Crunchyroll to Broadcast Linebarrels of Iron

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by houkoholic

There's a trickle down effect though. Assuming you have 1 big guy and 3 small guys and they all say the same thing (or worst, the small guys would say "I can't compete with Big Guy's marketing and brand power so I can only pay you even less"), the net return is probably less than having the big guy just buy it out for exclusivness, and I think that's the problem the company faces, sort of like how having one big TV station compared to having to get airtime from the 5 smaller regionals. That's the thing the anime companies don't want to deal with.

But consider this: Most (if not all) late night anime broadcast in Japan is PAID FOR by the animation studio. They PAY the tv station to broadcast it.
The tv station demands exclusivity or they'd ask for even more money. At least with streaming sites, chances are that the streaming sites (who want to draw traffic with as much content as possible) would actually be paying the companies to stream their shows.

Personally I think that most of the reluctance is coming from the traditional TV stations and the suits in the animation companies who can't see beyond the old-fashioned business models. So far, only Gonzo has really gone off into a newer mold, but it seems like the TV stations in Japan aren't letting them be "truly" worldwide, yet.

[houkoholic]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

But consider this: Most (if not all) late night anime broadcast in Japan is PAID FOR by the animation studio. They PAY the tv station to broadcast it.

This I know, the anime/TV time slot case is unique, I was making this comparison in the general TV show sense. I should've been more clear.

Personally I think that most of the reluctance is coming from the traditional TV stations and the suits in the animation companies who can't see beyond the old-fashioned business models. So far, only Gonzo has really gone off into a newer mold, but it seems like the TV stations in Japan aren't letting them be "truly" worldwide, yet.

It's probably true, but I have reasons to believe that even Gonzo doesn't really think that globally and that they are prepared to go back to regioning if given the choice, as I have a suspicion that regioning exclusivity sales are still way more profitable. Case in point, GDH recently teamed up with some net cafe chain in Singapore to deal out their content VOD style in those cafes, and I've been hearing reports that people in Singapore have trouble accessing Gonzo shows on CR and greeted with "not available in your region" messages. Co-incidence? I personally think not.... But you decide.

Another related point in a tangent to consider - Funimation made the famous claim that they would not purchase a license if the license dooes not include internet rights. Now if they actually mean it in the sense that they have to have *exclusive internet rights in the R1 region*, that throws even more complications into the licensing deals for the anime companies here in Japan when they decide on whether to make the shows available online or not.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by houkoholic

Another related point in a tangent to consider - Funimation made the famous claim that they would not purchase a license if the license dooes not include internet rights. Now if they actually mean it in the sense that they have to have *exclusive internet rights in the R1 region*, that throws even more complications into the licensing deals for the anime companies here in Japan when they decide on whether to make the shows available online or not.

If funimation takes the position that they won't license anything which has already been available online in the R1 region, then they wouldn't license anything EVER, since everything is online already (illegally, but still).
It would be foolish and illogical for them to demand that the internet rights they have be a "premier".
They already have the advantage of being the only option for watching the show DUBBED, and they have various other advantages like their itunes and other download store/cell phone channels. Competition from fansubs blunts any negative impact that legal competition from a streaming site like crunchyroll might give. On the other hand, it might be a good business practice to threaten those sites into giving funi a cut of their profits .