Funimation Comments on Streaming Metrics in Crunchyroll Press Release

We appreciate Crunchyroll's mention of FUNimation Entertainment in its press release and welcome the comparisons they make between our sites. Both of our companies are dedicated to growing the anime community and, with respect to the internet, find ourselves overlapping in this exciting space as we aim to expand the anime fan base. While we share the same goal, we find we employ different strategies in bringing our fans the content they crave.

There's no doubt Crunchyroll is one site that has become popular for streaming subtitled anime video, and we commend them for their ability to help meet the passionate demand our fans have for viewing the newest content coming out of Japan. Where our strategies diverge is in our ability and desire to hyper-syndicate anime series across many platforms in order to ensure we meet our consumers on those very sites they enjoy the most. As stated previously, we have developed a wide net of partners through the FUNimation Network which resides on such platforms as Hulu, YouTube, TV.com and Anime News Network – much like a television network being on multiple carriers such as DISH, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, etc. The numbers stated in Crunchyroll's press release do not acknowledge our wide distribution across these many platforms. In addition, as FUNimation owns and operates more than 180 sites rather than simply the one site they reference, their press release may be misleading. One other key difference between our two sites is the territories on which we concentrate. Funimation focuses on North American numbers only, while Crunchyroll.com receives the majority of its traffic from outside North America (source: Alexa, Quantcast). Lastly, as most industry experts will recognize, “video views” can be interpreted many different ways. We try to use a conservative approach, but if we were to account for all video views in March, there were more than 55 million views of FUNimation titles by North American viewers.

Together with Crunchyroll's 21.8 million worldwide views, this represents a major stride forward for anime in regards to the industry's ability to gain meaningful exposure for this exciting genre we both represent. We are excited about, and therefore investing heavily into, continuing to expand the anime genre through simulcasts, consumer electronic devices and major upgrades to funimation.com for social networking, all of which have already begun or will be coming soon. We hope this clears up any confusion your readers may encounter and we look forward to continuing to bring our fans the content they want, where they want.