TECH
1:38 a.m. PDT 8/12/2020
due to
Natalie Jarvey
Sony, which owns Funimation, is among the potential buyers.
WarnerMedia is looking for anime-oriented streaming service Crunchyroll, and Sony is among the interested buyers, according to a source with knowledge of the talks.
The 14-year-old service provided 3 million subscribers at the end of July, up from 2 million at the end of 2018. That’s about the same amount of retail subscribers that WarnerMedia’s 2-month-old HBO Max has attracted.
But despite Crunchyroll’s relative success for a niche streamer, WarnerMedia parent company AT&T has sought to reduce its debt burden. As such, the source says that new WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar wants to sell all assets that are not core to the entertainment company’s business.
WarnerMedia’s streaming feature was posted on HBO Max, which launched in late May to program a broad catalog of the company’s networks and studios. Crunchyroll has a brand tile on the app, where it curates a selection of anime programming, but has also remained a stand-alone subscription service. In a recent interview with Deadline, general manager Joanne Waage said “the goal is to thank both services.
A deal for Crunchyroll would add to Sony’s existing Funimation anime business, but the source says Sony’s offer is less than what WarnerMedia hopes to get for the company. The information, which first reported on the sales pitches, said WarnerMedia’s asking price for Crunchyroll is $ 1.5 billion.
Representatives for Otter Media, the WarnerMedia division that hosted Crunchyroll, and Sony declined to comment.
Kilar, who previously ran Hulu and short-lived video company Vessel, soon made WarnerMedia his own after joining the company in May. In early June, reports appeared that the company was looking for gaming unit Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for sale. Then on Friday he announced a sweeping reorganization that included the oysters of entertainment operators Bob Greenblatt and Kevin Reilly and created a new Ann Sarnoff-led division that includes both their studios and networking companies. (In his memo to staff, Kilar said the gaming unit would be part of the Studios and Networks group, but did not comment on a possible sale.)
In an interview with THR, Kilar said the changes to WarnerMedia reflect his plan to turn it into a consumer-focused operation with a focus on his streaming and global businesses. “It became pretty clear that we need to have one content organization to make it easier for us to make decisions to give the best possible stories green light that we can then take more and more directly to consumers,” he said.
