AT&T Attaches $1 Billion Price Tag to Crunchyroll as Sony Seeks to Complete Anime Empire

I can see Sony combining PS+ or PS Now with Crunchyroll for an unbeatable value if this acquisition actually happened.

Please no. Monopolies help nobody and this means there won’t be a single competitor to Sony.

@nessisonett I cannot lie funimation have been killing it, monopoly or not, and yes I did economics, I have a degree but I am willing to let this one side, solely because, funimation have been killing it.

😪😴😴😪💤💤💤... does this include actually gameplay? I believe my western fans at my age (40), don't have much interest. My fellow above average age game fanatics don't follow anime but we do love a good Japanese fighter, RPG or platformer. In fact I don't know anyone over here in USA who even cares about comic books. Seems like a steep investment for only half of the world. IMO

@AJDarkstar America don’t have those laws. Hence Disney buying everyone and the world heading towards Wall-E levels of stupidity.

To put that 1.5 billion into some perspective; Funimation is the largest anime distributor in America, they have three times as many paid subscribers, and Sony acquired it for a tenth of that.

@nessisonett I don't disagree. The laws comment has me confused because we don't have laws that end your business goals. Disney did, however, save Marvel and the Star Wars IP's. They paid more money than I can fathom for the ability to produce product for the screen (movie or games). I believe that social media and easy access news, via device, has destroyed the comic book market. Its my opinion that they saw this and bought up IPs before they crashed. Is anyone disputing as old as I? 🤣

Why does a company like AT&T own Crunchy Roll?

@Nepp67 The same reason a Japanese audio video company owns a video game division.

Diversifying for profit.

Anime Empire Eh Let's See How This Plays Out.

@hookedWORM17 I get what you're saying. Personally I like anime but from a market perspective they could have it absolutely cornered with this purchase and maybe it allows them to offer synergies that keep or attract customers to the platform.

@Constable_What Disney are an example because the Disney-Fox merger never would have happened over here. The market share with cinemas alone would have been flagged as potentially harmful to healthy competition. It’s incredible how absolutely useless laissez-faire capitalism is at protecting consumers, especially when the commander-in-Cheeto doesn’t stick to his own rules. If Sony buy Crunchyroll, this will be an absolute monopoly, no doubt about it.

@nessisonett The key question the regulators need to answer is if anime is a separate market from the western cartoons produced by the likes of Disney and Netflix.

@Ryall That’s actually a very good point. Let’s be honest, we’ve all known somebody who called them ‘Chinese cartoons’.

@Incarna Anime is just a way to make a series or a movie. Some are cringe yeah, I also hate the balloon boobs, but there is also a lot of great anime in my opinion.

Anyway I’d pay for it here in the Netherlands if you could watch any anime of atleast 90% and that should atleast include popular ones.
I don’t want to mess around with vpn just to a specific series.

It sucks, just like on Netflix, to have season 1 there and season 2 on Amazon Prime or a diff service.

The Japanese Gaint ain't broke.
There is a lot of talk about big third party deals and I keep thinking about that 2nd wired article with EA seemingly involved with Sony.
There is a lot more behind Halo delays than just development difficulties IMHO

I’m not sure it would be classed as a monopoly as I’m sure they would point to people like Netflix as competitors? Do we see Shudder as having a monopoly on horror?

@SincereMan Imagine paying for anime and actually contributing to it being made instead of pirating it from inconvenient, sketchy sites, where it doesn’t help how many animes don’t get a second season.
It’s so much easier to watch from a proper service it’s not even funny.

Anime and the interest in it has really increased in the last few years and Sony do have a stake in it as they are a big investor in japanese orientated gaming etc. so would be well placed to maximise this.

If this was offered as a bundle with Playstation hardware you are really sealing the Sony brand as the place to go to get anime and anime inspired content. I could see it happening.

