Funimation to Acquire Crunchyroll (Crunchyroll to swallow Funimation content)

[SteamfloggerBoss]

Originally Posted by Nothing371

I'm honestly still a firm believer that our collections are going to be worth tens of thousands in roughly one decade. That is not why I buy, but it's going to happen. Especially with 4K; wait till they cease production on those discs and rich people whom want to view particular movies in the best possible quality will be willing to pay hundreds per disc.

It's inevitable. These streaming services can't even be bothered to label or properly identify their 4K / HDR offerings most of the time. ISP bandwidth hasn't improved in 20 years. Hell, Peacock can't even be bothered to implement an identifiable cursor.

It's not like the big players are going to come around on their thinking and offer more robust movie ownership. Nope. All the occurrences have shown that they intend to do precisely the opposite. Gamepass. Netflix. Disney. That is, own their own content and make people keep paying subscriptions to access it.

Our investments are going to pay so many dividends. Any digital show can become inaccessible at any moment. Praise to all these anime publishers that are rescuing and supporting old shows.

A big part of why I collect physical media is to not have to deal with streaming.

Bless Discotek, Animeigo etc indeed. They do a great job with the old content they are putting out.

I would imagine most people know of them but Visual Entertainment Incorporated puts out a lot of old live action tv shows on DVD. Many were previously never released. In some instances it was previously released but the price is now insane whereas their prices are reasonable. The quality isn't the best but I don't think we will see better for the previously unreleased stuff. For the most part they were at least better than the old downloads I had of things. Where it is a bit disappointing is where there is a quality decline after the first disc of a show I bought where just one more disc would have done wonders. C'est la vie.

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by Nothing371

I'm honestly still a firm believer that our collections are going to be worth tens of thousands in roughly one decade. That is not why I buy, but it's going to happen. Especially with 4K; wait till they cease production on those discs and rich people whom want to view particular movies in the best possible quality will be willing to pay hundreds per disc.

It's inevitable. These streaming services can't even be bothered to label or properly identify their 4K / HDR offerings most of the time. ISP bandwidth hasn't improved in 20 years. Hell, Peacock can't even be bothered to implement an identifiable cursor.

It's not like the big players are going to come around on their thinking and offer more robust movie ownership. Nope. All the occurrences have shown that they intend to do precisely the opposite. Gamepass. Netflix. Disney. That is, own their own content and make people keep paying subscriptions to access it.

Our investments are going to pay so many dividends. Any digital show can become inaccessible at any moment. Praise to all these anime publishers that are rescuing and supporting old shows.

The video games industry has been going down this road for the last 15 years. I remember I bought a brand new copy of the SNES version of A Link to the Past when I was 19 (2007) and it was $200 - which was considered expensive back then.

Now the average rate for a brand new, sealed A Link to the Past is $750. And as the supply for brand new copies of vintage games dwindles - the price is just going to keep going up.

Granted, it'll be a long time before anime gets to that point and the inflation/demand will vary depend individual titles as well as how the market reacts 4K media longevity. But sooner or later, streaming will take over and physical media will be in the same position as video games.

4K releases in terms of movies have been a crapshoot anyway, some look great, some look passable and some are so botched and the Blu Ray's look better.

Considering how much of a mixed bag 4K releases have been, I'm not counting on 8K being a thing for physical media. Shit, you can't even make a case for 4K when stuff like Akira 4K and Terminator 2 4K happens. They scrubbed the image, like WTF dudes?

[Misioon_Odisea]

Originally Posted by The Collector FX

Considering how much of a mixed bag 4K releases have been, I'm not counting on 8K being a thing for physical media.

