Forum - View topic

NEWS: Bandai Visual USA Gets Shigofumi, True Tears Anime

A few things to think about, after having read most of this forum.

In America, most shows are on network television. Usually, people are paying nothing if they are getting it off air, or a cable bill to get the content. This means they are paying a single montly price to watch anything they want on a non-premium channel (like HBO or something). Often HD channels are included in basic cable pricing lineups. They certainly are in the Verizon FIOS TV I just signed up for.

In Japan, anime is much the the same. Anime appears on boadcast, cable, and satellite channels. Often in widescreen 16x9 or 720p! When Japanese consumers buy anime, they've already had the chance to watch them as the come out. Yes they may be paying for fairly expensive satellite or cable, but is that so different from Americans watching House?

This is an important distiction with the R1 audiance. American entertainment companies know that people are not going to pay 30 bucks for 4 episodes of something they watched on broadcast TV that's probably being re-run next season. Add in the fact that a considerable portion of them Tivo everything and are fast forwarding through comercials, and you get a cheap one season box set. And they sell like hotcakes.

Despite this, the norm for anime is about 4 episodes for $29.99 on DVD. This is actually unreasable by current TV standards considering you can buy a TV season box set for $40-60. But anime is a niche market commodity like Star Trek box sets are (check out the prices on those!). I'm willing to shell out $30 for a single DVD with 4 episodes on it, because I love anime. But I start getting annoyed when it's $30 for three episodes, which is why I've largely abandoned anything by Viz Entertainment.

This is what I think is happening: BV sees the inevitable--they're not going to get rid of fansubs, even if they tried. They're also never going to jeopardize the Japanese business model with cheap, quickly-produced reverse-imports. Instead they're focusing on an extremely narrow target market (mostly people who would be importing from Japan otherwise), at a price point so high that they only need to sell a very small number of units to break even. Everyone else can fudge right off--they can watch the fansubs or whatever, but they're not getting any free junk, and they were probably going to download it anyways. In fact, the fansubbers are actually good for business--they help provide the word of mouth BV needs. BV breaks even, the hardcore fans get their pencil boards, and everyone else downloads.

Of course some people don't LIKE fansubs, and they seem to ignore that by monetizing digital distribution they could make more money than DVDs ever will in North America. But it's their business, and if the Japanese company executives want to continue being regressive protectionist morons and give up maximizing profits to protect their dwindling Japanese core market, so be it.

Star Trek box sets aren't expensive because they're niche, they're expensive because Paramount knows that Star Trek nerds will pay exorbitant prices for their product. Fox did the same thing with the X-Files sets, which I believe were ~$120 a season (at least they were in Canada when they came out).

I don't think your broadcast argument holds, either. The people who buy DVD box sets are either a) fans who want to support and rewatch the show and b) people who lacked time or interest or access to the show on broadcast run, but picked up the box set after strong word of mouth. Neither of those groups buys that box set without the broadcast run.

Anime needs word of mouth too. In Japan, the show is on broadcast TV (or satellite, or whatever). In America, it's not, and the problem is that fans are now being asked to spend upwards of 20 dollars per episode on a show that has not finished airing in Japan, and that they cannot sample beforehand.

This is what I think is happening: BV sees the inevitable--they're not going to get rid of fansubs, even if they tried. They're also never going to jeopardize the Japanese business model with cheap, quickly-produced reverse-imports. Instead they're focusing on an extremely narrow target market (mostly people who would be importing from Japan otherwise), at a price point so high that they only need to sell a very small number of units to break even. Everyone else can fudge right off--they can watch the fansubs or whatever, but they're not getting any free junk, and they were probably going to download it anyways. In fact, the fansubbers are actually good for business--they help provide the word of mouth BV needs. BV breaks even, the hardcore fans get their pencil boards, and everyone else downloads.

Of course some people don't LIKE fansubs, and they seem to ignore that by monetizing digital distribution they could make more money than DVDs ever will in North America. But it's their business, and if the Japanese company executives want to continue being regressive protectionist morons and give up maximizing profits to protect their dwindling Japanese core market, so be it.

The problem I see with your argument about them barely breaking even is it doesn't make sense from a business standpoint. A business is all about making money. Thus, it is in their best interest to sell as many DVDs (or squeaky toys or whatever) at a price point that brings in the most volume. Simple economics. Balance of price to volume. A company will usually tend towards maximizing this ratio, or they will eventually fail.

I misconstrued your argument about niches. I thought you meant costs were higher because it was a niche show or something, and not just that the fanbase was more willing to get fleeced.

You're right, it doesn't make sense from a business standpoint. And they're not maximizing that ratio. And they ARE going to fail, eventually. It won't be because the NA market isn't profitable. It'll be because the Japanese executives didn't understand that they're going about things backwards. If anything changes in either country, it'll be the Japanese looking for more American-style pricing options (especially for shows with more mainstream appeal). Their Japan-centric view of their business is going to kill them.

Think about it--which market, US or Japan, do you see growing more in the next ten years? What platform is the big money going to be in in ten years, hard media or digital distribution?

I assme you are implying that digital downloads are the way of the future. As bandwidth increases, producing media makes less sense. When the times comes and the user can download the 4.5 GB disc in an hour or less, you'll probably see a massive shift in distribution.

But consumers are funny people. Many of them like to hold something in their hand when they buy something. There is a certain disconnect between buying something, and digital "untouchable" media.