Given that Sony already own Funimation, this makes me uncomfortable. To be fair though, Crunchyroll is not a service I use; I believe I have mentioned this before, but I despise subscription services. What I do is I typically wait for recommendations from a friend who more actively watches anime than me, then I just buy the Blu-ray/DVDs and watch that way.

More expensive? Probably in the long run compared to what you would get otherwise. But I don't actively follow anime enough to justify paying the subscription (and again, I hate, HATE, subscriptions).

Cool, I hope sony make AAA anime games with japan studios, gamers deserve better than low quality bamco anime games (with some exception like arc system dbfz).

My only hope in this, is for faster dubs in anime,and dubs in Japanese games 😔.

I wonder if this is Sony's plan to counter Microsoft. They dominate game streaming, and Sony is trying to dominate everything else. 🤔🤕

@MS7000 you can watch crunchy roll for free. It has the ad option

@NomNom But the problem is, that people do not pay for anime,I am pretty sure anime is even more pirated frequently,then movies,tv series,novels and pc games.

@rachetmarvel the fact that 3 million out of 70 million (including myself) pay for a subscription means that gross income per year would ball park 360 million USD. If that's the case. In 5 years if the market is half way decent with new releases, Sony can (net) break even on a 1bn purchase. They won't combine it with FUNimation, it's the illusion of competition that Sony will create. Most people wouldn't know Sony owns FUNimation already, or that they are the largest market share in the audio market. As a result, they'll put competing anime on both platforms and people will essentially choose one or the other platform. It definitely Is a monopoly, but I think Sony can get away with it, as if you put anime under animations, that'd include American cartoons as well. And in that sense this won't corner the market, or at least seem that way.

@NomNom I am aware, but it does have caveats such as ads as you have said, not to mention I believe last time I checked, picture quality was lower? I know I sound picky, but I want it in the best quality possible.

Edit: It is useful for previewing an anime before committing to buying though.

@NomNom 1.5 billion is still a lot( FYI Sony paid 200 million for Funimation ) but it could rise to 2-2.5 billion USD just because Sony need to put in resources to keep Crunchyroll running so I think that Sony would rather buy Warner's entire Anime division for that price tag even higher Warner owns anime studios ( J.C Staff being one of those ) and have exclusives animation rights to IPs like JoJo Bizzare Adventures, Food Wars and A Certain Magical Index. They also have a music division that focuses on anisongs. If Sony does this then they basically created an anime empire heck even Universal decided to put their Anime's on Funimation ( Fire Force being prime example )

Real penguins kno about kissanime

@get2sammyb that is not even their fourth pillar if it was entertainment then yes it's their fourth pillar ( music, movies and TV shows, Video Games and Animes ) Sony's fourth pillar is their banking and insurance ( one of the biggest in Japan )

Would be nice to see the services combined. Hopefully into a better service, because right now, using the Funimation service is a trash experience. Content is great though.

@Spyroescape sssh🤫, not in a place like this😏.

@johncalmc Funny how gaming used to be associated with dorks.

@Caliburn08 unlikely, the article and other articles I've read, state that the price Started at 1.5 BN when they had no bites, they brought it down to 1bn. Like Sony with FUNimation, they bought crunchyroll at a massive bargain due to the market at the time. It's a different market now, it's valued higher, AT&T, would see a huge income boost to pay off debt, and if Sony offers them the 1bn, I have doubt in my mind, that they'll take it.

Crunchy roll and FUNimation are more production and anime distribution companies. Sony isn't trying to buy all the anime, they're trying to control the flow of anime. Sure both FUNimation and crunchyroll have rights to some anime, but for the most part, Sony wants to control the market flow, not the market. To buy animes would require you to pay the cost and occasionally you'll have lemons. That is expensive, as a production and distribution company you charge them to use your platform and let them worry about their own bottom line. With such a massive audience base locally and internationally for crunchyroll and FUNimation, Sony is looking at a potential homerun if they decide to pursue this deal.