I don't even believe that 8K will even end up being the norm for streaming. As a matter of fact, those who believe that its arrival is an inevitability can't grasp the fact that it's already here — and it will not grow much further beyond its current point. There's YouTube, and a few other scattershot examples propping up here and there, but with an install base so low that is not even meeting growth expectations (see 8K TV is failing to appeal to consumers, says Omdia - https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.ph...&id=1651213672), I have no reason to believe that widespread 8K streaming will ever be a thing, and with almost no existing content being able to be remastered at 8K, and new productions in general only ever recently succeeded in adopting 4K masters widespread (and even then... just look at Anime, still constantly producing things at sub-2K resolutions), 8K does not have the proper infrastructure to be implemented in masse right now, therefore 8K does not have a place in the home theater, and trying to make it happen is a goner's game. 8K will remain one of those nebulous things squarely confined to computers, gaming and professional applications, just like frame rates above 60 are.

I don't even think that streaming as a whole will improve in presentation quality much further from where it’s at now. Sure, the bandwidth will continue to grow, but will the providers ever take advantage of such increases? I mean, 1080p has arrived on YouTube over 10 years ago already, and it still can't even begin to touch Blu-ray quality on even the best encoded videos uploaded to its platform. Streaming services will most likely instead utilize newer codecs to continue reducing video bitrates while keeping the picture the same as it has been right now, and in that scenario, 8K presents itself as a total squander. And don't even get me started on audio, because with how much the masses completely disregard it, sometimes even around these very forums, there's no incentive at all for streaming services to start adopting lossless codecs for audio anytime soon. I see myself supporting physical media until the very end of its lifespan.

[Misioon_Odisea]

And another thing, why do so many people still bring up the subject of 8K for physical media? 4K UltraHD Blu-ray is relatively fresh and incredible, can't these people learn to appreciate and support what we have right now? What's with the rush of wanting another new format right now and immediately, when there's still so much to work with and upgrade to 4K? And 4K brought us HDR, which in my opinion is a far bigger upgrade than the resolution. What else would a theoretical 8K physical format bring us besides a new codec and more resolution? The return of 3D? An improved color space (ICtCp over YCbCr)? Otherwise, there's absolutely no point over mortifying yourself pondering about the impossibility of a physical home video format for 8K, especially when what we have right now, 4K UltraHD Blu-ray, works excellent when it's done correctly.

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

Beginning August 31, 2022, the price of some Funimation Premium plans will increase from $7.99/month to $9.99/month. Changes will be reflected in your next billing cycle starting on October 5, 2022, and charged to your current payment method on file. If you want to make any changes to your subscription, please visit your account page, or you may cancel at any time prior to your next billing date.

As part of Funimation’s transition to a unified subscription service with Crunchyroll, a necessary step to achieve completion of the unification is for Funimation to adjust the prices in the United States for some of our Premium plans. To achieve completion of the unification process, new anime series are only available to Crunchyroll subscribers. We’re offering an extended 60-day free trial to Crunchyroll to watch brand new series coming to the platform, redeemable below.

So, while they phase out FUNimation, they're deciding to raise the price... Uh, what? They've also been telling people to cancel FUNimation and go to Crunchyroll, and they keep showing a 5-second banner ad "The future of FUNimation is on Crunchyroll." almost every time you watch something. I've been seeing that banner ad for nearly 6 months now. I wonder how much longer I'll be seeing it as I'm not cancelling. The transition of shows is incredibly slow so much of what I'm watching is still on FUNimation and not Crunchyroll (I'm more of a fan of older anime, the 2010s and 2020s have been losing me), and FUNimation continues to offer the option of broadcast and home video versions, Crunchyroll does not.

[The Collector FX]

8K won't be a thing. And if it is, it'll be very, very small market. Ontop of reasons you listed above, I also know that the fact of diminishing returns when going from 4K to 8K will be too significant. The only market who would benefit from 8K beyond consumers is theatres and megaplexes.

The only consumer that will benefit from 8K movies are a VERY small minority who have 300 inch + screens/projectors. I don't want 8K considering that most companies haven't even mastered home video transfers for 4K.

[Nothing371]

Originally Posted by Misioon_Odisea

And another thing, why do so many people still bring up the subject of 8K for physical media? 4K UltraHD Blu-ray is relatively fresh and incredible, can't these people learn to appreciate and support what we have right now?

Totes. I always found that super obnoxious on here as well.

Originally Posted by Misioon_Odisea

I don't even think that streaming as a whole will improve in presentation quality much further from where it’s at now. Sure, the bandwidth will continue to grow, but will the providers ever take advantage of such increases?

