A Battle of Giants: Funimation To Compete With Crunchyroll
Wednesday 8 April 2009 @ 5:10 am | By Sol 4 Comments
Currently seen as the top North American anime distributor, Funimation Entertainment has begun an aggressive effort to establish an online presence. Recent content sharing agreements include Toei Animation, Japanese producer GDH, Viz Media and Studio Bones, all inked within the last month. The most telling development is the recent distribution deal with internet TV service Veoh Networks.
Funimation is facing an uphill battle as their primary competitor Crunchyroll is already in a position to stream legitimately licensed anime directly from Japan. Backed by several notable Japanese television conglomerates and supported through advertisements, Crunchyroll provides its subscribers access to many Japanese series within one hour of their original broadcast and offers HD options with no advertisements through a fee-base premium subscription.
Many anime distributors are seeking ways transform their business to compete in an online market. Hoping to leverage their brands and changing how they understand their audience, Funimation is at the top of these “traditional” companies. With an already robust online community, this would be the natural progression for the Funimation brand and its internet audience.
Should companies rely less on traditional “boxed” anime and instead focus their attention to online distribution? Does online distribution allow more studios to take a chance when producing anime? And most importantly to the studio…how will they make up for lost sales when diverting its assets online?
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Abraham 'Velcor' Duarte
David 'KidKobun' Bruno
Ivan 'Nahu' Lozano
Random J
Ideally, there should be a focus on online broadcast/streaming and box sets. Since there is no way that most anime will air on television in America, the next best thing that will preempt fansubbers is to have official 0-day subs on a free, ad-supported stream. After that, hopefully some of the streamers will buy the box set along with those that prefer to watch through box sets.
I dont think that this is much of an issue, seeing that most people who still actually buy their anime are hardcore fans who must have boxed sets of their favorite shows anyway. The rest of us just want to see all the new shows ASAP, without the shitty dubs and year long wait (and in most cases, prayer).
I think the Crunchyroll approach is best to head off fansubbers. Funi approach geared towards eventually releasing a box set.
Agreed at both. I don’t care for dubs and I want my anime NAOW, but in cases where I really really like it I will buy the box set.
However I think the Crunchyroll, 0 day streaming with ads that go to producers allow for more indie shows since they can still have an audience vs time and $ spent to create a box set. My biggest issue with the Funi approach (unless I read it wrong) is that eps released weeks later are released on an individual basis. If something has been out for a while I want to watch a bunch of the episodes all at once.
I think it’s excellent that they’re competing! I’m not yet ready to drop all of my savings onto kick-ass dvd’s, so sticking to the good-ole internet is best for me and a bunch others.
Besides… I think they’re overpriced. I’m supposed pay $40 for one or more dvd’s that only took a dime to copy? I THINK NOT!!!!