An uncertain future for Sentai Filmworks

[CSmith79]

Sentai's been having financial problems for quite some time. Lots of guys thought Sentai would get a rejuvenation after being bought by AMC Networks, especially considering that Sentai was on the verge of shutting down prior (that Cool Japan Fund money ain't gonna help, especially when Sentai has had to deal with much bigger competitors like Crunchyroll, Funimation and Netflix). However, after a few years, Sentai is still having financial problems, a good portion of which can be attributed to AMC Networks's own issues. They've also been licensing less and less titles per season compared to before the acquisition. Not only that but they've been purging quite a number of even recently-licensed titles. This doesn't bode well at all for Sentai's future, especially as Disney+ and Amazon have stepped into the ring and Netflix has been doubling down on anime.

I have a feeling that AMC Networks is gonna pull the plug on Sentai and either shut it down (which would completely kill the Houston dubbing scene) or sell it off to another company. Should the latter occur, I can see Sentai being sold to REMOW, a new licensor whose shareholders are numerous and include the likes of Toei, Shogakukan-Shueisha, MBS, TBS and TV Tokyo. REMOW has been licensing a small but growing number of titles, also dubbing them. But there's just one problem: they have a very scattershot approach to releasing their anime. Acquiring Sentai would give them a company who at the very least knows how to market and release anime for the overseas crowd cuz Japanese companies have zero idea on what to do (see Daisuki and Bandai Visual USA). Plus they can also leverage HIDIVE with Latin America's AnimeOnegai (which they own).

Ofc if neither of those happen we can see a case where Sentai's on life support like with Media Blasters, just doing the bare minimum to get by and avoid shutting down altogether.

[Shirowed]

I certainly hope not. Sentai in my view is the last of the "big" anime licensors/dubbers that put out physical releases.

Netflix and amazon exclusives are not even on my radar. Not going to support streaming-only titles, especially when there is so much else to watch.

I would hope they scale back to a pace that they can sustain and try to find high margin niches to get protifable. If that means overpriced limited edition steelbooks for shows they already released like Food Wars, so be it.

Crunchyroll has been mostly useless on new releases (don't even talk about reprinting funimation releases), I don't take them seriously.

AnimEigo and Discotek are great for the niches they serve but they don't touch the new stuff nor can they support at the kind of volume needed for licensing and localizing big, recent shows.

GKIDS is still boutique... Viz handles their own stuff which is fine but they mostly serve the most casual of anime audiences.

For modern stuff all we really have now is Sentai and if they go under the hobby is in some trouble.

[CSmith79]

Originally Posted by Shirowed

Netflix and amazon exclusives are not even on my radar. Not going to support streaming-only titles, especially when there is so much else to watch.

Imagine Amazon reestablishing Manga Entertainment as Amazon-MGM's dedicated anime division by buying the Manga brand name from Crunchyroll and they have Crunchyroll do their home videos lmao.

Originally Posted by Shirowed

I would hope they scale back to a pace that they can sustain and try to find high margin niches to get protifable. If that means overpriced limited edition steelbooks for shows they already released like Food Wars, so be it.

Pretty difficult when Crunchyroll gets the vast majority of titles per season and Netflix, Disney+ and now Amazon take the remains of the carcass, not leaving any for Sentai.

Originally Posted by Shirowed

GKIDS is still boutique... Viz handles their own stuff which is fine but they mostly serve the most casual of anime audiences.

GKIDS could become Toho's outlet for their shows. As for Viz, I don't see them going aggro and they're just gonna stay by the sidelines.

Originally Posted by Shirowed

For modern stuff all we really have now is Sentai and if they go under the hobby is in some trouble.

Kind of why I said that a sale to REMOW would actually be the best-case scenario.

[Gowho]

Originally Posted by CSmith79

Should the latter occur, I can see Sentai being sold to REMOW, a new licensor whose shareholders are numerous and include the likes of Toei, Shogakukan-Shueisha, MBS, TBS and TV Tokyo. REMOW has been licensing a small but growing number of titles, also dubbing them.

They have also been co-producing some for the past couple of years so basically like almost everyone else nowadays.

[TThomas]

Let's ask me straight: What's the source for the initial claim?

Sentai was able to sublicense a ton of anime to companies like MVM, Plaion Pictures, Sugoi and afaik Animation Digital Network as well. Some of these sublicenses might have been cheap, but still...

