![]() Decker insists that it’s a very competitive space. The concern was that the combined entity would harm competition. Indeed, the Justice Department’s antitrust review of Sony’s purchase of Crunchyroll took more than six months. Decker won’t say what those numbers are today, but it’s a good bet they’re higher now that Sony is steering Funimation users over to Crunchyroll. As of August, Crunchyroll had more than 5 million paying subscribers worldwide and 120 million registered users in 120-plus countries. If you want to call anime a niche, it’s one of the most successful niches in the world - attracting more fans than other interest-based entertainment services geared around, say, horror or faith-based programming. But Crunchyroll is Sony’s main owned-and-operated field unit in the streaming wars. And Sony Pictures continues exploit the streaming economy as a content wholesaler: Last year, for example, it cut a rich, multiyear movie-output pact with Netflix. ![]() ![]() Sony does own some other streaming businesses, including SonyLIV in India and Pure Flix, a Christian-content streaming service it acquired in 2020. “We certainly have hit shows and franchises - but really, the value proposition is belonging to a community,” Decker says. The core Crunchyroll business revolves around streaming video, but the brand also extends to mobile games, theatrical film releases, merchandise, live events (like the Crunchyroll Expo, set for Aug. “It’s like an achievement to get through these shows with hundreds of episodes.” ![]() “People enjoy kind of the infinite depth,” he says. It’s much more than linear entertainment.”Īs a form, anime encompasses numerous genres like horror, sci-fi, rom-coms and dramas, says Decker: “There’s an anime for everyone.” And the anime industry provides a steady and prolific output of high-quality material Crunchyroll and Funimation have presented 20-30 simulcasts of new Japanese anime shows per quarter, according to Decker. Today, Crunchyroll has more than 1,000 employees in 14 offices worldwide and is looking to hire more than 100 staffers.īut don’t call anime a “genre.” Where the Western entertainment sensibility thinks of it as a niche, Decker says, “the anime community thinks of it as a lifestyle - it’s a POV on the world. Sony is committed to building on Crunchyroll’s momentum. The 28-year-old Funimation brand is set to be phased out: Future new anime series will be exclusive to Crunchyroll starting April 1, and Funimation will continue to add new episodes of current series only. Anime fans can watch favorites like “My Hero Academia,” “Tokyo Ghoul,” “Yu Yu Hakusho,” “Cowboy Bebop” and “Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation.” This week, Sony added three popular Dragon Ball anime series, formerly exclusive to Funimation - comprising more than 500 episodes - to the Crunchyroll lineup as well. That consolidates the company’s anime efforts around Crunchyroll, which now stocks more than 40,000 subtitled and dubbed episodes - the biggest bucket of anime available anywhere. At the same time, Sony says it won’t be raising prices on Crunchyroll’s packages. The move brings more than 1,600 hours from more than 50 newly added titles in Funimation’s lineup to Crunchyroll, which Sony bought for $1.18 billion in cash from AT&T last year. This month, Sony took a big step toward making its anime division an even larger global force: Starting March 1, Crunchyroll subscribers have access to library and simulcast content previously available exclusively on Funimation, which Sony Pictures Television bought in 2017.
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