Anime Central to be taken off the air!

[Project-2501]

Oh Come on. It's not all the fans fault. It doesn't help when the channel starts out great guns then lets it free wheel to a dead stop without support, or advertising the channel to the outside world.

Would you have rather spent money advertising or on more shows? They advertised at the London Expo and Amecon last year. It was all over the UK forums long before the channel launch. If they did not have any advertising at all then how did they get the 80-100k weekly viewing figures in the first 2 month?

I'm not saying its all the fans fault, but rather than wait for AC to show the next eps of the show they liked, a lot did go off to fansubs and never came back. Its the "I must see the next ep NOW" attitude and the AC forum is littered with such messages.

But without the viewers no channel can survive and the viewers have to take the rough with the smooth. And when things got rough the viewers up and left.

If they had no intention of carring on with new titles after their initial start ups then they really shouldn't have started at all.

Rather defeatest attitude. Surely its better that they at least tried even if it failed. I know from talking to Mark last year that he DID have plans for the future of the channel.

It was far from the ideal setup for an anime channel but he worked with what he was given. It was better than nothing and you can't deny that.

But they obviously know what's best for their business, and don't need to listen to their viewers suggestions.

They work in TV and seem to be quite successful, so yes, they probably do know whats best for their business. Whats good for business and whats good for us is rarely the same though. Otherwise we'd have anime on lots of channels.

 

[Mohawk52]

Would you have rather spent money advertising or on more shows?

Both, because it is necessary.

They advertised at the London Expo and Amecon last year. It was all over the UK forums long before the channel launch. If they did not have any advertising at all then how did they get the 80-100k weekly viewing figures in the first 2 month?

Those are good audience figures, but that was just by preaching to the converted. Just think what figures they could have got if they had newspaper, TV guides and magazine ads, and I don't mean just Neo.

I'm not saying its all the fans fault, but rather than wait for AC to show the next eps of the show they liked, a lot did go off to fansubs and never came back. Its the "I must see the next ep NOW" attitude and the AC forum is littered with such messages.

All channels get churn like that, that's why they advertise to the masses to recover from it with fresh eyes.

But without the viewers no channel can survive and the viewers have to take the rough with the smooth. And when things got rough the viewers up and left.

Are you that surprised? The same thing would have happened if the BBC, or ITV, or Sky, did exactly what AC did, abandon the channel with a constant program loop. Did they really expect all those viewers to remain consistant, let alone increase, doing that? :roll:

If they had no intention of carring on with new titles after their initial start ups then they really shouldn't have started at all.

Rather defeatest attitude. Surely its better that they at least tried even if it failed. I know from talking to Mark last year that he DID have plans for the future of the channel.

It was far from the ideal setup for an anime channel but he worked with what he was given. It was better than nothing and you can't deny that.

I can and do. Better they never started, knowing that they were going to fail with new programming, than to go through all the grief, disapointing the audience, and wasting the money.

But they obviously know what's best for their business, and don't need to listen to their viewers suggestions.

They work in TV and seem to be quite successful, so yes, they probably do know whats best for their business. Whats good for business and whats good for us is rarely the same though. Otherwise we'd have anime on lots of channels.

On the contrary, they are both the same, because one depends on the other for success. The channel looked like a success when it started, because it was ready with a good platform. It's just a shame that that platform wasn't given enough fuel to carry on before it coasted to a stop.

 

[LeeDless]

My biggest worry about the failure of Anime Central is that it will discourage others from trying to launch an Anime channel in the future.
They'll look at how AC just fizzled out and died, concluding that an Anime channel simply won't ever work in the UK. For that, I blame CSC.

AC didn't do badly at all for what it was, it gained quite reasonable viewing figures during its peak and there was definite potential for growth. The trouble was CSC just didn't care, they were only interested in the fast buck.

I can't quite fathom just what CSC were thinking when they launched the channel. Obviously there would have been some long-term plan, just what criteria were they judging AC on before sanctioning the purchase of new shows?
Millions of people tuning in every night from the very start?

The channel did as well as you could possibly expect being launched with no advertising outside of the Anime media, only airing at night and on a pretty high EPG number.
It takes TIME for a niche channel like AC to gain popularity and a big audience, but CSC were not willing to wait, and they may have permanently scuppered the possibility of us ever getting a dedicated Anime channel in the UK as a result of their impatience and greed.

I hope they're happy.

 

[Project-2501]

Those are good audience figures, but that was just by preaching to the converted. Just think what figures they could have got if they had newspaper, TV guides and magazine ads, and I don't mean just Neo.

If you're advertising an anime channel why not advertise in Neo? CSC don't seem to bother advertising any of their channels.

