Business as usual as Lace tie up deal with ADV UK

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
The protracted saga of ADV's status in the UK appears to be at end with the switch over to their distribution partner, Lace Digital Media Sales, having been officially rubber-stamped earlier this week <a href="http://www.animeuknews.net/press/56/adv-films-uk-titles-back-on-shelves-from-march">via press release</a>. Sales Director Andy Lyon and Label Manager Howard Musson both had positive messages to impart to the UK community.

“It’s business as usual for ADV Film’s titles in the UK,â€
 
Great. Hopefully this will speed things up again. One of my friends was collecting Le Chevalier D'Eon, and I was hoping to pick it up too.
 
The way I see it they can do several things that might be beneficial, though I admittedly know little about running a business.

1. Have more contact with the consumers. By that I mean keep the site updated with new releases, upcoming titles and events and maybe even a representative posting every now and then giving updates. The lack of communication between ADV in the UK (and even America) has been a downpoint as far as I see it.

2. Be more selective of the titles they choose to bring over to the UK market. There are too many titles that they release that are unknown outside and even inside of the fandom.

3. Cheaper prices on newly released DVD's. I don't see why a price of around £11.99 per volume couldnt bring them in a profit. Although the pricing is mainly down to the retailers as far as I know.
 
I highly doubt that will happen. Releasing an anime in the west is a lot more expensive than people realise. They need to keep the prices high in order to make ends meet.
 
Maxon said:
I highly doubt that will happen. Releasing an anime in the west is a lot more expensive than people realise. They need to keep the prices high in order to make ends meet.
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And also by keeping the price high drives away potential cunstomers. I say around £11.99 is a more than reasonable price for a volume that holds about 3 or 4 episodes each.
 
Maxon said:
Releasing an anime in the west is a lot more expensive than people realise. They need to keep the prices high in order to make ends meet.
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We should consider ourselves lucky compared to Japanese prices. If you've ever collected a BVUSA title, then you know how grueling it is. Sadly there's 3 BVUSA titles coming up that I want... Its going to be a painful few months.
 
It's a relief to hear that something good has come out of this messy and drawn-out issue - here's hoping ADV's problems in the UK have finally reached a solution. I still feel for those ADV employees who lost their jobs - at least good old Hugh still has his hand in, although it would be nice if more of his former colleagues are given a similar second chance.
 
Sy said:
Maxon said:
I highly doubt that will happen. Releasing an anime in the west is a lot more expensive than people realise. They need to keep the prices high in order to make ends meet.
Click to expand...
And also by keeping the price high drives away potential cunstomers. I say around £11.99 is a more than reasonable price for a volume that holds about 3 or 4 episodes each.
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Yes, that is reasonable, but not realistic. Besides, there are people who are willing to throw money at their anime collecting ( like me ^_^; ).
 
Maxon said:
Yes, that is reasonable, but not realistic. Besides, there are people who are willing to throw money at their anime collecting ( like me ^_^; ).
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You might be most most people aren't. In the UK the majority of anime fans seem to be in their twenties and can't afford to spend hundreds of pounds collecting a couple of series. In actual fact I think that £11.99 is still a bit of a rip off for what we usually get but I meant reasonable for the company as well as the fans. They can't expect us to lash out on the £16.99 or whatever they usually throw at us.

It's a bank manager solution to rasie prices if sales aren't going too well but that's not always the way to fix a problem in fact sometimes it could make it worse.
 
the one major thing i hate about anime companies is the guilt trip they put on fans a vast majority do this.Well i dont know if fans did it to themselves either way asking for cheaper prices is not bad thing and you should never feel guilty for that.But it assumed generally you should how dare you not buy a product you have no idea about then pay extra simply becuase its anime.But thats how it seems to be going and its the fans fault if a buisness goes under not the company itself.
 
Maxon said:
I highly doubt that will happen. Releasing an anime in the west is a lot more expensive than people realise. They need to keep the prices high in order to make ends meet.
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Well then, welcome to the vicious cycle, hope you enjoy your stay.
 
It would be interesting to see a break down of costs on releasing an anime, including things like marketing, buying the licence, creating a dub etc.

Im hoping that Hugh and ADV will retain their presence at the MCM expo's.
 
If you consider that film releases have a higher (or equivalent) pricepoint than £11.99 for standard editions when they have a far bigger audience than anime has then that logic simply does not hold up. Mainstream movies, by and large, have already recouped all of the losses incurred before they even get a DVD release through cinema, merchandise and advertising (product pacement and similar). Anime has none of that but a whole load of costs and the only source of revenue being the release of the DVD. The anime companies simply cannot afford to drop their prices significantly without a much larger market.
 
CitizenGeek said:
I'm disapointed ADV aren't lowering their prices like MVM and FUNimation have ... they're pricing themselves out of the market :/
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Exactly. If anime companies have to rasie prices to stupid levels to stay afloat then we might as well just give up on a UK anime industry right now because people simply won't pay up.
 
Sy said:
CitizenGeek said:
I'm disapointed ADV aren't lowering their prices like MVM and FUNimation have ... they're pricing themselves out of the market :/
Click to expand...
Exactly. If anime companies have to rasie prices to stupid levels to stay afloat then we might as well just give up on a UK anime industry right now because people simply won't pay up.
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Agreed, it's like running into a brick wall, expecting it to magicaly move for you.

Or something.
 
Sy said:
CitizenGeek said:
I'm disapointed ADV aren't lowering their prices like MVM and FUNimation have ... they're pricing themselves out of the market :/
Click to expand...
Exactly. If anime companies have to rasie prices to stupid levels to stay afloat then we might as well just give up on a UK anime industry right now because people simply won't pay up.
Click to expand...

But not only that, but many people don't simply want to buy so many volumes of an anime. They simply want to wait for the boxset because it's cheaper overall.

But then there's the problem with ADV and boxsets.

ADV should do the sensible thing and give up on the UK anime industry.
 
Yeah, I mentioned the ADV box set issue before... The sets look cheap and are made to seem even cheaper thanks to the price of the R1 Anime Legends sets. Very few would pay above £20 for such poor sets.

In a nutshell, people don't want to buy 7 volumes (unless cheap, obviously) and people don't want to pay a lot for cheap looking box sets. ADV have ****** themselves.
 
CitizenGeek said:
I'm disapointed ADV aren't lowering their prices like MVM and FUNimation have ... they're pricing themselves out of the market :/
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(just to put in first that this post isn't directed at Citizen Geek :wink:)

Shadow Skill at £12.99 a volume. Oh My Goddess! Series 2 at £14.99 a volume. Also the Essential line (Nurse Witch Komugi, Kekko Kamen, Ninja Resurrection, Sorcerer Hunters) had lower RRPs. There's been a bit of experimentation going on over there at least so maybe they'll form their own conclusions based on the sales.

It's not as though there aren't online discounts to be had either and if you don't like the price then the answer's obvious: Don't buy it. Prices invariably end up cheaper at some point along the line so there's always the opportunity to clean up later at various sales and Expos. Learn to have a little patience.

This spoilt 'Want this! Want it now! Want it cheaps!' attitude that plagues a lot of these threads is starting to get really old...
 
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