7 ms·

This is interesting because it means the two big distributors of anime in the US are now one. It's creating a monopsony from the perspective of the anime studio

This is interesting because it means the two big distributors of anime in the US are now one. It's creating a monopsony from the perspective of the anime studios, though I suspect a rival will emerge shortly.

mastazi 6y ago
Yes that's right AnimeLab is owned by Sony. I wonder if they are going to consolidate the two into one service. There is currently a lot of overlap between the two catalogues and I can't imagine that's good in the long term...
- Baeocystin 6y ago
  Doesn't Amazon have an anime-focused service? Or did that close down already?
  - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
    It died pretty much on the vine, although they still have a few licenses that got moved to Prime Video.
snicker7 6y ago
This is a good thing. Anime outside of Japan is still niche. I don't want N competing streaming services. Even with a Funimation+Crunchyroll subscription, I still have to resort to less-than-legal means to watch some of my favourite material.
- ivegotnoaccount 6y ago
  Well... With this, in France, we now have the three big services owned by sony, and each makes you pay 5€/month. Don't think that because they bought Crunchyroll, they will merge rights and subscription. Why would they, that would make less money.
- Aerroon 6y ago
  >I don't want N competing streaming services. I do. When Sony inevitably censors or localizes something they shouldn't then I can show my displeasure by using their competitors.
gizmo686 6y ago
This doesn't strike me as that strong of a monopsony. There are already other well established streaming services; and it isn't that uncommon for users to use multiple services. If Sony tried doing anything crazy with their monopsony power, studios could just license to Amazon or Netflix (or try out any number of the smaller services). This hypothetical fight would probably hurt both crunchyroll/funimation and the studios; but it would be an existential threat to crunchyroll and funimation.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
I've actually noticed Netflix adding more 'big' anime titles to their offerings. Mind you, that's in NL where Funimation is not available and Crunchyroll has limited offerings, so license wise it may be a different thing.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Aerroon 6y ago
A lot of people that enjoy anime-style games are unhappy with some of the censoring that Sony has done on the PlayStation. I expect that they will bungle this up as well.

mastazi 6y ago

Yes that's right AnimeLab is owned by Sony. I wonder if they are going to consolidate the two into one service. There is currently a lot of overlap between the two catalogues and I can't imagine that's good in the long term...

Baeocystin 6y ago
Doesn't Amazon have an anime-focused service? Or did that close down already?
- SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
  It died pretty much on the vine, although they still have a few licenses that got moved to Prime Video.

snicker7 6y ago

This is a good thing. Anime outside of Japan is still niche. I don't want N competing streaming services. Even with a Funimation+Crunchyroll subscription, I still have to resort to less-than-legal means to watch some of my favourite material.

ivegotnoaccount 6y ago
Well... With this, in France, we now have the three big services owned by sony, and each makes you pay 5€/month. Don't think that because they bought Crunchyroll, they will merge rights and subscription. Why would they, that would make less money.
Aerroon 6y ago
>I don't want N competing streaming services. I do. When Sony inevitably censors or localizes something they shouldn't then I can show my displeasure by using their competitors.

gizmo686 6y ago

This doesn't strike me as that strong of a monopsony. There are already other well established streaming services; and it isn't that uncommon for users to use multiple services. If Sony tried doing anything crazy with their monopsony power, studios could just license to Amazon or Netflix (or try out any number of the smaller services). This hypothetical fight would probably hurt both crunchyroll/funimation and the studios; but it would be an existential threat to crunchyroll and funimation.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

I've actually noticed Netflix adding more 'big' anime titles to their offerings. Mind you, that's in NL where Funimation is not available and Crunchyroll has limited offerings, so license wise it may be a different thing.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Aerroon 6y ago

A lot of people that enjoy anime-style games are unhappy with some of the censoring that Sony has done on the PlayStation. I expect that they will bungle this up as well.