FUNimation Commands America’s Anime Market
In a conference call discussing his company’s latest quarterly financial results Navarre CEO Cary L. Deacon revealed that FUNimation commands a “56% to 60%” share of America’s commercial anime distribution. Furthermore, Deacon asserted that FUNimation has “a first look at all opportunities in terms of licenses. We’re seeing them all, we have an opportunity to bid on them all.” Although, Deacon explained, FUNimation is presently, “pretty selective” about its licensing choices.
Source: ICv2
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Deacon is a bit misleading. FUNimation doesn’t simply “have an opportunity to bid on them all” because they’re somehow privileged… it’s because they’re the market share leader (and have been for a few years now). ICv2 sort of implies they are mutually exclusive. Their business partners are likely to option FUNi first because the chance for retail success and domestic exposure is higher.
No, it’s not because they are privileged.
Or, rather, if they’re privileged, it’s because they are basically all that is left.
We now have a functional monopoly on new anime in this country, and this is exactly the strategy that Fukunaga went on when he acquired both the Sojitz and Geneon markets in mid-2008.
Fukunaga and Funimation now have over half (and closer to 2/3) of the US industry, and Viz (who shows little to no real interest in developing new titles (or even finishing many of the ones they have) gets most of the rest.
Gen Fukunaga has won.
It’s now a question of whether what he has won being like the “Planet X” that Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian were going after (or, more like, what was left of it by the time they were done).