and sold the streaming rights to Amazon... I think that was pretty stupid. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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They're a business and need to make money. They generally sell the shows to whoever offers the most money. This is the reason why the pulled away from CR sometime ago, even before the Funi deal, and TAN before that, and started running simulcasts on Hulu. They made more money that way. If Amazon really wants a show for its Anime Strike service badly enough, then CR simply can't compete with it. It's no the number of viewers that matter as much as much revenue those eyes generate. Not to mention, it's questionable as to whether aiding CR would be working against their own self interest, since CR competes with them for licenses and is now doing home video releases with their biggest competitor. |
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Parrad11
Posts: 16 |
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Sentai's actions make a lot of sense; I'm sure you wouldn't want to be in a situation where you've only got once choice where they have all of the power, leaving you with the only option being 'take it or leave it' (because lets face it, do you really one one provider such as Crunchyroll holding all of the cards in both directions?) If Crunchyroll hasn't announced it, that means there is still a possibility for it to be available on AnimeLab. I do wish that they could all nicely play together, but maybe they are all concerned that if they are on a level playing field, they'll lose customers to greener pastures and so do this rather than focus on trying to improve their platform and services in general? |
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SquadmemberRitsu
 Posts: 1391 |
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The main girl who single handedly sold the show isn't in it, this new series has come way too late to capitalise on the original's popularity AND it's being exclusively streamed on a service that barely anyone uses? Welp, this show is basically dead on arrival. Whoever decided on this, you made the wrong call.
I don't enjoy Gigguk as much as I used to, but he was right when he said Amazon Prime was 'where simulcasts go to die'. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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How do you know that "barely anyone uses it"? Amazon doesn't release ratings, so assuming that hardly anyone uses it is a bit of stretch. I often read the same thing about Hulu, despite the fact that Hulu has more subscribers in just the US than CR has in the entire world, and some simulcasts had higher numbers there than CR. Not to mention, Sentai is a business and it doesn't matter if they get more views on CR, if they make less money from those views. They wouldn't streaming the show there for less money, and they probably wouldn't have switched to Amazon had Hulu not changed their business model and cut back on Anime. Some people are assuming that this is just to spite CR. Considering Sentai continued to silmulcast and delay cast shows after the Funi/CR deal, that's a bit of a stretch as well. Amazon is a massive company with a lot of money. They're also one of Sentai's biggest retail partners. Keeping a positive relationship with them is always a good thing for them. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Well this sucks. Given that we didn't get Urarara on Prime in the UK I have no confidence that this will be available and, if it is exclusive to Anime Strike, there isn't even the option of a TAN subscription (not that I want one, with the extra expense combined with lack of apps).
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Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5454 Location: Iscandar |
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Being on a service that most anime fans seem to dislike is not the ideal situation. I assume Sentai will be willing to stream their shows in Crunchyroll if they were able to workout deals.
I assume that if Sentai and Amazon have a partnership, it is similar to CR/Funi, where Amazon buys the streaming and home video rights and will then sublicense it to Sentai for dubbing and disc distribution. I am also guessing that anime licenses continue to be very high and rather than spend a ton of money themselves, Sentai is partnering up with Amazon to acquire more anime content. Why assume that Sentai is a stupid company I do miss the days where Crunchyroll was only interested in streaming, Funimation had their independent operation, Sentai was able to afford acquiring 10+ shows per season and even NISA licensed and released anime. But sadly, those days are gone. |
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TasteyCookie
 Posts: 421 |
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Except for when Amazon stops paying exorbitant amounts of money for licenses, as I can guarantee they did for Oratoria. Amazon is a company known to make poor financial decisions and go back on their current business outreaches all the time. Ever heard of Fire Phone? The problem for Sentai is, unless Amazon decides to keep this trend up and starts buying 10-15 licences a season instead of 3-5, it will continue to affect physical sales and hurt brand image for Sentai. Gone are the days of guessing how your brand is affected by consumer-poor decisions due to the ever-present social media influences. Go to Twitter, Facebook, sites such as MAL, ANN, CR, and see the outrage of everyone for Sentai making this decision. Sure it may not represent all of their customers, but when 90% of comments made on every available outlet are negative, that is a decision that affected your brand in a very bad way, and will affect their bottom line. As far as viewership goes for the shows on Anime Strike, it's pretty obvious when looking at sites such as MAL and see how many people have watched the shows they licensed. Even out of those we don't know how many used pirating means. But if I had to bet money, I would bet their subscriber numbers for Anime Strike are not even close to projection. Again, just guess work, but anime is a very vocal online community for how niche it is, and the response has been anything but affectionate. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6881 Location: Kazune City |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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But that's the problem. That's exactly what they are doing. Cornering themselves into a position where they are completely dispensable. Amazon doesn't need Sentai like Sentai needs Amazon. At least not for long. They can partner with anyone else to release anime. And they already have plenty of Hollywood contacts.