Nope! Not without charging you more anyways. These service providers have shown us who they are.

[GeoffOliver]

Honestly, I’m perfectly content with 4K and 2K. I don’t need my movies (and certainly anime) to look better than they do now. Maybe color will improve some, but that would be nitpicking.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

So, while they phase out FUNimation, they're deciding to raise the price... Uh, what? They've also been telling people to cancel FUNimation and go to Crunchyroll, and they keep showing a 5-second banner ad "The future of FUNimation is on Crunchyroll." almost every time you watch something. I've been seeing that banner ad for nearly 6 months now. I wonder how much longer I'll be seeing it as I'm not cancelling. The transition of shows is incredibly slow so much of what I'm watching is still on FUNimation and not Crunchyroll (I'm more of a fan of older anime, the 2010s and 2020s have been losing me), and FUNimation continues to offer the option of broadcast and home video versions, Crunchyroll does not.

The part that gets me is having new content being for Crunchyroll users while increasing the price for Funimation users.

So it’s like what Funimation users not going to get My Hero Academia Season 6? Or maybe wait till the whole season has already aired. If so then even watching it on Toonami would be a better deal than that if it even airs there.

It just seems like Funimation will only be good for already available stuff. But anything new and you’re screwed.

[Batman1980]

So what I'm hearing is switch to crunchyroll now?

[Chie Satonaka]

Lol Crunchyroll. Not subscribing ever. I had been a Funimation subscriber for like 3 years and still would if they had kept it around. Wish they would have just killed off the Crunchyroll brand instead.

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by Chie Satonaka

Lol Crunchyroll. Not subscribing ever. I had been a Funimation subscriber for like 3 years and still would if they had kept it around. Wish they would have just killed off the Crunchyroll brand instead.

You think they would have but I guess Sony didn't know any better. They probably looked at subscription numbers and just went with CR even though Funimation had much better content.

[Chie Satonaka]

Originally Posted by The Collector FX

You think they would have but I guess Sony didn't know any better. They probably looked at subscription numbers and just went with CR even though Funimation had much better content.

At least here in the United States, Funimation is a name that has history and people (Dragonball fans particularly) know what it is. Crunchyroll doesn't have anywhere near that much recognition. They also were born as a pirate sitez a fact they will not admit too anymore obviously. Considering their origins I'm surprised any company would even want to work with them.

[neoz]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

So, while they phase out FUNimation, they're deciding to raise the price... Uh, what? They've also been telling people to cancel FUNimation and go to Crunchyroll, and they keep showing a 5-second banner ad "The future of FUNimation is on Crunchyroll." almost every time you watch something. I've been seeing that banner ad for nearly 6 months now. I wonder how much longer I'll be seeing it as I'm not cancelling. The transition of shows is incredibly slow so much of what I'm watching is still on FUNimation and not Crunchyroll (I'm more of a fan of older anime, the 2010s and 2020s have been losing me), and FUNimation continues to offer the option of broadcast and home video versions, Crunchyroll does not.

I have a Crunchyroll account but it isn't a paid membership. I am keeping my Funimation paid account till the servers shutdown lol. I am also tired of the CR banner popping up all the time. I'm pretty sure most of us know by now that the new content is on there, we don't need to be reminded every single time haha.

[psychopuppet]

What we need is the video rental store back.

It’s a shame Funimation is pretty much vanishing only because Crunchyroll has the bigger worldwide brand.

[NLScavenger]

Do the releases after Funimation's recent rebranding into Crunchyroll still use English translated credits text?

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Do the releases after Funimation's recent rebranding into Crunchyroll still use English translated credits text?

I'd like to know as well. Also, do they still have the 10 second end of disc credits screen that has its own chapter?

[Lum]

Originally Posted by Chie Satonaka

At least here in the United States, Funimation is a name that has history and people (Dragonball fans particularly) know what it is. Crunchyroll doesn't have anywhere near that much recognition. They also were born as a pirate sitez a fact they will not admit too anymore obviously. Considering their origins I'm surprised any company would even want to work with them.