@MS7000 Like I said before, if Sony does end up purchasing them, they won't combine the two companies. They'll keep them separate as competitors to make the illusion of choice. They may give one site better resolution or quality and charge more for it. And let users choose if they want the slightly cheaper or more expensive quality option. Either way, Sony would profit in this, if it comes to pass.

@nessisonett Where are you located?

The Disney-Fox deal needed approval from multiple countries.

Is it that if initiated in your location it wouldn't have gotten off the ground in the 1st place?

@SincereMan You mean ads, lower quality videos, and new anime not being available on legal free accounts of Funi/Crunchyroll? Or pirating (and not supporting, so just stealing really) kiss anime or similar sites which is mad sketchy and inconvenient. Pop-ups (even with adblocker), weird ads, less quality, not keeping nearly as good of track.
I don’t really want to do either and neither is convenient or as quality as paying a few dollars a month.

@Jaz007 You did not hear this from me,but there is a certain site called gogoanime,that is not as sketchy as kissanime,which is not that bad at all(a friend told me,this),and has all the contents.

There are a lot of pirating sites,that are not as sketchy as kissanime ,and are awfully convient ,since you do not even have to pay a penny ,nor worry about malware.
p.s. Do not look into to deep ,where i got this info or how i know so much,i am not that sus,just trust me bro.

These comments are funny to me.
1. This discussion is silly because anime is Japanese cartoons whether you want to admit it or not. There's a reason they call Simpsons anime in Japan. I can confirm this true through friends straight from Japan.
2 so what does this mean. Anime is ultimately just a subgenre of animation. Under the grounds of animation. We still got Disney, Netflix and Warner to deal with as big boys. I wouldn't even consider the anime market to be a big threat seeing Sentai and Viz still exist through Viz only goes for select big series. Sony has done wonders for FUNimation, bringing all the Aniplex titles over. Dubbing a bunch of Ani series that wouldn't normally get. Getting series from NIS and Viz. They've clearly been a very beneficial part of FUNimation. It's been alot better than the old partnership between CR and FUNi. If they can do that again where they buy out crunchy and use Crunchy as the subbed place and FUNi as the subbed place I wouldn't be mad. I thought it was great like that

But yeah, Anime won't be seen as a separate market as Netflix is in the market, Sentai, Viz, Amazon etc.

@mwatcher I really hope this speculation is true because I consider Crunchyroll a must streaming platform of mine and if I can get a combo deal out of it to save a few bucks, I will get it.

@nessisonett America does have laws like that, but I think this case would be considered "vertical integration." Funimation primarily produces content, whereas Crunchyroll primarily streams licensed third-party content. Funimation does offer its own streaming service, but that would be like saying Ford can't acquire Sears because they both have storefronts.

@Incarna Nah, i have to disagree with you on the advertising for the light novels,because thats is up to personal preference,i do not mind that ,because i read a bunch of light novels,and i enjoy them.While some anime adaptions for light novels or manga are nice,they often leave out relevent plot details,and character inner most thoughts, struggles and interactions.Which in turn makes them seem one dimensional,thus i usuallly end up reading the light novels(if there is one) anyway, and i if want pictures ,i even read the manga(if there is one).I do this even,for animes like a certain magical index,in which Touma(the main character) seems very bland in the anime,but he is a better more complex character ,in the light novel.

There have been great anime,its just that it was not according to your taste,which is fine,since there are obvousily a lot of people like me, who enjoy some of them.

Plus,off topic, but that crunchyroll anime girl be looking real moe.

@hookedWORM17

I didn't know that half of 7 billion people was a bad business investment lmao

What gaming company is looking to appeal to 40+ year olds? You have to believe their target market is 16-28 cause that would not make sense to cater to an older generation for videogames and entertainment c’mon now are you really so naive as to think because YOU and YOUR 40+ year old friends dont like anime that this isnt a great business move?