I maintain that, if simply making money was indeed the goal, that's a pretty poor business strategy. Anyone worth their salt in business knows that giving your company longevity and stability is more important than short term gains. Not keeping an eye on the broader market and making decisions that will help you stay competitive is how you kill your company.
My argument wasn't that they should have gone to CR instead, but that they should be pursuing streaming deals with as many partners as possible, rather than taking the "exclusive" route. This only makes sense if they are getting so much money from Amazon that they don't really need to care how well it sells on home video. But even in that sense, this is failing to really get their name out there. And when Amazon decides they don't need Sentai to license shows for streaming and can do it for themselves, like they've clearly done in the past already, Sentai is going to be in yet another pickle. They are doing a really bad job of keeping themselves relevant right now, outside of the CE market. Which is a fine market to be in, IF they can continue to work with the powerful companies like Amazon and Netflix and have a steady stream of shows to put out, but that's a fairly big IF.
This was announced as an Exclusive though. And that's exactly my point. This is being limited in its potential reach significantly. And that's bad. Not just in the short term, but for Sentai as a company and a brand.
Stupid was probably too harsh of a word. But I don't think that any of these reasons are good. The last couple of years we've seen Sentai make decision after decision to prop themselves up in the short term which has almost always ended up leaving their company less relevant than before in the long term. If they have a business partnership with Amazon, that's great, as long as they can keep it going, and are getting paid well for it, but as I've expanded on already, we don't actually know if that's the case(Sentai could be selling rights to them, rather than the reverse), and even if it is, it does nothing for Sentai as a company in the long-term and Amazon could decide they don't need them anymore at any moment. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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The thing is, licensing shows to CR, as they have done in ththe past, did nothing to help their company in the long term. In fact, it actually hurt them as CR started going after physical rights, in addition to streaming rights. CR went from just being a platform to stream on for them, like Hulu or TubiTV, to one that actively competes with them and drives up their cost to do business. The more money they help CR earn through subscriptions and advertising revenue, the more money can be used against them in licensing negotiations, and the more home video releases Funimation will have to compete with their DVD and Bluray sets. It's more than just how much Amazon is willing to pay them to stream their shows. They get far more from a relationship with Amazon than they do with CR. Not only do they get money for streams, but also digital downloads. Amazon is also one of their most important retailers when it comes to physical home video sales. Giving money to CR actively works against their best self interest, especially since their alliance with Funimation. Working with Amazon doesn't. It provides them with what is likely to be higher streaming revenue and can strengthen their relationship with a very important partner. Not to mention, Sentai is streaming shows and almost every other major streaming service and app, including delaycasts of several otherwise exclusive shows. They are simply partnering with Amazon to stream shows that would have otherwise gone to TAN or somewhere else. |
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Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5454 Location: Iscandar |
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I have said before that Sentai is my favorite anime distributor/publisher and want them to stay in business for a long time. Ever since Crunchyroll and Funimation started spending big on licenses Sentai began losing ground on the licensing of new titles. The CR-Funi partnership is apparently making things worse for Sentai. I have been thinking a lot about how Sentai can remain being a viable company. I considered diminishing their monthly output and doing more LE's to not run out of products to sell and make more profit; and they did that. But Sentai keeps licencing less and less new shows. I do not completely trust Amazon and Netflix, but partnering with those companies is right now the best option for Sentai to be able to acquire more than 15 new shows every year. If the prices of anime licenses are still very high, I don't want to see Sentai trying to outbid Crunchyroll and Funimation. Time will tell if Sentai partnering with Amazon (and Netflix) is a good business movie, but right now I don't see a better option for a desperate company like Sentai. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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This is a very valid point. Their best option for streaming, and their most profitable, was Hulu until they changed their business practices. Working with CR clearly bit them in the ass. TubiTV, Viewster, and the other streaming sites they work with clearly can't pay what Amazon can. Anime Network is mostly focused on its VOD business, which makes up the vast bulk of its revenue and profits. It's important to remember that these are all companies, and not people. They are going to pursue options that make them money. If anime does well for Amazon, they will continue with it. The same goes for Netflix and even CR. One can't forget that CR is a very tiny division of a coventure that is partly owned by ATT. It's not entirely impossible to imagine them pulling the plug on it either. This is why only having one streaming service for anime is probably not a good thing. But online streaming has been moving steadily towards more services with less selection, but more individual exclusives. Anime isn't totally immune to that, and I doubt it has the power to reverse that trend. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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We're on the same page, and generally seem to agree. I'm just expressing my worries a little bit differently and with a bit more pessimism, I guess. |
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