Crunchyroll Averaging 70,000 Paid Subscribers (Upd 3/2013: 200,000)

[WTK]

via TFP

Numbers are usually hard to come by in the anime world and even when we do it’s more anecdotal than firm, but a bit of new information out of AnimeAnime.biz indicates that Crunchyroll is doing what the Japanese licensors had hoped for. With Crunchyroll being at the forefront of legal digital distribution in 2009 when it went that route, it’s carved out a good base that’s seeing more competition coming on ever since, causing them to have to focus more on presentation as well as diversity of product each season. According to the article, Crunchyroll has about 70,000 paying customers at this time, which was revealed during a conference call last week. In reading the piece, it looks as if the company had about 30,000 paying members in the summer of 2010 and has grown significantly over the past year, at the same time that we’ve seen a more pronounced push from The Anime Network, Viz Media, FUNimation and the Japanese entry of Nico Nico.

Not surprisingly, the strong partnership with TV Tokyo has helped to get all of this off the ground and it’s helping to show that overseas delivery of episodes on a weekly basis is a new revenue stream that can be achieved. Even more importantly, though not to the same level as the Japanese see important to deal with in their home region, is that it is cutting down on illegal distribution. No solid numbers are produced, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence with fansub groups putting out less, going after fewer shows and in some cases giving up much earlier in the run as the simulcasts grow and are often coming associated with home video licenses through other companies as well.


[Source: AnimeAnime.biz]

[Damius]

That's really good for them and for us since it means they may be able to get even more shows.

[WTK]

via TFP

Crunchyroll Hits 100,000 Paying Subscribers

A new piece up over at Gigaom.com has broken the news this morning that Crunchyroll has now surpassed 100,000 paying subscribers for its varied Japanese, Koren and other Asian content, be it live action or animation. The piece goes through some of the basics of the company’s history which is fairly well known to most of those that follow them, but it has some interesting quotes from those that work at the service as they go on about how they now show between 80 to 85% of new anime that’s broadcast in Japan.

“We legitimized an iTunified the Anime space.”

What isn’t a surprise is that one of the bigger boosts to the company’s bottom line and subscriber base has been the way it’s moved beyond simple web streaming of series. With its apps on the various mobile platforms and other services, especially the PlayStation 3 now, it’s able to get its name out into more places and faces and far more ease of access, something that we’ve long talked about in the anime space. Once Crunchyroll ends up in front of more people, more people know, sample and subscribe. We’re still waiting for a Tivo app though.

[h/t to Wipeout31]

[something]

Originally Posted by WTK

A new piece up over at Gigaom.com has broken the news this morning that Crunchyroll has now surpassed 100,000 paying subscribers for its varied Japanese, Koren and other Asian content, be it live action or animation.

100,000 paying at least $5 a month means half a million bucks a month, or $6 mil a year if those numbers hold as sustainable averages. Seems decent.

I'm guessing it's a couple hundred bucks max to sub an episode, and they're running some 35 anime right now * 4 eps a month. Call it 150 eps a month to round it. Say it costs $500 (or whatever) an episode to sub and do other related administrative tasks, less for the 2-5 minute shows. Monthly costs for that sort of work would be about $75k. Then there's hosting, marketing, payroll, and of course the license fees and revenue sharing with Japanese rights holders. I don't know what it adds up to but it seems like $500k a month could cover it. There's also whatever they make in advertising revenue for free viewers, which I assume is modest but not game-changing.

I'm ignoring live action dramas, as I don't know how much they change things. I suppose they wouldn't do it if they didn't break even.

Crunchyroll's situation is only half of it, there's also what's going back to the production committees in Japan. But there too, I assume they wouldn't do it if it weren't seen at the very least as a low-risk break-even that pays off in a decent profit even if only indirectly. The fact that CR has such a massive cut of each season on their site would suggest it's only getting more and more attractive to Japan.

[FUNiOP]

Great to see so many people paying the extremely reasonable cost for such a great service.

[Damius]

Well, that sure is some awesome news. They are the best by far.

[Damius]

Originally Posted by something

Crunchyroll's situation is only half of it, there's also what's going back to the production committees in Japan. But there too, I assume they wouldn't do it if it weren't seen at the very least as a low-risk break-even that pays off in a decent profit even if only indirectly. The fact that CR has such a massive cut of each season on their site would suggest it's only getting more and more attractive to Japan.

Well, recently Sentai is licensing almost all simulcast that is on CR. I think I heard Sentai said that CR pays them to simulcast a show. It may be more profitable for Japan that way and one of the reason CR has a bigger cut.

[xScar]

Originally Posted by something

Say it costs $500 (or whatever) an episode to sub and do other related administrative tasks, less for the 2-5 minute shows.

I can assure you it's much lower than that. It's ridiculous how low the pay is for those subtitling the series for CR. You have three people max on a subtitle script. Even adding the person responsible for coming up with the encoding process for the many encodes needed per episode, that's still only four people. I know they're not getting $100 per episode. This is probably their smallest expenditure.

[Buckeye]

That's quite an accomplishment, and I am glad that there are so many subscribers for this great service. I held out on subscribing since I had an uber-slow internet connection that made it problematic for me to play high-quality streams, which was upgraded a year ago. I must say that after becoming a subscriber, I can say that I am kicking myself in the head for not subscribing sooner. Now, I wish that Funi and Neon Alley can take note of CR's success and give us something comparable in quality.

[Damius]

Originally Posted by Buckeye

Now, I wish that Funi and Neon Alley can take note of CR's success and give us something comparable in quality.

Way more simple: Just let CR do the job.