Amazon launches dedicated anime streaming service in the US

Rui

Rui

Karamatsu Boy
Administrator
So Amazon (US) is now entering the anime streaming business properly, instead of squatting on 1-2 titles per season and making people pay a full Prime subscription for the pleasure.

Amazon U.S. Launches Anime Strike Paid Streaming Service

This is half interesting and half scary. Crunchyroll has the better platform and simulcast spread by far, but if Amazon stop banking on exclusives and regional locks and start working on bringing their service up (and beyond?) Crunchyroll's they could be a very serious contender. And they're in a good position to fill out their catalogue with stuff Crunchyroll can't get.

R
 
Very interesting. Will be curious if this launches in the UK. Amazon has a lot more money than CR does, so if they were willing to throw their money around and grab a bunch of catalogue titles on top of getting the majority of Simulcasts, they could be on to a winner.
 
Yes, I was just thinking the other day that the missing piece in the Amazon puzzle was their lack of a bundled up anime service to entice those who aren't interested in the full Prime Video spread, and lo, here it is. I hope that they can work through the questionable aspects of their service (player is garbage on non-Amazon devices, lack of any worthwhile global support, no proper schedule like CR/Funi, throwing down silly money for exclusives and changing the face of anime licensing). If they can, this could be awesome. If they can't, I'd prefer them to stop squatting on exclusives and let CR cater to its crowd while they induct a whole new audience of fans and catalogue-watchers into the legal streaming goodness.

R
 
I think this is actually good, as the tie up of Crunchyroll and Funimation eradicated any competition. Amazon has the money and technology to do something good, provided they actually put effort and care into it.

Edit: You have to pay for Prime first, then you can subscribe to Anime Strike? Screw that.
 
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Buzz201 said:
Edit: You have to pay for Prime first, then you can subscribe to Anime Strike? Screw that.
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Basically this ^

I am very uninterested in using Amazon for anime. Their player sucks on our connection and I'd much rather everything was on Crunchyroll rather than having to split subscriptions between multiple different places.

It's potentially not a bad thing if they put the effort in to improve the service and become better than Crunchyroll, but will they pour the money in to get the rights to all the silly shows CR bother with? Probably not and then you're still having to sub in different places. I'd be interested to check it out if they fix the players as we have Prime anyway (and it launches in the UK), but for now I'm not very optimistic - especially with the amount of players who come into the market and then leave again (Viewster).
 
Demelza said:
Basically this ^

I am very uninterested in using Amazon for anime. Their player sucks on our connection and I'd much rather everything was on Crunchyroll rather than having to split subscriptions between multiple different places.

It's potentially not a bad thing if they put the effort in to improve the service and become better than Crunchyroll, but will they pour the money in to get the rights to all the silly shows CR bother with? Probably not and then you're still having to sub in different places. I'd be interested to check it out if they fix the players as we have Prime anyway (and it launches in the UK), but for now I'm not very optimistic - especially with the amount of players who come into the market and then leave again (Viewster).
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The trouble I have is that Crunchyroll don't seem to give a **** about actually improving anymore. Miles is indicative of their stupid, ignorant attitude and I just wish they weren't so arrogant. So I want Amazon to do well, and to waive the Prime requirement, purely in the hope that Crunchyroll gets a boot up the arse.
 
Wait, you have to pay twice? What are they on? This makes absolutely no sense unless it's a standalone deal o_O

I honestly don't mind having two (cheap) subscriptions if both have decent players and a decent spread of anime shows, but the deal always seems to be one good service (CR) with apps, catalogue, simulcasts, actual good service plus one absolute trash service (currently Animax) which just gets carried by a handful of exclusives they bribed UK distributors for despite being terrible. General media outlets like Prime or Netflix squatting on a single show I want to watch on the assumption that their not-even-anime catalogue offerings will be a great deal just aggravates the heck out of me. Not everyone is buying a subscription for their entire family and desperately loves The Grand Tour or other mainstream exclusives to sweeten the deal.

I wish I was clever enough to write a scathing headline incorporating the name of the service and the 'strikes out' idiom.