Are you that surprised? The same thing would have happened if the BBC, or ITV, or Sky, did exactly what AC did, abandon the channel with a constant program loop. Did they really expect all those viewers to remain consistant, let alone increase, doing that? :roll:

But the channel was dying before the constant beshell repeats. The majority of the viewers had already abandoned. The viewing figures started to slip before xmas.

I can and do. Better they never started, knowing that they were going to fail with new programming, than to go through all the grief, disapointing the audience, and wasting the money.

Then the world is screwed. "Hmm.. this might work but it might not, well lets just not bother!".

Lets all hope Animax see the failure of TAN:UK and AC and do the right thing and never bother with a UK launch. :roll:

The channel looked like a success when it started, because it was ready with a good platform. It's just a shame that that platform wasn't given enough fuel to carry on before it coasted to a stop.

It was coasting to a stop even while it had new shows. The figures peaked with the second 'series' of bleach, .hack and wolfs and then declined from there on. Even though they had 3 new series after xmas the figures kept dropping.

So even with new shows, people were not continuing to watch. So why was that?

 

[LeeDless]

It was coasting to a stop even while it had new shows. The figures peaked with the second 'series' of bleach, .hack and wolfs and then declined from there on. Even though they had 3 new series after xmas the figures kept dropping.

So even with new shows, people were not continuing to watch. So why was that?

It happens with every channel, they all go through highs and lows in their viewing figures, the difference is most broadcasters will make a concerted effort to get their viewers back again rather than abandoning ship at the first sign of trouble.

 

[tomoismywife]

well it's now offically dead. Well Anime Central it was nice knowing ya!

 

[Project-2501]

It happens with every channel, they all go through highs and lows in their viewing figures, the difference is most broadcasters will make a concerted effort to get their viewers back again rather than abandoning ship at the first sign of trouble.

Find me a channel that has continued showing anime after poor viewing figures? SciFi? C4? BBC2? If something doesn't pull in the viewers they cut it.

Take a look at the CSC website, do you think the people who run the channel look like the types to support a loss making channel?

CSC could have thrown more money at AC and they could have showed something like Haruhi or deathnote but would it have saved the channel?

 

[LeeDless]

That's the point; we never had the chance to find out.

I think however that the declining viewing figures were a result of poor scheduling. When you've got a new channel and want to capture viewers the important thing is to maintain momentum, so repeating all six shows just a month after launch was a ridiculous decision; obviously viewers would start turning off.

Yes they introduced new series after that, which helped.
But they then spent Christmas once again running nothing but repeats, then the final three shows from the initially announced line-up were aired, but by then that wasn't enough.

 

[Project-2501]

The figures actually peaked towards the end of the first month of repeats of the initial series and continued high during the first showings of Bleach 'series 2', .hack, wolfs and SAC2. They started dropping off as those series were repeated.

One evening I must graph out the viewing figures vs schedule. When I'm really bored though

As I said, there was no more bleach so the momentum could not continue. What was their headline series came to an end outside their control.

 

[ConanThe3rd]

I think the underlining point is that people just can't seem to put the round peg in the round hole.

I mean, Gi Joe, for goodness sake, that's what Kix is for!

 

[Ammish]

I'm laughing that Conan is making his point, but people ignore him xD (I am a heartless moron to point that out)

So even with new shows, people were not continuing to watch. So why was that?

I think it's due to the fact that 1 episode a day is too fast for them. But like you said, they (the anime fans you called 'spoilt') want more. They can't be bothered waiting and just dive into the fansubs. But when it comes to the newbies, they try to catch up, it was too fast and basically gived up. I'm guessing they gived up the channel before xmas and never bothered to find out the new shows they were going to air in the new year.

I believe 1 episode a day was too fast for me. But I managed to watch all of GITS 1st gig and Witch Hunter Robin without any trouble (mostly because I was interested in them both).

I think that if it was better scheduled, with an ep or two per week, it would've stand a better chance. Not everyone have Sky+ and I'm guessing people are scrunching and saving to pay the bill on Sky for the other channels.

I gave up on AC once I finished watching WHR. Nothing interest me after that... But I'm just fussy about anime. In reality, I don't watch even many fansubs at all, and the ones I watched I'm collecting now.

I have great respect for the people 'who' brought anime central. But if Sony wants to bring Animax here, then they should try a different approach. I hope their 'Video on Demand' service does that.

 

[Project-2501]

They did put the round peg in the round hole

"We're not going to make money, pull the plug".

 

[ConanThe3rd]

They did put the round peg in the round hole

"We're not going to make money, pull the plug".

Correction, they put the square peg in the Round hole.

"DUHHH WE CNA GET PEOPLE TO ORU CHANNAL BY AIRING STUFF ON REPAT DUHHHHH@@@@@~"

assholes, hope they enjoy unemployment.

