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[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Looks like Sony owning both Funimation and Crunchyroll might violate antitrust laws, so an investigation has seemingly been launched.

I didn't really even consider the possibility but thinking on it now, Funimation and Crunchyroll combined do make up the vast majority of anime distribution in the West. Central Park, Media Blasters, Discotek, Manga Entertainment, Viz Media (technically they still distribute some titles but that's through deals with Funimation and Crunchyroll), AD Vision etc. are all gone, or merged/co-distribute in some way with Funimation or Crunchyroll in the Americas and parts of Europe.

So, I can see how antitrust concerns could be a possibility in this situation. Welp, we'll see where the chips land, but it's also possible that Crunchyroll either remains independent or gets purchased by another suitor.

 

[T8SC]

Says it all.

 

[LRKD]

Absolutely shouldn't go through, just like the Disney Fox purchase. But just like the Disney Fox purchase it probably will go through.
I dislike most all buyouts, the more companies the better. Less choices and options is always a bad thing.

On a side note both Crunchyroll, and Funimation are terrible, and shouldn't be supported.

 

[GeorgPrime]

They are not called Disney. So antitrust laws are getting them

 

[AJUMP23]

are they both anime distributors or creators. I know crunchy is a distributor. I guess it comes down do you think owning both limits the ability for people to access the content.

 

[Jubenhimer]

Good. Sony doesn't need THREE anime distributors (Funi, Aniplex, Crunchy), thus monopolizing the industry in the U.S. I'd rather Crunchyroll either stay at WarnerMedia, or go to somebody else.

 

[sol_bad]

Says it all.

It doesn't say anything.
Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and even A24 are all separate movie studios. Disney are far from owning all available movie and entertainment content.

Sony owning Funimation and Crunchyroll would be a majority ownership though.

Sentai Filmworks has about 4-8 releases per month and no streaming as far as I am aware.
Aniplex rarely releases any title and their releases seem to be limited and expensive.
Viz have very limited releases and licenses, again skipping months with no releases.
Discotek primarily focuses on retro titles.
AnimEigo have very limited licenses.
Media Blasters, very limited licenses.

 

[Arkam]

It doesn't say anything.
Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and even A24 are all separate movie studios. Disney are far from owning all available movie and entertainment content.

Sony owning Funimation and Crunchyroll would be a majority ownership though.

Sentai Filmworks has about 4-8 releases per month and no streaming as far as I am aware.
Aniplex rarely releases any title and their releases seem to be limited and expensive.
Viz have very limited releases and licenses, again skipping months with no releases.
Discotek primarily focuses on retro titles.
AnimEigo have very limited licenses.
Media Blasters, very limited licenses.

So you are saying they could produce and distribute Anime if they wanted? Cool no issues here then.

Also doesn't Disney have Studio Ghibli distribution rights in the US? Yea more I think about this, the less I see any issue of antitrust.

 

[sol_bad]

So you are saying they could produce and distribute Anime if they wanted? Cool no issues here then.

Also doesn't Disney have Studio Ghibli distribution rights in the US? Yea more I think about this, the less I see any issue of antitrust.

Shout Factory are distributing the Ghibli films on blu ray at the moment. HBO Max has the streaming rights.

 

[Arkam]

Shout Factory are distributing the Ghibli films on blu ray at the moment. HBO Max has the streaming rights.

Thanks for that tidbit. Didnt know they lost the distro rights. But a couple articles I just skimmed says as much. Ill probably end up reading more on how/why that happened. They are fantastic property to have rights to them.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

are they both anime distributors or creators. I know crunchy is a distributor. I guess it comes down do you think owning both limits the ability for people to access the content.

That's the interesting part because I was also watching a Clownfish vid talking about it, and they mentioned of the other distribution companies/streaming platforms plus the fact several Japanese studios are doing their own streaming initiatives like Retrocrush. Bandai have their own channel on Youtube for official Gundam content as another example.

So it's kind of debatable if Sony owning both Funimation & Crunchyroll actually constitutes a monopoly; they would just have the two biggest players but in terms of actual distributor/platform count that's only two out of many other options. Then again, that particular argument didn't work for Microsoft in the '90s when they got hit with their antitrust lawsuit: there were technically other alternatives to Windows for OSes and IE for web browsers, but collectively those alternatives made up a small fraction of marketshare.

And that's probably how this is being viewed by the investigators: not in terms of # of overall players, but their relative marketshares. So again, Sony'd only have two distributors under their belt (if it goes through), but they'd have a large amount of the marketshare for Western distributors of anime content. Sony are arguing for anime to be viewed in the context of "general animation", like The Simpsons or Family Guy, to argue against the antitrust probe but....I doubt that's going to work xD. Maybe if they were doing this in the '90s, because the West as a whole was less knowledgeable of anime, especially the mainstream.

