Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

polygon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 89 posts

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#41

Post by ivegotnoaccount »

snicker7 wrote: post #36
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.

Well... With this, in France, we now have the three big services owned by sony, and each makes you pay 5€/month. Don't think that because they bought Crunchyroll, they will merge rights and subscription. Why would they, that would make less money.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#43

Post by gizmo686 »

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 doesn't strike me as that strong of a monopsony. There are already other well established streaming services; and it isn't that uncommon for users to use multiple services.

If Sony tried doing anything crazy with their monopsony power, studios could just license to Amazon or Netflix (or try out any number of the smaller services). This hypothetical fight would probably hurt both crunchyroll/funimation and the studios; but it would be an existential threat to crunchyroll and funimation.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#44

Post by cmauniada »

smaili wrote: post #42

Honestly I never understood why Netflix didn't make a stronger push to acquire them, it's such a great addition to their existing offerings and would boost their customer base as well.

If I had to guess, I would say because they would rather spend more cash on creating new content than acquiring niche content distribution that’s already out there.

On top of that, the target audience has a big overlap.

People who use crunchyroll most likely have Netflix accounts already. So it probably wouldn’t benefit them significantly.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#45

Post by Animats »

From 2013 to 2017, there was Daisuki, which many thought was another pirate streaming site. But it was actually a project funded by the government of Japan and some major banks via the Cool Japan Fund.[1] The Japanese government has an organization to promote Japanese culture as a form of soft power. They're worried about K-Pop. They're currently funding Sentai.[1]

[1] https://www.cj-fund.co.jp/en/about/cjfund.html

[2] https://www.sentaifilmworks.com/

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#46

Post by GoblinSlayer »

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…

If hardsub is fabulous yellow impact, that's bonus points for nostalgia.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#47

Post by gazab »

coopsmgoops wrote: post #9
nsoonhui wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't this the path of YouTube also?

And Spotify?

Yup. You could sometimes find scene release group names in the metadata when Spotify beta launched. They cleaned it up in the "great purge" where 90% of my playlists became empty :)

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#48

Post by Danieru »

Westerners appear to under estimate how much the anime industry is about connections, yet its challenge going west has been for lack of users. Sony's consolidation is all about getting users.

Years back Bandai funded "daisuki" anime, which folded. In fact I worked in the same office as the executive who needed to fold down that division. Daisuki failed due to lack of users, not content. Likewise Sony tried a home spun distribution platform too, and folded it as well.

Now years later with all that industry experience in hand Sony is moving in and consolidating. Bandai is licensing their stuff to Netflix domestically, as is Sony. Yet those contracts can switch in a moment if a domestic conglomerate secures the users. Sony appears to be making those moves and could establish Japan's strongest beachhead in the streaming wars.

Japan cannot compete with Americans easy access to Hollywood negotiations, but likewise a Japanese platform should have strong negotiations securing anime.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#49

Post by kreddor »

flanbiscuit wrote: post #30
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…

Back in the 90s I would send VHS tapes + some return postage money to get fansubs of animes not available in the US. It was an amazing community and no one took a profit from it.

I had a lot of fun doing this a few years later with burnable CD-ROMs exchanged by mail.

Re: Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll

#50

Post by te_chris »

Danieru wrote: post #48

Westerners appear to under estimate how much the anime industry is about connections, yet its challenge going west has been for lack of users. Sony's consolidation is all about getting users. Years back Bandai funded "daisuki" anime, which folded. In fact I worked in the same office as the executive who needed to fold down that division. Daisuki failed due to lack of users, not content. Likewise Sony tried a home spu…

I kind of follow this...but Sony pictures and Sony records are still huge players in the western creative markets.
Post reply on HN