[Misioon_Odisea]

…If anything, all my Anime spending this year so far has been on different Sentai Blu-rays, and I've got my eyes on some more before year's end.

I'll think they'll be fine, I'd like to believe they'll pull through. Don't have time and don't feel like speculating about what disasters or atrocities await us in the near future, I've got to take care of other things, and also keep buying discs in the meantime.

Hey, how about we create a dedicated thread for Sentai and HIDIVE while at it? I believe they deserve it, most other publishers have their own, and we can more easily keep track of their most recent developments that way.

[CSmith79]

Originally Posted by TThomas

Let's ask me straight: What's the source for the initial claim?

Its speculation ok

Originally Posted by Misioon_Odisea

Hey, how about we create a dedicated thread for Sentai and HIDIVE while at it? I believe they deserve it, most other publishers have their own, and we can more easily keep track of their most recent developments that way.

Sure

[DTGee]

Originally Posted by TThomas

Let's ask me straight: What's the source for the initial claim?

Sentai was able to sublicense a ton of anime to companies like MVM, Plaion Pictures, Sugoi and afaik Animation Digital Network as well. Some of these sublicenses might have been cheap, but still...

Looking into this, OP has made at least 2 different posts about this on Reddit, one from a few days ago and one from a few months ago. This all seems to be some autistic personal fantasy of his seeing Sentai to going out of business and getting bought out by another company.

[Misioon_Odisea]

Originally Posted by CSmith79

Sure

Nice, but first we have to consult the others about whether we actually need one, and who'll be the one elected and indicated to make the first move, as in, open the thread and publish the first post. Can't just be randomly anyone, you see, this is an important task that has to be carried out by someone with a sense of vision and leadership.

[CSmith79]

Originally Posted by Misioon_Odisea

Nice, but first we have to consult the others about whether we actually need one, and who'll be the one elected and indicated to make the first move, as in, open the thread and publish the first post. Can't just be randomly anyone, you see, this is an important task that has to be carried out by someone with a sense of vision and leadership.

Well it'll have to be somebody else as I'm not the one capable of doing that

[Pulp Hero]

Originally Posted by TThomas

Let's ask me straight: What's the source for the initial claim?

Sentai was able to sublicense a ton of anime to companies like MVM, Plaion Pictures, Sugoi and afaik Animation Digital Network as well. Some of these sublicenses might have been cheap, but still...

Thanks for bringing this up. I'd hate to see Sentai Filmworks go, the lion share of my anime purchases over that last couple three years has probably been through SF.

[little_tiger]

Originally Posted by Shirowed

I certainly hope not. Sentai in my view is the last of the "big" anime licensors/dubbers that put out physical releases.

Netflix and amazon exclusives are not even on my radar. Not going to support streaming-only titles, especially when there is so much else to watch.

I would hope they scale back to a pace that they can sustain and try to find high margin niches to get protifable. If that means overpriced limited edition steelbooks for shows they already released like Food Wars, so be it.

Crunchyroll has been mostly useless on new releases (don't even talk about reprinting funimation releases), I don't take them seriously.

AnimEigo and Discotek are great for the niches they serve but they don't touch the new stuff nor can they support at the kind of volume needed for licensing and localizing big, recent shows.

GKIDS is still boutique... Viz handles their own stuff which is fine but they mostly serve the most casual of anime audiences.

For modern stuff all we really have now is Sentai and if they go under the hobby is in some trouble.

I don't think Sentai should focus on retroanime. Leave that to Animeigo and discotek. The ninja scroll Blu-ray is disappointing. The Steel Book was too expensive. The Manga edition still had more special features. Discotek or Animeigo would have included them. And of course the lack of old dubs for Vampire Hunter D and Venus Wars.

They should probably concentrate on new stuff. I don't watch new stuff though.

[Glorian]

Originally Posted by little_tiger

I don't think Sentai should focus on retroanime. Leave that to Animeigo and discotek. The ninja scroll Blu-ray is disappointing. The Steel Book was too expensive. The Manga edition still had more special features. Discotek or Animeigo would have included them. And of course the lack of old dubs for Vampire Hunter D and Venus Wars.

They should probably concentrate on new stuff. I don't watch new stuff though.