Nowadays while the term anime TECHNICALLY only refers to animation that's from Japan, it's created its own culture and industry both figuratively and literally, enough so to be viewed as distinct from Western animation. Even those in the mainstream who aren't big watchers probably view it along these lines, hence why I don't think that argument's going to hold up well in the probe.

It doesn't say anything.
Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and even A24 are all separate movie studios. Disney are far from owning all available movie and entertainment content.

Sony owning Funimation and Crunchyroll would be a majority ownership though.

Sentai Filmworks has about 4-8 releases per month and no streaming as far as I am aware.
Aniplex rarely releases any title and their releases seem to be limited and expensive.
Viz have very limited releases and licenses, again skipping months with no releases.
Discotek primarily focuses on retro titles.
AnimEigo have very limited licenses.
Media Blasters, very limited licenses.

Yeah, when you look at it in terms of marketshare (which is usually how antitrust cases are viewed), Sony would easily hold the vast majority for anime distribution in the West. Some of the other distributors you listed, also have some licensing agreements with...Funimation and Crunchyroll, both of whom Sony already own.

 

[YCoCg]

No doubt Sony will get rejected just in time for Disney to swoop in and buy Crunchy Roll instead.

 

[NahaNago]

I honestly thought this would go through since they were just the distributing partners for the anime studios. Plus anime is still on tons of other streaming services.

 

[The Pleasure]

Shout Factory are distributing the Ghibli films on blu ray at the moment. HBO Max has the streaming rights.

It's not Shout Factory it's Gkids that has the distribution rights to Ghibli films at the moment. I had both Disney and Gkids releases. The Gkids ones have nicer slipcovers.

 

[sol_bad]

It's not Shout Factory it's Gkids that has the distribution rights to Ghibli films at the moment. I had both Disney and Gkids releases. The Gkids ones have nicer slipcovers.

I think Gkids have the theatrical rights and then Shout Factory have the home distribution rights licensed via Gkids.
If you check Shout Factories site you'll find all of the Ghibli films except Wind Rises.

Search: 76 results found for "ghibli"

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Spirited Away

"Nothing less than magical!" – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal Winner of the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature,* Hayao Miyazaki's wondrous fantasy adventure is a dazzling masterpiece from one of the most celebrated filmmakers in the history of animation. Chihiro's family is...

www.shoutfactory.com

Spirited Away [Collector's Edition]

"Nothing less than magical!" – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal This limited-edition set comes housed in an elegant hard slipcase and includes a new 40-page book with stunning art and essays. Featured in a deluxe disc portfolio is a Blu-ray of the film paired with hours of special...

www.shoutfactory.com

 

[IntentionalPun]

What a strange thing for an anti-trust probe to really care about.. like why should "anime streaming" be considered it's own market?

I guess it's the fault of the services being exclusively anime based.. but they are just small-ish video streaming services, and I imagine that will be Sony's argument.

 

[HoodWinked]

Seems anti trusty but If it means more expensive anime leading to less weebs it's a sacrifice I'm willing to take.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

What a strange thing for an anti-trust probe to really care about.. like why should "anime streaming" be considered it's own market?

I guess it's the fault of the services being exclusively anime based.. but they are just small-ish video streaming services, and I imagine that will be Sony's argument.

It wouldn't necessarily be a great argument though; anime's popularity has exploded in the West the past five or so years, I'd argue it's even more mainstream now than it was in the late '90s/early '00s when Pokemon and Toonami got it major exposure. It's also a multi-billion dollar industry, and I don't think an industry's size in relation to other industries necessarily matters when discussing antitrust violations in the specific market as marketshare is looked at within the realm of whatever industry is under the spotlight, not relative industries.

That said in terms of sheer # of anime streaming platforms there are quite a lot of them in the West, so Sony having ownership of just two of them in that context isn't a big deal. The issue seems more in terms of how big both of those platforms they own are in terms of marketshare. However, another important thing to prove in such cases is that the company with such a majority marketshare is leveraging it to actively suppress competitors and their ability to compete!

That is something which probably cannot be proven, as Sony's only recently purchased Crunchyroll, and we have seen quite a few Japanese anime studios either set up distribution agreements with other options (Netflix, Hulu etc.) or doing their own via stuff like RetroCrush on Youtube, or Bandai's Youtube page for officially streaming tons of Gundam series. Unless Sony starts setting up anti-competitive practices or strict contracts preventing anime studios from setting up deals with other streaming platforms etc., then that part of the case will be very hard to argue as something Sony are actively doing.