Sony Animation Cr buys Crunchyroll for 1. 1.2 billion – what happens now?

On Wednesday, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. AT&T and VernerMedia have agreed to sell Crinchirol in Funimation. Although the acquisition has been rumored for a few weeks, it is not clear how the deal will come down or whether it will run at all. The purchase price through the deal is estimated at $ 1.175 billion.

“The Crunchy Roll team has done an extraordinary job of creating not only the Crunchy Roll brand, but an enthusiastic community of anime fans. The success of Crunchyroll is a direct result of the company’s culture and commitment to its fans, “Warnermedia CRO Tony Goncalves said in a statement. “By joining Funnimation, they will continue to nurture the global community and bring more anime to more people. I am incredibly proud of the Crunchyroll team and what they have been able to accomplish in the digital media space in such a short period of time. They have created an end-to-end global ecosystem for this incredible art form. ”

“We’re proud to bring a crunchy role to the Sony family,” said Tony Vincequera, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “Through our tremendous partners in Funimation and Aniplex and Sony Music Entertainment Japan, we have a deep understanding of this global art form and are in a good position to deliver great content to an audience around the world. Together with Crunchyroll, we will create an excellent potential experience for fans and more opportunity for creators, producers and publishers in Japan and elsewhere. Funimation has been doing this for 25 years and we look forward to continuing to develop the power of creativity and technology to succeed in this fast-growing field of entertainment. “

At first glance, Sony’s acquisition of CrunchyRoll from AT&T may put them in a better position to compete with Netflix, but the move really does increase their influence on Japan’s anime industry. By adding 70 million free members of CrunchyRoil and 3 million paid subscribers to their portfolio of anime streaming and production companies, the company intends to cut the anime’s growth rewards abroad, which has halved to 2.1 per cent of the industry in both 2017 and 2018. Trillion (about અ 19 billion) total revenue.

Although Sony’s move into anime streaming may seem abrupt, the company has been involved in anime production for decades. In 1995, Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ) founded Aniplex, a subsidiary created to manage anime and music productions. In 2005, Aniplex launched its own animation studio, A-1 Pictures, which will promote shows like this. Kaguya-sama: Love is war And Sword art online.

But over the past five years, Sony has strengthened its portfolio of international streaming services through acquisitions, beginning in 2015 with the French anime streaming service Waknim. In 2018, the company purchased Australian Australian anime distributor Madman Anime and its streaming service Animalab. A year ago, a separate subsidiary, Sony Pictures Television, acquired American anime distributor Fanimation. Then, in 2019, Aniplex and Sony Pictures Television merged the two streaming services into a joint venture between the two subsidiaries under the name of Funimation.

With the announcement came a demonstration of how Sony’s anime business vert also integrated, as they released episodes of the series. Destiny / Grand Order – The Complete Demonic Battlefront: Babylonia Before it becomes available on other platforms, Sony will have 30 days of exclusivity on international streaming services. The English dub will have a one-year specialty. The anime series was produced by Aniplex, animated by Clover Works (an Aniplex-owned animation studio), with most of the show’s music being played by SMEJ. Was by artists, the English dub was produced by Fanimation, and the series is based on a mobile game produced by Aniplex.

Crunchyroll’s billion-dollar acquisition price tag is not the market’s leading streaming service, but it comes from how Sony’s ical will also expand its overseas anime production. Although Aniplex already has a North American distribution, game publisher, and business association in the United States, the non-streaming parts of CrunchyRool’s business have expanded in many ways that American Funimation and Aniplex still have.

Image: Crunchyroll

In 2017, the company launched its own annual convention, the Cranchyrol Expo, and has been the main sponsor of AnimeNivyC since the opening event the same year. They also started co-production like a new show Friends of Chemo, And Kino’s Journey – Beautiful World-, In 2020, before unveiling the branding of “Crunchyroll Originals” for the home-produced show. Many of these shows are produced by Japanese animation studios such as MPPA. And production I.G. Will be in partnership with, however, like the show Onyx Equinox The newly formed Crunchyroll will come out of the studio.

In 2018, Cranchyrol also created its own sports release label, Cranchyroll Games, to localize and distribute previously released Japanese mobile games based on popular anime properties in English-speaking markets. And in 2019, the company bought the European branch of manga publisher and anime distributor Viz Media. Sony now owns it all.

It’s hard for businesses and consumers to predict where things will go from here. Late last year, I wrote about the difficulties faced by anime during streaming wars, and predicted that streaming services would not only be licensed but would also be more involved in the production of the show. Most of my predictions were based on the idea that the competition between the various anime streaming services would require an investment in their own exclusive show to entice customers to subscribe.

Netflix has content to produce its own exclusive shows at a rate of one to three per season, later licensing other series after finishing broadcasting on their international list. According to the forecast, Funimation and Crunchyroll were seeking licenses for 30-40 new shows each season, often involved in productions to help secure simulcast streaming rights.

However, all of a sudden in this case not much should change in the short term, with customers probably subscribing to just one or two services to adapt to the new show (compared to the four or five you only need for a few years). Before). In the long run, however, the Sony-Crunchyroll deal is likely to shrink the number and budget of future anime productions.

But evaluating the acquisition, and given the market’s growth over the past few years, it looks like new players will once again make efforts to fill the vacancies occupied by the Funimation and Crunchyroll construction committees. However, the only place you will be able to watch their simulcast is on Funimation / CrunchyRoll.