Ask John: How Effective Are Streaming Sites at Supporting the Anime Industry?
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Question:
What do you think about streaming services like Daisuki or Crunchyroll? Are they a good response to the animation industy’s claim of insulating themselves against piracy and illegal downloading?
Answer:
North American-based or targeted anime streaming services including Crunchyroll, Daisuki, The Anime Network, and AnimeSols are undoubtedly a positive development from the anime industry as they’ve provided a greater degree of international distribution control over anime to Japan’s anime distribution industry than the industry has ever had before. But these streaming sites presently seem to be primarily a means of advertising and promoting anime more than an effective supplemental revenue stream. Crunchyroll, for example, hasn’t made any recent public statements regarding its profitability. While the site did claim to have reached a break-even point several years ago, there’s no certainty that the site is now profitable because the larger number of titles that Crunchyroll streams now engender larger distribution royalties and fees. Furthermore, the anime industry is primarily supported by revenue generated through home video and merchandise sales, yet none of the primary North American anime streaming sites presently sell DVDs or Blu-ray discs as a primary source of revenue.
AnimeSols is an ideal reference point for examination of North American anime streaming. AnimeSols is completely owned and operated by the YTV network and anime studios Pierrot, Tezuka Productions, and Tatsunoko Productions. The anime series streamed on AnimeSols are owned by AnimeSols, thus the site doesn’t have to pay any licensing fees. However, AnimeSols does still pay out large amounts of money for the right to stream anime because the site must pay risidual royalties to the affiliated studios, artists, musicians, and technicians that contributed to the production of these anime. Naturally, we can assume that sites like Crunchyroll, Daisuki, and The Anime Network that are streaming shows that they don’t own have to pay even more fees and royalties for the rights to publicly distribute these shows. Crunchyroll and The Anime Network charge minimal subscription fees. Sites like NicoNico, Daisuki, and AnimeSols don’t collect any fees for access. While advertising revenue offsets some of the expense of maintaining these sites, one can assume that many, if not all of the North American anime streaming sites are generating minimal profit, if any profit at all.
The advantage of official streaming sites is studios having the ability to oversee the translation and availability of their anime. Official streaming has made studio and distributor names like “Aniplex,” “Sunrise,” and “Toei” commonly recognized name brands in the international otaku community when these studios were not widely recognized brands among average anime viewers just five years ago. But consider that Crunchyroll now has over 200,000 paying subscribers. This year’s Anime Expo admitted 61,000 anime fans, yet typical domestic anime DVD and Blu-ray releases sell fewer than 5,000 copies. North America is home to over 520 million people, yet only roughly 35 of them volunteered to purchase Yatterman DVDs produced by AnimeSols. Anime streaming sites have been a tremendous boon to international anime viewers, and these sites have tremendously increased the international recognition of Japanese anime studios and their current productions. But these sites aren’t generating big profits that will sustain Japan’s anime industry. The producers of last season’s Karneval anime series recently announced that any possibility of a second season will hinge on home video sales; they didn’t mention support from streaming viewers because official anime streaming, at best, only manages to avoid losing money.
Like every other international otaku, I’m pleased that official anime streaming sites exist now. These sites have made great strides toward indoctrinating new anime fans and expanding awareness and respect for Japanese animation. So long as these sites continue to attract attention, they’ll continue to exist. But the goal of providing free or low-cost access to anime is to encourage home video sales that fund the anime production industry. And so far that goal is not being successfully met.
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It is depressing to me that despite my good intentions I seem to have no way to support the animé and manga industry. I was going to sign up on CrunchyRoll but they block downloading and they don’t have many shows I am interested in.
GoGo Anime looks more promising, tons of shows to choose from and I can download them in HD from their sister site AnimeDownloadsOnline, but I smell something fishy. $10 a month is very cheap for so much content and nowhere do they have an “About Us” page or FAQ stating that they pay to air these shows. If they don’t say, then they probably don’t. 🙁
The anime and manga industry has got to get it’s act together, they need to unite and establish an official, approved online service that will pay them a fair price for their media. They can’t rely on a very few people who have lots of cash to spare who are willing to buy DVD’s and Blu-Rays out of sheer goodwill and solidarity. It’s ridiculous! You can’t make money that way. I would rather take 1% of $1billion than take 10% of $1million.
I can NOT afford to buy animé dvd’s, it is too expensive and TBH is often poor value compared to mainstream media. Also, the best subbing all seems to be on unlicensed versions of animes and mangas! Why? It makes no sense. Why would I buy an expensive DVD with poor subbing rather than get it for free with good, accurate subbing?
And finally, there is the price of direct imports.. holy crap they are EXPENSIVE. £90+ £15 for a 16 episode box set? No.
I want to pay a fair price, but I want good value too.
The above comment is just another example of how devalued anime is in the international anime fandom, and the lack of recognition of how seriously niche it is. Guess what: The anime industry is largely propped up by sales of “import”-priced box sets. If Japanese superfans (which typically number in just the thousands for any given series) didn’t shell out for those, there would be very little anime produced every year, and almost all of it would be mainstream fare (One Piece etc).
I’ve always wondered how much money Crunchyroll contributes to the industry. 200,000 paid subscribers × $50 = $10M, which seems pretty nice. But who knows what their overhead is, and how much goes back to the “production committees” behind the anime titles they license. A season’s worth of anime takes something like $2M to $4M to produce, IIRC.
“The above comment is just another example of how devalued anime is in the international anime fandom, and the lack of recognition of how seriously niche it is. Guess what: The anime industry is largely propped up by sales of “import”-priced box sets. If Japanese superfans (which typically number in just the thousands for any given series) didn’t shell out for those, there would be very little anime produced every year, and almost all of it would be mainstream fare (One Piece etc).”
This is sad, but true. 🙁
This is simply going to be the state of things when streaming pushes physical media out of the picture completely. Since anime is niche, there are fewer distributors bringing it over here, which equals higher prices (because no one can afford $20 – $40 for a set, but will pay hundreds to cosplay their OCs) and less availability. Its way easier to just download a bootleg or stream a show (legally or not).
Mainstream media is more stubborn to change, but its getting there. Netflix can’t update their catalog to save their lives, but as physical media sales die out in favor of cheaper, more convenient streaming, you’ll see all media follow anime, and streaming will hopefully be a cheaper, more enjoyable alternative.
Until they take your favorite show away from you and you can never see it again because you didn’t believe in owning it!