Sony found a gold mine with anime series in Crunchyroll

A Crunchyroll was launched in 2006 as a streaming service that offered anime titles without authorization. The site secured $4.05 million in funding from Venrock and began licensing titles for streaming in 2008.

O Chernin Group acquired a majority stake in Crunchyroll in December 2013. The Chernin Group and the ATT formed the joint venture Otter Media in 2014, and the Otter Media invested another 22 million in Ellationthe parent company of Crunchyroll in November 2015. ATT announced in August 2018 that it acquired the entire Otter Media.

In December 2020 The Sony in a press release revealed that what the ATT agreed to sell its streaming service Crunchyroll The Funimation Global Group, LLC. A Funimation is a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and the subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., Aniplex Inc.

Since the Sony made the acquisition of Crunchyroll A large investment was made in the streaming brand, strengthening it through international actions (such as holding major previews involving popular series), officially distributing anime films on a global scale, unifying the service’s catalog with the Funimation (which will be officially closed in April of this year), carrying out the Prohibited from the Crunchyroll inside the Amazon Prime Videoincluding anime series from the service via Sony Pictures Corean app available for Playstation 4 It is PlayStation 5and doing the launch of the TV channel official of Crunchyroll in the United States. Now it seems that the Sony is starting a new step in its plans for Crunchyroll.

In recent weeks, information has emerged on several pages (some unofficial) that track content inputs between streaming services that several “exclusive” animes from Crunchyroll were cataloged to enter the Netflix. The red streaming service already has several animes that are very popular in its catalog and which are produced by Aniplex (as is the case with Demon Slayer). The entry of previously exclusive anime into Crunchyroll wouldn’t be new to anyone who follows movements in the film and series market, the Sony is the only major multimedia studio that does not have a streaming service integrated with all its productions (as occurs with Disney+, Warner’s Max, or Paramount+, for example), which means that it can negotiate its productions between the various existing services .

Negotiate the oldest exclusive anime from Crunchyroll is something positive for Sonyit gains additional value in its revenue by making some popular series within the service also enter the catalog of other streaming services, these same series could become popular for the casual anime fan on the other streaming service and this would oblige the service to acquire new complete seasons with distribution from Sony.

But here comes the question: Crunchyroll Wouldn’t this movement be harmed? If the Sony If you want to follow the movement she makes with her films and series, the Crunchyroll will be the first window for the anime to be shown through its simulcast with Japan, this ensures that only subscribers to the service would have early access to these anime series week by week. Remembering that, in data disclosed In January of this year, the Crunchyroll has more than 13 million paid subscribers within the service. Only after some time would these series start to be negotiated with other streaming services.

Making a summary: A Sony gains in revenue from the company’s 13 million paid subscribers Crunchyrollearns extra revenue by negotiating the distribution with other streaming services of older anime that were previously exclusive to Crunchyroll and these series can still gain more popularity among casual fans.