That's the thing, the Funimation brand is too intimately linked to Dragonball to have real value except to DBZ fans. Original Dragonball doesn't sell, GT is the unwanted stepchild, Super and obviously Kai are in essence more DBZ.

[snowmint]

Is it true that Crunchyroll is making the old shows on their service premium access now?

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by snowmint

Is it true that Crunchyroll is making the old shows on their service premium access now?

Yes.

Originally Posted by Mendinso

So, uh, I just noticed something REALLY awful Crunchyroll is doing and Crunchyroll did NOT announce this and I wanted to raise awareness.

Crunchyroll is currently in the process of making all their catalog content premium only. Not everything is but...

Check this out:

https://twitter.com/Mendinso/status/1566244008241889282

Originally Posted by Mendinso

Looking at El Hazard specifically, the date mentions "Until August 31" for free.

I'm suspecting that CR is likely transitioning the older content first that people may not notice and honestly? Infuriating.

They really plan to entirely paywall their site...

https://twitter.com/Mendinso/status/1566244011811258368

Originally Posted by Lynzee Loveridge

Verified these series are not available for free registered accounts anymore in the U.S. An unknown number of catalog titles appear to have been pulled to premium only on August 31. Previously you could watch these for free with ads.

https://twitter.com/ANN_Lynzee/statu...27671478714368

BTW, this now gets even more funny to look at each and every day. Many that are unable to pay for premium accounts (such as kids and teenagers not old enough to get jobs and whose parents won't pay for a subscription) are just going to sail the high seas. It's very easy to watch anime via non-legit means, though one method results in far low quality and risks giving your device ransomware and malware and blocks adblockers.

How Crunchyroll Is Building An Empire Of Anime

Last weekend, crowds of mostly younger fans crowded the San Jose Convention Center for Crunchyroll Expo, a celebration of the Asian (particularly Japanese) style animated content known as anime. They wore costumes celebrating characters from popular series like My Hero Academia, One Piece, Dragonball and Demon Slayer, and waited in line for announcements about upcoming series and insider details from VIPs flown over from Japan – all courtesy of the event’s sponsor, Crunchyroll.

These are good times for Crunchyroll, the independently operated joint venture between U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex (both part of Tokyo’s Sony Group) that specializes in all things anime. The company, which has changed hands repeatedly over the last decade, finally found a corporate owner that recognizes the value of a hardcore niche audience, and has invested significantly in strategic mergers and acquisitions that have consolidated its dominant position in the market.

“We don’t want to be something for everyone, we want to be everything to someone,” says Crunchyroll CMO Gita Rebbapragada, summing up the company’s deep and narrow focus.

Crunchyroll began life in 2006 as a barely-legitimate “aggregator” site that hosted translated and original-language anime from Japan unavailable elsewhere in the world, usually without the benefit of licensing arrangements with the content producers. The site’s popularity showed producers and distributors that there was a massive international demand for the diverse, high-quality material produced in abundance in Japan, and encouraged producers to open new revenue streams through licensing.

Over time, a series of owners cleaned up Crunchyroll’s act, turning it into a popular streaming service with a huge, fully legal catalog of anime series spanning a variety of genres and styles. In late 2020, Warner Media’s then-owner AT&T divested Crunchyroll along with several other sub-brands catering to specialty markets, which they presumably saw as a liability in its attempt to build HBO MAX into a unitary mass-market platform.

Sony, which was embracing the exact opposite strategy by pursuing niche markets with dedicated audiences, snapped the service up in a deal valued at $1.175 billion, and merged it with its own successful service, Funimation (founded in 1994), instantly creating the world’s largest dedicated anime platform. The market impact was such that the merger drew passing interest from the anti-trust division of the US Department of Justice, but anti-competitive concerns were assuaged in part by noting the increasing anime investments of streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.

