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Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

polygon.com

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Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#31

Post by ivegotnoaccount »

As a french, not quite fan of this... We have only three big platforms for anime streaming (outside of Netflix, which catalog is still small here). One of them, Wakanim, was acquired by Aniplex, which is owned by Sony, years ago. The second, ADN, is owned by Kaze, which was bought by Crunchyroll. So now that Crunchyroll is part of Sony, they have a near-monopoly on both VOD and physical releases.

We are lucky in that Wakanim is allowed to sell DRM-free episodes for 1€, I hope this won't change with this and the ongoing talks about removing geologist in the EU.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#32

Post by ivegotnoaccount »

Hamuko wrote: post #21
jrockway wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that Crunchyroll was successful because Japanese media companies considered the US market a joke. The companies that distribute anime in Japan never tried to sell into the US, they just assumed we weren't interested. Crunchyroll could then show up, say they had some customers willing to pay, and decided $LOW was better than $FREE. It's still this way; you can buy anime box sets in the US for an entire series…

> It's still this way; you can buy anime box sets in the US for an entire series that costs less than a single episode in Japan. Clearly you have never bought anything published by Aniplex of America (not that I'd blame anyone for that). PERSONA5 the Animation Blu-ray is $300 (allegedly down from $400 retail) for 28 episodes. https://www.rightstufanime.com/PERSONA5-the-Animation-Blu-ra...

Japanese animation blu-ray are often, as strange as that may sound, even more overpriced:

After a quick look, Perdona5 seems to have at least 10 boxes. Not ridiculous since they tend to contain 2-3 episodes. But each is 6600 JPY. That's more than 600 dollars. Even in VOD, I've seen some website that make you pay 150 JpY per episode... And 4000JPY for the last one.

The US prices are high compared to France ones (we can get 100 episodes of Monogatari Séries for 90€, but that is a discount compared to the japanese price)

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#35

Post by scaladev »

Maybe they'll make more of their library available in my country. CR expects me to pay exactly the same subscription fee as in the US, but allows me to watch less than 1% of their library. Of course, I can always try to find a residential US proxy, but I ain't doing it to get access to a _paid_ service, sorry.

Needless to say, I continue to enjoy the convenience and non-discrimination of torrent trackers.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#36

Post by snicker7 »

trothamel wrote: post #5

This is interesting because it means the two big distributors of anime in the US are now one. It's creating a monopsony from the perspective of the anime studios, though I suspect a rival will emerge shortly.

This is a good thing. Anime outside of Japan is still niche. I don't want N competing streaming services. Even with a Funimation+Crunchyroll subscription, I still have to resort to less-than-legal means to watch some of my favourite material.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#37

Post by ivegotnoaccount »

jrockway wrote: post #15
zdw wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anime fansubs have been around for 3-4 decades (ever since the early Amiga could overlay subs) and digital for 20+. Interesting that it worked out for them, unlike what happened with music distribution, and then the Napster/iTunes/Spotify evolution. Probably helped that there was only extremely slow and expensive legitimate distribution channels and actual work was required to make the content accessible in other lan…

I think that Crunchyroll was successful because Japanese media companies considered the US market a joke. The companies that distribute anime in Japan never tried to sell into the US, they just assumed we weren't interested. Crunchyroll could then show up, say they had some customers willing to pay, and decided $LOW was better than $FREE. It's still this way; you can buy anime box sets in the US for an entire series…

I don't know if there's just that: Many French anime physical release, especially those handled by the now dead Déclic Images (they started selling something they did not have the right for as a counter-offensive against those that bought the rights, if I remember well), are quite cheap. And are soft-subbed. To the point where I often hear it as an explanation of why so few animes get DVDs in France. But at the same time, Wakanim sells DRM-free episodes that are soft-subbed for 1€/episode. We are talking about a 95% discount compared to Japan here. Hope this won't change with this new quasi-monopoly.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#38

Post by jbay808 »

jrockway wrote: post #15
zdw wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anime fansubs have been around for 3-4 decades (ever since the early Amiga could overlay subs) and digital for 20+. Interesting that it worked out for them, unlike what happened with music distribution, and then the Napster/iTunes/Spotify evolution. Probably helped that there was only extremely slow and expensive legitimate distribution channels and actual work was required to make the content accessible in other lan…

I think that Crunchyroll was successful because Japanese media companies considered the US market a joke. The companies that distribute anime in Japan never tried to sell into the US, they just assumed we weren't interested. Crunchyroll could then show up, say they had some customers willing to pay, and decided $LOW was better than $FREE. It's still this way; you can buy anime box sets in the US for an entire series…

When I visited Japan I was astounded by the high price for animation. I naively expected that buying from the source would be cheaper but... think 5000~7000 JPY for one DVD disc of a seven disc series.

For DVD at least, Japan is region 2 (same as EU). I don't know about Blu-ray.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#39

Post by ivegotnoaccount »

jbay808 wrote: post #38
jrockway wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that Crunchyroll was successful because Japanese media companies considered the US market a joke. The companies that distribute anime in Japan never tried to sell into the US, they just assumed we weren't interested. Crunchyroll could then show up, say they had some customers willing to pay, and decided $LOW was better than $FREE. It's still this way; you can buy anime box sets in the US for an entire series…

When I visited Japan I was astounded by the high price for animation. I naively expected that buying from the source would be cheaper but... think 5000~7000 JPY for one DVD disc of a seven disc series. For DVD at least, Japan is region 2 (same as EU). I don't know about Blu-ray.

Wells it's a niche, for something where the entry cost seems high. I recall some low-estimate of how much a 25 minute episode costs that was around 80k$ for entry-level quality. It's hard to know if that's right, but if it is, that puts a season into the million-dollar investment range even for low quality stuff. There aren't that many potential buyers plus entertainment in Japan is expensive, so they price it high. So even fewer buy it. But due to fans being ready to spend those amounts, I wouldn't be surprised if they found a maximum for profit at those price tags.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#40

Post by hinoki »

jbay808 wrote: post #38
jrockway wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that Crunchyroll was successful because Japanese media companies considered the US market a joke. The companies that distribute anime in Japan never tried to sell into the US, they just assumed we weren't interested. Crunchyroll could then show up, say they had some customers willing to pay, and decided $LOW was better than $FREE. It's still this way; you can buy anime box sets in the US for an entire series…

When I visited Japan I was astounded by the high price for animation. I naively expected that buying from the source would be cheaper but... think 5000~7000 JPY for one DVD disc of a seven disc series. For DVD at least, Japan is region 2 (same as EU). I don't know about Blu-ray.

Japan is the same DVD region as the EU, but you can’t play EU DVDs because Japan players are NTSC instead of PAL in the EU.

Which is probably what the GP was referring to?

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