Forum - View topicA few licensing questions.
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potatodood
Posts: 17 |
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The whole Bandai issue has urged me to ask about some licensing questions that I've had on my mind for a while. I would imagine that I won't get too many answers, because as far as I know, you would know just as much as I do unless you worked in the industry. But here goes:
1. Why some anime are perpetually licensed (DBZ, so many different boxsets) while other "classics" that fans are clearly clamoring for remain unlicensed (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura) despite high fan demand. 2. If anything determines when an anime is licensed. For example, ef~a tale has just been licensed and is coming out this year despite being released in 2007. According to the ranking on ANN, it is a fairly popular and well received show. Meanwhile I see at my local Best Buy copies of Strike Witches which is considerably more niche. 3. Does anyone know what, if anything, determines the length of a license? I remember that Crunchyroll lost its license to Steins;Gate sometime in late December. This tells me that streaming sites is not a viable alternative to a physical media for titles that I want, meaning I'll have to purchase Lucky Star along with a few others. 4. Similar to the previous question, is the process for licensing different for streaming sites than it is for physical media? 5. Does licensing have anything to do with the time between the creation of singles vs thin packs (complete collection) or is it at the company's leisure? (I've been waiting on that Code Geass R2 forever, wondering why it took so long) I would expect the answers to be: "that's just how it is", but if anyone's figured out a pattern, or some rhyme or reason, that would be helpful. Thank you for your input. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23807 |
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I am not an industry insider, so as you can guess, my, uh, "answers" are hardly going to be definitive. However, read at ANN enough and you'll start to pick up a few basics. Hopefully, somebody more knowledgeable than myself will jump in and correct any misinformation and/or fill in any blanks.
From what I can gather, licenses are granted by production committees. The production committees are made up of a number of different people representing broadcasters, production studios and other stakeholders. I believe the consent of a production committee has to be unanimous before a license is granted. Therefore, one potential reason that shows like Cardcaptor Sakura or Sailor Moon don't have current licenses is that no company is able to secure the license from the production committee (for whatever reason). I hope I have that right.
Shows can be licensed before they even begin their original broadcast run/original release date all the way to lying dormant for several years before being picked up. Generally, distribs will try to jump on whatever they think will be hot. I've noticed that Funi, for example, rarely "reaches back" to pick up a title. Normally, they license stuff that is relatively new. Sentai, on the other hand, is a bit over the map. They too will snag recent shows, but they will reach back as well - especially through their subsidiary label, Maiden Japan.
That, like virtually everything else to to with a license, I would guess is negotiable. Likely there are industry norms, i.e. a physical release license lasts 5 years, lets say (I have no idea what the norm actually is.) Licenses for streaming rights do seem to lapse far quicker than licenses for physical release rights as your CR example shows. Obviously the amount of money a distrib is willing to pay will have an impact on the length of the license.
I'm totally guessing here, but I'd say the process is pretty much the same, although potentially less complicated. There is still a rights holder (the production committee) that needs to be negotiated with.
Another guess on my part, but I'd say the release strategy has to be approved by the rights holder. But maybe not. I'd be interested in knowing the real answer to this one, myself. |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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Dragonball is perpetually rereleased because it's popular and as long as people will keep buying it, Funimation will keep releasing it, because it makes them money. Heck, the latest review of a DB box set on here generated at least 2 pages of forum thread, so people are still interested in it. As far as I can gather, when popular things remain unlicensed, it's usually due to difficulties on the Japanese end, such as "classic" series (Rose of Versailles) being so expensive to license, that it wouldn't be financially viable for anyone to license them. Whoever manages to rerelease Sailor Moon will effectively be granted a license to print money.
Streaming licenses are different from physical media licenses, and as such, have to be bought separately, and can thus be bought by 2 or more separate companies (just because you see a show on Crunchyroll is no sign that it will ever be released on DVD, for example) In the UK, Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi 2 is streaming licensed by both Anime on Demand and Crunchyroll, so streaming licenses are not necessarily exclusive to 1 company. Likewise, in the summer season, some shows were available on both Niconico and Crunchyroll. TV rights are an entirely separate thing again. I don't know how you go about licensing a property though. It would seem that companies try and license shows while they're as fresh as possible these days. It used to be a show was licensed quite a while after it aired, giving it time to become popular, but lately I've noticed companies licensing things that haven't even aired yet, and shows that are still being aired, so they're obviously trying to guess what'll be popular, and hope people will buy them instead of downloading fansubs. I'm just a keen observer, but I hope this helps you a bit 
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Defguru7777
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I'm not sure if their license ran out. Funimation is dubbing it, so maybe they took it down out of courtesy? Granted, Funimation is also dubbing Deadman Wonderland, and that's still on Crunchyroll. The reason I wonder if their license ran out is because Steins;Gate started in April of 2011. I'd think a license would last a year at least. But maybe I need education in this as well. |
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