Over the past year, Crunchyroll has been working through the intricacies of combining content catalogs and subscriber lists to give users access to the full range of material on both sites, amounting to a library of more than 16,000 hours of programming and more than 44,000 episodes. In the meantime, mass-market streamers like Netflix have started to hit the limits of growth, raising questions about whether their levels of investment in licensed and original specialized content like anime are sustainable. That dynamic has left Cruchyroll ascendent in a fast-growing, influential corner of the market.

“There isn’t a stronger, more passionate community than anime fans,” said Crunchyroll CFO Travis Page. And if this is a “niche” market, it’s a fairly sizable one. While not disclosing Crunchyroll’s own market data internals, Page agreed that Netflix’s estimate of 100M anime viewers worldwide tracks with their own assessment, and said the market in North America numbers in the tens of millions. According to the Association of Japanese Animators, that adds up to a total addressable market of $25B worldwide in 2022 and growing fast.

Crunchyroll’s approach combines breadth and depth. Anime is a medium encompassing all kinds of genres, from fantasy and adventure to romance and slice-of-life. Crunchyroll’s catalog runs the gamut to satisfy existing fans and appeal to new ones. The company sees global growth in Latin America and Europe, and has been investing heavily to promote the service there, including recent price reductions to reflect the buying power of local currencies.

The company makes money through multiple channels: first-party streaming and theatrical releases of new anime content, sales of home entertainment products (DVD box sets and so on), merchandise licensing, and secondary distribution. Mitchel Berger, SVP of Global Commerce, says all four areas of the business are strong right now, and describes them as a “flywheel” that keeps the revenue engine humming. “We acquire rights from licensors and filmmakers out of Japan, some for direct distribution [through Crunchyroll] and some for theatrical release through Sony Pictures,” he said. “Anime is hot for a lot of reasons. The fandom skews younger, and young people are passionate about everything: merchandise, collectibles, action figures, and gaming. In fact, there’s a very strong overlap between anime fans and gamers.”

The company saw enough value in the collectibles side of the industry that, just last week, they announced the acquisition of Right Stuf, the largest retailer of specialty anime/manga merchandise with “great logistics and operational capabilities and the industry’s best packaging,” according to Page.

On the day the acquisition was announced, Right Stuf ended sales of adult-oriented merchandise , drawing criticism from fans of 18+ “hentai” content (which can get pretty intense). Asked about mature-themed material, Rebbapragada said it was important to make sure content was appropriate for Crunchyroll’s brand.

Page says concerns about market consolidation and monopoly influence are unfounded. “Lots of services are spending big on anime. It’s not just one or two others. It’s big players like Disney as well. And frankly, we welcome a diversity of providers in the market because it grows the audience, and sooner or later, fans will come to us because we have the most in-depth catalog.”

Page said Crunchyroll still has incentives to invest and innovate because Japanese licensors still control the content and renew licenses season by season based on which outlets can provide the best reach and revenue. “To maintain great relationships with the Japanese studios, we are trying to be a royalty-based SVOD service, so our success is shared back with them. It gives us incentives to continue to deliver for fans, because when content is successful on our platform, it goes back to Japan [and maintains our access to titles].”

Ironically, the former pirate site Crunchyroll sees piracy as one of the biggest competitive threats, not just to its own revenue but to the entire industry. “Our research shows that piracy accounts for a lot of views, and it will always play a factor,” said Page. “We work with Sony and our partners in Japan to create as secure an environment as we can for the content, and provide an affordable service so it’s not worth the risk to go to pirate sites.”

Whatever Crunchyroll is doing to expand the market in North America appears to be working. Anime conventions like Crunchyroll Expo were among the most popular category of fan events pre-pandemic, and the audience seems ready to return in force. Manga, the Asian comic book source material for many anime titles, has grown by triple digits in the US since 2012 and is a leading driver of the 60% year-over-year growth seen in comics publishing in 2021. Increases in manga sales track closely to the release of new anime seasons and titles.

Crunchyroll is now well positioned to ride this wave no matter high it crests. “We are laser focused on delivering great experiences for fans, growing the diversity of our content, and respecting the creators and the content,” said Rebbapragada. “This audience is special. They represent the future, and that’s important for all entertainment companies.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalk...h=5842c35f6158