 

[Gawyn]

I think that if it was better scheduled, with an ep or two per week, it would've stand a better chance. Not everyone have Sky+ and I'm guessing people are scrunching and saving to pay the bill on Sky for the other channels.

But how would you propose to make that work? Licence 100+ shows so you could have a different schedule for each day? That is what you would require to round out the schedule. Considering an 8 hour block, that is 16 episodes per day (24 minutes per episode + adverts for 30 minutes total). Of course you cannot repeat the exact same episodes on the next day since that would make the majority of watchers turn off so that must have a different 16 titles. Repeat that for 7 days until the next week comes around and you have a grand total of 112 titles in total. Sure those 112 titles would last for 1/4 to 1/2 of the year but the cost of it would be astronomical without any idea on what if any the returns might be on your investment. There are no companies that could or would do that.

What you are suggesting is how it was originally intended to be shown on TV but is not sustainable on a channel dedicated to the medium of anime. As I suggested earlier anime has to be part of a larger whole to make it work. A weekly block in an existing channel is fine and possibly bi-weekly with a catchup period sometime later in the week. This is the approach that The Anime Network approached and is probably the best solution but even there they struggled to find advertisers to fund the block and make the investment worthwhile.

 

[KingJimmeh]

I think TAN:UK was the better of the 2 approaches (AC being the other), and think it could've just been helped by being on a stronger channel (Sci-Fi, Bravo, etc) rather than where it was.

I had no issue putting aside a Sunday night (or both Sat and Sun) to watch 2 hours of anime, especially NGE, Guyver, Elfen Lied and Coyote Ragtime Show, as they all seemed interesting and entertaining when I was watching the previews.

 

[Mohawk52]

Those are good audience figures, but that was just by preaching to the converted. Just think what figures they could have got if they had newspaper, TV guides and magazine ads, and I don't mean just Neo.

If you're advertising an anime channel why not advertise in Neo? CSC don't seem to bother advertising any of their channels.

Why not indeed, which they did for one issue. But I said not just Neo

But the channel was dying before the constant beshell repeats. The majority of the viewers had already abandoned. The viewing figures started to slip before xmas.

Sorry, but isn't that when most of what they had shown had finished? Also what did they replace it with? GI Joe,? Another Transformers? That's Toonami fair hardly what a mature adult would want to see unless they are reminiscing their childhood. Gundam seed was the only title that had fresh appeal, the rest were repeats of everything else. So it's not surprising to me that the figures started dropping then.

I can and do. Better they never started, knowing that they were going to fail with new programming, than to go through all the grief, disapointing the audience, and wasting the money.

Then the world is screwed. "Hmm.. this might work but it might not, well lets just not bother!".

And you couldn't have a better example as to why that is. :wink:

Lets all hope Animax see the failure of TAN:UK and AC and do the right thing and never bother with a UK launch. :roll:

Lets hope Animax can find a channel it can illuminate to the UK with first, then we can hope they will not just leave the baby to starve to death after its birth like AC did. :wink:

So even with new shows, people were not continuing to watch. So why was that?

Like I said, out of those three only one was of any quality, the rest were repeats, and that affected the viewing as it did. It anything this has proved is that a channel purely dedicated to just anime will not be successful without deep pockets to back it up, but a channel that has maybe one or two titles mixed in with other programming, would be more successful. IMHO Rapture had the right idea and if only they weren't so bolshy toward Sky they might still be on the EPG showing some anime on their schedule. CNX was on track too, but again it also was starved to death. Anime on the tele is like any other program. It needs lots of support after investment. If a channel is not willing, or can not give it that support, it's doomed to failure. AC is just yet another example of this buried next to the rest, as I had predicted when it was all new and shiny.

 

[Tasker]

To be honest, you only have to look at their Popgirl channel to see how AC was going to end up.

From what I can see, they only have about 6 shows and they play them over and over and over and over an...

Bit like Jetix, Disney and Cartoon Network now that I come to think of it, but at least they get new series every now and again.

AC was doomed from the get go, we just didn't want to see it.

 

[LeeDless]

A weekly block in an existing channel is fine and possibly bi-weekly with a catchup period sometime later in the week. This is the approach that The Anime Network approached and is probably the best solution but even there they struggled to find advertisers to fund the block and make the investment worthwhile.

*Sorry for being so late.*

Just to point out, Propeller are a public funded channel. They have no advertising at all on there, except for trailers of their own programming.
Also, they never payed anything for the Anime Network block, it was provided free by ADV as a means for them to advertise their latest series on TV.

 

[KingJimmeh]

In that case, would I be right in thinking that the block was actually working, and not losing too much money. Also that the only reason it fell by the wayside was due to ADV's larger troubles.

 

[LeeDless]

Yep, it got pretty high viewing figures (considerably higher than anything else on Propeller).
But ADV then decided to pull out of the UK market, so their Anime Network block had to go with them sadly.