R
 
Buzz201 said:
The trouble I have is that Crunchyroll don't seem to give a **** about actually improving anymore. Miles is indicative of their stupid, ignorant attitude and I just wish they weren't so arrogant. So I want Amazon to do well, and to waive the Prime requirement, purely in the hope that Crunchyroll gets a boot up the arse.
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Them getting FUNI means there isnt a competition so if Netflix or amazon improves it can be good. As competition causes better situations for customers
 
Competition is great so long as they compete on services provided, rather than slicing the content up and each providing 50% of the value a single market leader would have in the first place. I'd rather competition took the form of fewer exclusives and Amazon brought their player and catalogue up to speed to make them an actual rival to Crunchyroll. Instead they seem to have created a much more expensive version of Crunchyroll with hardly any new content to make it worthwhile, and a player so bad it makes Animax's look ok.

Making Crunchyroll sweat if they delay/screw up/pass something over? Heck yeah. Force everyone to pay for multiple inferior services in the name of quality? No thanks.

R
 
I'm not really sure that I agree with the idea that splitting the content I want to watch over more than one service is good for me as a consumer tbh. I mean I understand the sentiment of it but I'd honestly rather pay for 1 service than have to pay for 2 or 3, granted I have zero issues with Crunchyroll so perhaps that's why, as is they get most of what I want to watch anyway (although I guess I don't really watch a huge amount each season...).
 
Wow, this seems to have fallen flat on its face really before it's got going. Really can't see anyone buying into this unless a subscription can be acquired without a Prime subscription.

Edit:

Michael Paull, Amazon's vice president of digital video and head of Amazon Channels, said, “With anime in particular, there's a strong, passionate audience that is underserved by traditional pay TV.”
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That's ******* hilarious.
 
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I would've been ok with this, if they treated it as a separate entity, but because it's essentially behind two paywalls at once, it begs the question of what the hell where they on? Noone is going to go out of their way to spend an upfront joining fee of $84.98 to start using the streaming service for anime. I just see it as a major oversight. I know they are focusing a lot of pushing Prime, but this takes the cake
 
I'd rather have competition from Animax than Amazon.

How anyone can act as though this is a good thing is beyond me.

Amazon really is trying damn hard to raise itself to the status of being the greatest enemy of this fandom.
 
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So what are they offering me over what I've had with Amazon prime for the last 12 months?

I doubt I'll pay for this but it's concerning to think what sway they might have in taking licenses from CR and funi. The only positive is i remember one studio declining a deal with Amazon because they had no interest in physical home media, can't remember who it was though.
 
britguy said:
So what are they offering me over what I've had with Amazon prime for the last 12 months?

I doubt I'll pay for this but it's concerning to think what sway they might have in taking licenses from CR and funi. The only positive is i remember one studio declining a deal with Amazon because they had no interest in physical home media, can't remember who it was though.
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You can't. This is US only, and the shows you've been getting haven't been on Amazon US.


There was a rumour that Amazon had bid aggressively for My Hero Academia, forcing Funimation into paying a huge amount. Ultimately losing, because Toho wanted a partner who could also handle home video. Don't know how true it is though.
 
Buzz201 said:
You can't. This is US only, and the shows you've been getting haven't been on Amazon US.


There was a rumour that Amazon had bid aggressively for My Hero Academia, forcing Funimation into paying a huge amount. Ultimately losing, because Toho wanted a partner who could also handle home video. Don't know how true it is though.
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I know i can't. I was talking hypothetically about when/if they offer it here ;)
 
At that time, you'll find your existing Prime catalogue smaller and be able to pay extra to restore it to its former size on the vague promise that this will fund improvements in future, I guess. Unless it catastrophically fails in the US, in which case maybe it will never leave those borders.

I think it can only possibly sound like a good idea to Amazon marketing executives who already have Prime and can't imagine life without it. If you can (and do) live without Prime already, it seems like the worst deal in the history of anime streaming services. I wish Netflix and Amazon would just keep their paws off simultaneous licenses entirely unless they intend to take simulcast fans seriously.

R
 
Interesting, but as I said when FUNimation launched over here, I'm good with my Crunchy sub, I doubt they'd get enough Anime to get me to part with any more money...
 
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