New stuff is super expensive; that's why they aren't releasing much. They could release a lot more older shows for the same money. Which is how they built themselves up to begin with; look at their first few years of releases, and you'll see a lot of older and overlooked titles. Clearly that worked then, and it still seems like a good idea. I like Discotek releases too, but there's too many older shows for them to ever release them all. Sentai doing it would be nothing but a plus.

[Toad King]

I keep hearing from people on social media Sentai/HIDIVE are bleeding AMC money but if you look at AMC's last couple quarter earning reports they all have lines nearly identical to this:

[...] declines in linear subscriber revenue, partially offset by streaming revenue growth.

So while AMC's linear subscriptions (aka: cable subscriptions) are falling, their streaming services are growing. They don't break down costs/revenue for each service (HIDIVE won't be anywhere the revenue of, say, Shudder or AMC+) but their streaming services seem to doing okay. At least when compared to their dying cable service.

[LexInHD]

I'd hate to see Sentai go, but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened, with the current state of the Anime and Media industries. Crunchyroll could easily absorb most of their catalog of titles, while much of the retro stuff could float to other companies.

[PGW]

Originally Posted by LexInHD

I'd hate to see Sentai go, but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened, with the current state of the Anime and Media industries. Crunchyroll could easily absorb most of their catalog of titles, while much of the retro stuff could float to other companies.

Now there's an idea. Crunchyroll can buy Sentai, then tell us how wonderful it is to live in this golden age for anime fans.

/s

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by TThomas

Let's ask me straight: What's the source for the initial claim?

Sentai was able to sublicense a ton of anime to companies like MVM, Plaion Pictures, Sugoi and afaik Animation Digital Network as well. Some of these sublicenses might have been cheap, but still...

Yep, the OP is quite the post. While it's been painfully obvious for like 6+ years that Sentai has been struggling to compete with Crunchyroll (streaming service) and FUNimation (rebranded Crunchyroll, LLC in March 2022), nothing has been said on them being shut down or being sold again. I am worried about them, but I don't see them shutting down outright or being sold again anytime soon.

It should be noted one of Sentai's biggest problems is lack of brand recognition. Mentioned it multiple times before, your average anime fan has never heard of Sentai Filmworks nor HIDIVE. I can ask my co-workers (most of whom are in their teens to very early 20s) at the movie theater that are into anime if they've heard of Sentai or HIDIVE, and they'll tell me no, Crunchyroll is all they know, they'll likely still know what a FUNimation is as well.

Originally Posted by Glorian

New stuff is super expensive; that's why they aren't releasing much. They could release a lot more older shows for the same money. Which is how they built themselves up to begin with; look at their first few years of releases, and you'll see a lot of older and overlooked titles. Clearly that worked then, and it still seems like a good idea. I like Discotek releases too, but there's too many older shows for them to ever release them all. Sentai doing it would be nothing but a plus.

Problem is old stuff doesn't sell as much, and when Sentai is doing those once in a blue moon catalog licenses now, people don't notice or care. The audience that Discotek Media has built up doesn't notice Sentai as much. They could at the bare minimum though re-release some DVD-only titles on Blu-ray again, they have a good amount of stuff they could have upgraded ages ago as they have Blu-rays in Japan.

Also Sentai doesn't put in the same amount of work as MediaOCD does for AnimEigo and Discotek Media at times, so there's that to keep in mind.

Originally Posted by PGW

Now there's an idea. Crunchyroll can buy Sentai, then tell us how wonderful it is to live in this golden age for anime fans.

/s

You joke, except Sony has considered outright acquiring AMC Networks. Antitrust laws, please get enforced again.

AMC Networks’ James Dolan: Media Can’t Consolidate Until It Figures Out How to Monetize Content

February 17, 2023 @ 11:05 AM

[Show spoiler]The leader of a smaller media company — one often talked about as an acquisition target — said he didn’t think the media industry would see consolidation until it can figure out how to monetize content.

“Once they reorganize themselves and start to get a better handle on that and better strategy with that then you could see consolidation because there will be consolidation around building stronger products and stronger offerings to the customers and building business,” AMC Networks interim executive chairman James Dolan told analysts on the entertainment giant’s fourth quarter earnings call Friday. “I don’t see anybody who has the answer to this yet. Without that answer, I don’t get the rationale for pursuing a consolidation strategy.”

He warned that the industry’s “current mechanisms for monetizing content are not working.”

