Forum - View topicNEWS: TV Tokyo: Crunchyroll Has Nearly 70,000 Paid Subscribers
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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you know they still have the same number of simulcast as last year right? There are just more shows right now. The one that's not simulcast is not their show like Fate Zero. They just host it for other company. |
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jmaeshawn
 Posts: 170 |
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So... 70,000 people who can't tell good subs from bad subs, huh?
It's nice to know just how many people fail in life, cause then I have an idea of how many people to avoid.  
I still say it's better to watch fansubs and then buy the R2 releases of shows you like. Much more profitable for the Japanese companies, and you end up getting better quality, nicer-looking subs. |
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everydaygamer
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what some people fail to realize is that:
1. crunchyroll doesn't censor anime, they stream the tv broadcast so if you want uncensored you'll have to wait for the DVD's. 2. they don't do 1080p streams because of the amount of bandwith that would use and the fact that anime isn't broadcasted in 1080p so it would just be an upscale anyways. 3. there is no karaoke for op and ed because translating a song is a separate license from the anime itself and would wind up costing them extra and honestly its not important enough to spend the extra cash. i love crunchyroll and i'm glad to hear they are doing well. though i will agree that i hope they stop using flash for there streams at some point. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Who do you think Crunchyroll hires to do subs? People who are former fansubbers themselves. The myth that fansubs are the most accurate subs came about simply as an excuse to not buy anime. |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2173 |
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Good stuff for CR.
I think they could up the video quality for 720p since there is usually a noticeable banding in dark scenes, but outside of that I've got no issues. 720p stream fine on my computer. 1080p would be a waste imo since most anime isn't even made in 1080p. Also, everyone watching on 1080p tvs should make sure that they turn on "subtitle smoothing". It does a hell of a lot more than just smooth subtitles. It won't things looks like a blu-ray but it'll noticeably reduce jaggies. |
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Tanteikingdomkey
 Posts: 2346 |
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crunchyroll does some strong translations, and I prefer their edit to Sentai's by a mile in most cases. however they are inconsistant in terms of qaulity, particularly their timing and QCing. My group does not do stuff Crunchy works on since they are qaulity subs (in general) and they do go after international liscenses so all english speakers can watch. I own a crunchy membership and enjoy the increased speed and 720p video. I do wish though that they would get more songs ands signs translated in their releases (whenever resonabely possible). also it would be nice if they improveded their encode qaulity more.
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Tanteikingdomkey
Posts: 2346 |
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It is the most convent excuse for why people don't need to hold up their end of the subbers promise and actually buy the releases instead of abusing my (and others) work. |
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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The rest is probably organic growth. Remember that not all anime fans are tuned in to the ins and outs of the anime market, and not all CR members self-identify as "anime fans" in the "fandom" sense. There are, for example, people who click on an episode link in a tweet, and say, "hey, this is cool". There are people who stumble across an app in the iPhone or Android marketplaces, or stumble across the Roku channel. Etc. And as the subscriber base grows, the position of Crunchyroll series pages in google searches for a series rises. I remember doing a series google two years ago where the first legit source of the series was three pages in. Now the Crunchyroll series page is quite often on the front page and often among the first three returns. The free streaming (and free apps and channels) makes it cheap to pick up the habit of coming back every week, and it would seem that for a large number of people, the two week free trial and per month subscription rate is a low enough hurdle that the number of new subscribers substantially outpaces the number of dropped subscriptions. Or, IOW, the basic business model of ad-based streams as self-funding advertisements for an "buffet" model subscription is working to growth the subscriber base. There also could be something big coming up in early 2012, since TV Tokyo is certainly not just putting this information out at random. They are trying to persuade/reassure some potential partner or partners in something involving Crunchyroll to go along with the deal ... and if royalties from subscriber views is part of the pitch, letting the fact that subscriber numbers have doubled since they were last confirmed ... which was at the time that the Bleach deal was being stitched together ... that would boost hopes that they might double again.
Crunchyroll does. When they were a bootleg site (even their policy only restricted series licensed in the US, and they didn't have near the staff to enforce their policy) ... it was a hole in the world that they dumped cash into. When they went legit, they hit profitability in under two years (3 years is pretty damn good for an online start-up), and despite naysaers who went with "oh, they only said it once, they are probably losing money again" ... now we see that they kept on making a profit. At least $50/sub, that's $3.5m plus gross subscription revenue, and since over half goes back to the license partners in Japan, that's over $1.75m revenues back to the original rights owners. Still a fairly minor cash flow in the big picture, but a growing cash flow in what is otherwise a mature niche market in its home country with demographic trends that are shrinking the market niche.
