That Whole AT-X Thing
I recall I went “LOL WTH” when CrunchyRoll announced their partnership with TV Tokyo. It’s srsbzns.
But now that we got this juicy piece from the horse’s mouth about TV Tokyo’s strategy for the next few years, it’s good time to look at the whole progression. And…all I’m going to do is point you to Shizuki’s take.
Anyhoo, here’s the interesting part[:]
“Online broadcasting/streaming isn’t just for paid membership & ad revenue, but to curtail the motivation of fansubbers who devote their life to fansubbing by providing subtitles for shows before they can get to it, which will prevent illegal downloads.”I’m on the camp that thinks stopping fansubs won’t save the industry. Fansubs or not, those who download copies for free aren’t going to turn around & buy anime if they don’t think it’s worth paying for. It’s getting them to think “I want to own this” [that] is important.
But then again, I could see why Toei, TV Tokyo, Shueisha, Gonzo among others are teaming up with Crunchyroll. It was an illegal download site (still is for some part?), but it was a site they thought they could control… than say some IRC channel? If it’s going to be made available elsewhere, why not use a site that’ll pay up & provide user data?
I think this basically nails it. One key thing to remember and to recognize, for everyone, as it’s more or less factual, is that online anime delivery is posed to not compete with physical delivery, so to speak. It exists in a space to compete with free and illegal alternatives. People who don’t want this online nonsense and wants to stick to DVDs shouldn’t even really worry about it. Blu-Ray is not going to “fail,” etc.
Without diving into details (you can read it @ the link above), and purposely avoiding looking at the statistics in the face, it’s good to see Japanese recognition of how their model of business will not be viable on a global scale, at least in the near term. But at the same time I hope this leads to some tangible changes.
And it’s my sincere hope that CR and other similar initiatives that compete on the online broadcast space see success. But, I guess that means we’re back to square one–how the hell does the industry monetize cheap/free digital delivery?
Simple, they should start selling physical media and goods overseas. Most anime bring in nothing but losses with TV broadcasts anyway. Why don’t they take a plunge, pay $100 for an episode translation, leave CR a good portion of their ad revenue to keep them happy, make the episodes free simulbroadcast for everyone–basically go through digital delivery without setting up any profit expectations from the service alone (they did the same thing with ef - a tale of melodies. and to a lesser extent with Hetalia, Candy Boy etc)–and begin aggressive goods solicitation. They need to open up distribution venues, which is basically their only problem.
Agreed. They pretty much need to do a worldwide broadcast online (maybe with advertisements) and then just push merchandising through DVDs and Blu-ray. Or do something similar to Xam’d.
>> and begin aggressive goods solicitation.
I think that is a big step to take. It’s not only expensive, there’s no reason to believe those efforts will break even.