Dolan didn’t pull punches as he described an industry “disrupted by cord cutting” and “changing viewership habits,” along with “a challenged ad market and rising content costs. Now, he said, “We’re seeing this now with most media companies beginning to course correct to better monetize content and improve the economics of their business. We believe large distributors and programmers will lead the way, AMC will follow.”

When asked whether he preferred to see AMC Networks as a standalone entity or combined with another strategic partner, Dolan emphasized that the company’s first concern would always be creating value for its shareholders.

“What form that comes in could be stay the course, it could be M&A, a strategic transaction. We’re very much open to all those ideas,” he explained. “But right now we have the company that we have” and AMC would manage it as a standalone business, he added.

The Wall Street Journal reported that AMC Networks has been approached by multiple companies about potentially being acquired in the past several years. Those potential suitors have included larger media companies like Sony Pictures and Lionsgate; private equity players like Blackstone and Apollo Global; and most recently streaming-tech firm Roku and Providence Equity Partners, according to the Journal.

[Show spoiler]Representatives for Roku and Lionsgate declined to comment. Representatives for the other companies did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

When it comes to the possibility of media companies combining forces outside of consolidation, AMC’s Chief Financial Officer Patrick O’Connell said bundling would be a “win-win for programmers, distributors and most importantly consumers” if done properly.

“We like the idea of bundled streaming services. We see some movement towards that,” he said. “We’ve had some interesting beta tests with Verizon around a bundle of AMC+ with Netflix. We think that holds promise. We’re holding multiple conversations with other potential aggregators in the market along these same lines.”

In order to be successful, O’Connell stressed that any bundle needs to have “a high degree of complementarity.”

“We really want to make sure that as a programmer you’re adding something to the bundle and we think in our case, given how well defined our brands are, given our reputation for the premium programming that we have, given our attractive price point, that we’re a very attractive partner in this regard,” he added. “So the early tests have been positive and we’re leaning in and we’re hoping for more in the coming quarters.”

Moving forward, Dolan said the company is focused on streamlining its organization, “operating more like retailers than wholesalers,” driving cash flow, maintaining a strong balance sheet and making great content.

“We believe this strategy will position AMC Networks well to navigate current industry dynamics and generate long-term shareholder value as an even stronger company,” he added.

Even with a recent bump in its stock, which has risen 54% since the beginning of the year and jumped further Friday after its earnings call, AMC is worth a little over $1 billion, far less than most of its rivals.

https://www.thewrap.com/amc-networks...consolidation/

[LexInHD]

Yeah, the age of "The Great Golden Shower For Anime Fans" could certainly come about, if Crunchy gets Sentai and I can honestly see it happening. To stand against that, I'd love to see DiscoTek, MediaBlasters, and AnimEigo merge into a single company. A mighty distributor, loved by good anime fans and feared by evil corporate ass-monkies.

[TThomas]

Being the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th company in a market - even if it's dominated by one way larger player - doesn't mean the company isn't making money.

Also, to be honest:
I'm pretty sure that some companies over there in Japan actually want at least some competition in the US market. And whilest e. g. GKIDS does pretty well with cinematic releases and movies on home video, I didn't notice much in regards of tv-series & streaming.

[Pulp Hero]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

It should be noted one of Sentai's biggest problems is lack of brand recognition. Mentioned it multiple times before, your average anime fan has never heard of Sentai Filmworks nor HIDIVE. I can ask my co-workers (most of whom are in their teens to very early 20s) at the movie theater that are into anime if they've heard of Sentai or HIDIVE, and they'll tell me no, Crunchyroll is all they know, they'll likely still know what a FUNimation is as well.

Problem is old stuff doesn't sell as much, and when Sentai is doing those once in a blue moon catalog licenses now, people don't notice or care. The audience that Discotek Media has built up doesn't notice Sentai as much. They could at the bare minimum though re-release some DVD-only titles on Blu-ray again, they have a good amount of stuff they could have upgraded ages ago as they have Blu-rays in Japan.

I get the notion that all a lot of people know is Crunchyroll, but at the same time it still suprises me. I don't consider myself highly plugged in to the anime scene, but even I found Sentai Filmworks on my own.

I do get a little disappointed that older stuff doesn't sell as well. My thinking has always been that if I've never seen something it was new to me no matter when it was made. In the long run I've been able to learn a little about the history of anime and manga as a whole, besides specific properties of interest -- all sorts of stuff I probably would never have found out had I only stuck with whatever was most recent.