Ask John: Have Exorbitant Licensing Fees Ever Prevented a Show From Being Licensed?

Question:
Has there ever been a show from Japan with so incredibly expensive a license that U.S. companies deemed it too great a financial risk to import to the States, despite how popular it might’ve been with fans?

Answer:
This is a very interesting question, but unfortunately I can’t thoroughly answer it. The licensing fees and even potential licensing fees for particular anime titles are very rarely shared, even within the American anime industry itself. The only example I can cite is one which I have personal knowledge of. In 2003 AN Entertainment briefly engaged in licensing negotiations for distribution rights to the 2002 Pita-Ten anime television series. I’m not at liberty to reveal the precise minimum fee per episode that the Japanese licensor insisted on, but I can reveal that the minimum licensing fee was more than double the amount that AN Entertainment considered a viable expense. At the price the Japanese licensor demanded, AN Entertainment determined that the show wouldn’t ever sell remotely enough copies in America to recover its licensing and production costs. We were forced to politely withdraw from the licensing negotiations. Considering that the series remains unlicensed for American release, it seems quite possible that other American distributors have likewise decided that the licensing fees on the Pita-Ten anime are too expensive to make the show viable for American acquisition.

The well known example, often cited in anime fan community discussion, is the Macross 7 anime franchise. According to common speculation, the music rights tied to the series are prohibitively expensive, which has prevented the anime from ever being licensed for domestic release. Manga Entertainment’s Kieth Burgess reportedly stated at the 2003 Anime Central convention that, “It would take all the anime companies working together to be able to come up with enough cash to get the series.”

Thanks to Trevor Monaghan for providing supplemental info