Forum - View topicNEWS: Crunchyroll to Halt Ad-Supported Streaming Starting With Spring 2022 Season
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paulchaested
Posts: 259 |
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Wouldn't be surprised if half the people complaining here are the same people who still pirated anime even when CR had ad-supported episodes.
Last edited by paulchaested on Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:08 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5324 |
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And what if someone just wants to watch a single show on CR? At the moment they could watch it with ads, but soon they will have to pay a subscription?
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1231 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Quite the decision being made. As of last year, Crunchyroll had 120 million users, and of those, only 5 million were paying subscribers.
The difference between those numbers is enormous. A significant portion of Crunchyroll's revenue as a result is that ad revenue. A significant portion of the anime audience are minors who are under the age of 16 and aren't able to get a job. I discovered Crunchyroll in 2009 when I was 15, and I watched everything in SD with ads on the delay. It wasn't until I got my part-time job in 2012 when I was 18 that I finally got the subscription. If their parents won't get them the Crunchyroll subscription, lots are going to turn to piracy and they'll probably never come back. It's going to be interesting to see how much piracy will grow following this decision. One of the things that helped Crunchyroll grow so big in the first place is the free tier with ads. This is also something that helped FUNimation grow too when they began streaming in 2008, and they didn't have a subscription service until 2011/2012. HIDIVE not having a free tier with ads has been a disadvantage going all the way back to the Anime Network Online days which had a select few free episodes. For anyone curious, as of 2020, HIDIVE had about 300,000 subscribers since they launched in 2017.
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Pepperidge
 Posts: 1104 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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They're also still blocked access to most of the back catalogue to non-subscibers in Canada. They don't do this in any other country and still haven't provided an explanation as to why. Soon, most of the site will be locked to subscribers only in Canada.
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1231 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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sharkticon
Posts: 30 |
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What I think a number of people are missing, is that this will both be a driver of a return to piracy, and be the right business policy decision for CR.
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Mune
Posts: 376 Location: Minnesota |
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No one said their back catalogue would be subscription only. Free users will still have access to it with ads. Likewise, there was no indication that after the spring season that they wouldn't just make this only for the current season. So, at most viewers would be behind is 3 months, not forever.
If you think waiting 3 months to watch something for free is too long, I'm calling you entitled. As a child, I had to wait years from the initial air date and months between episodes, (oh, the dark ages of anime or as some call them, the age of great anime). Of course, simulcasts are nice and do curb anime piracy, but what about waiting a week? I know people who would have none of that and would rather pirate than pay or wait. Even then, if ads were mandatory day 1, they would still find a way to avoid them. As a former friend of mine said when pirating, "Why pay for something you can get for free?" CR might even have more plans down the road we are currently unaware of. |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1570 |
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I pirated even while I was paying a subscription.
Kids these days, I swear! Back in my time we had to walk three mile sin the snow to the store to buy one gallon of anime! And if you weren't careful you would be enlisted in the army in the way... there were other ways to get that anime, but you needed to trade two goats and three chickens for it! |
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Just Passing Through
Posts: 277 |
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It doesn't say this. It says from the Spring season, new simulcasts and new seasons to ongoing shows will be paywalled except for the first three episodes which will be available as ad-supported tasters. When those seasons complete their broadcast, simulcast runs, those first three episodes will be paywalled as well. You won't see them for free. They also say that existing content pre-Spring 2022 will keep the free ad-supported option. The "for now" is implicit. They can be paywalled at Crunchymation's whim, or when the licenses are renewed. |
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09jcg
Posts: 524 |
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Last edited by 09jcg on Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mune
Posts: 376 Location: Minnesota |
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It was the main driving force for pirating 10 years ago, which was that if anime wasn't available as fast as pirating, then people would be more swayed to pirate. Thus, as a main complaint, streaming companies, like CR and Funi started simulcasting within hours of the airing, and it worked to some degree. Here's the thing, the vast majority of people who pirate will never pay to watch and will give excuses why they won't. I've heard plenty of excuses. It's either the quality isn't as good, the translation isn't accurate, the company doesn't spend money the way they want, the people who work on it are bad, someone at the company is bad, ...and the list goes on and on. Last edited by Mune on Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:35 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1231 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Forgot to add this, but re-reading this garbage corporate quote is quite amusing when you consider this decision.
"Fans first", except the ones that were watching for free with ads. |
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JoelBurger
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Yes, clearly things should never get better, because they weren't good when you were a child. What a smart and totally not psychotic viewpoint on things. |
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FMAvatard
 Posts: 195 |
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I used to work in a coffee shop and this other business owner would leave her kid to sit in with us while she had to take care of manager stuff, and the kid loved anime. I remember him telling me he liked Promised Neverland (when there was only one season) but he hadn’t watched the finale yet “because I don’t have premium.” I let the kid watch it on my phone as long as he promised not to go snooping, and he didn’t, and was seriously so happy he didn’t have to wait a week. And a happy ending to the story, he told his mama what I did and she said she got him a premium account because she just didn’t know.
That’s all to say, this is gonna turn tweens/teens, arguably most of animes target demo, to piracy. Parents are already probably paying for two or three streaming services, and Crunchyroll is a harder sell than Disney+. This sucks. |
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Hagaren Viper
 Posts: 766 |
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This is interesting as I keep hearing that other streaming services like Disney+ are considering adding a streaming-with-ads option, so to see Crunchy do the opposite is a choice for sure. Charging for something that has been free for ages rarely feels like a great move.
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