Obviously the number of people who are "1080p or nothing" is well under half the potential market, and Crunchyroll on PS3 and Xbox360 is a far more commonly expressed list in CR forums than 1080p video.
And as noted, Crunchyroll doesn't censor, so removing censoring is not a "step" for Crunchyroll to take. And in any event, the broader market is for simulcasts, which will be censored because they are going to be a copy of the cut made for some Japanese broadcaster. Given the smaller number of hits which will be generated by a second "uncensored" streaming release later on, when the uncensored versions are available, and given that the original rights holders are likely to demand higher royalties for those, the contracting costs for Crunchyroll to "double dip" to get the uncensored material for a series could well be out of reach until the subscriber base grows some more.
They'd be OK if CR had rights to accept member contributed alternate subs ~ the mechanism is still in place to choose alternates to the primary subtitle script. Then the minority who enjoy them could have them without annoying the majority. As far as karaoke ~ that's absurd. I want my membership fee going to the anime producers, not to paing the exorbitant karaoke rights fees demanded by the management of whatever J-pop band got the OP/ED music gig. Paying a little extra for OP/ED subtitle rights (it is extra if the anime production committee is paying performance rights fees rather than paying the songwriter to create the OP/ED as work for hire) ... I can see that. Paying a lot extra for karaoke ... no way, no how. Simulcast translations will always have some shortfalls as translations, but with a growing subscriber base, it should be possible to hire one or more permanent translation editors and translation copy editors to improve the quality and consistency of the default subtitle of series in the back catalog.
So (5) is just a demand that they reduce the number of series available by only streaming series if they get the simulcast rights. But since its the same series being simulcast, and the only question is whether there is also season streams of some additional series, (5) would make CR less valuable to subscribe to, not more valuable.
So to sum: 1) Improved video quality. What extra fee would you be willing to pay for a special "1080p stream" at substantially greater bandwidth than most of CR's membership can benefit from? 2) Adding the Japanese Blu-Ray release, at 1080p quality. How much extra would you be willing to pay for that? 3a) Improved subtitle quality. How much extra would you be willing to pay to cover the salaries of the additional translation editors and translation copy editors? 3b) Styled subtitles. How much extra would you be willing to pay for a subscription to a second styled subtitle track? 3c) Karaoke. How much would willing to a karaoke membership? ... I sure don't want to that to be taken out of my subscription fees, I want my fees to be going to royalties for anime, not royalties for karaoke rights. 4) Can be set aside, since its a red herring. Whether or not you can also buy DTO episodes has nothing to do with whether you're willing to subscribe to a streaming service. 5) And how much extra will you will be willing to pay for a subscription that blocks access to any series where they are unable to get primary streaming rights but are able to get secondary rights. This is like stled subtitles ~ you have to be getting this as an added service, because I refuse to treat getting extra seasonal streaming in addition to their simulcasts as if its a negative. To me, its more content. Add up all the extra you would be willing to pay for all of those modifications (upgrades and downgrades combined). Multiply by the number of people who agree with you. Compare it to the cost of that mix of upgrades and downgrades. If the market potential is greater than the cost of the service, make sure to share your business model with Crunchyroll, I'm sure they'll be happy to know that they are leaving money lying on the table. |
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ScruffyKiwi
 Posts: 673 Location: New Zealand |
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Considering that anime is not broadcast in 1080p you're gonna be waiting a hell of a long time. The only way to get 1080p is to buy the BluRays |
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Mirri
Posts: 313 |
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This, and also, how much anime is actually even produced at 1920x1080? I laugh at the prospect, hardly any. Most is produced at 960x540 and upscaled, though recently they have been moving toward 1280x720 as a standard. It's rare to see a show (read: not film, television) that is produced in true 1920x1080 resolution. |
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Catseyetiger
Posts: 779 |
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I just hope they add more anime to the site. It's nice to have a place to watch it legal. I am also happy to see it's doing well.
I hope funimation new sub site dose as well. Blue ray anime rocks! |
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GWOtaku
 Posts: 678 |
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Is that rollin' eyes face supposed to indicate sarcasm, or are you calling out people that disagreed with the editorial back then? Last edited by GWOtaku on Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:12 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3011 |
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I remember once Crunchyroll did get the rights to do a Bleach opening song. Of course, the series moved on to a new song almost immediately afterwards. |
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