UK Anime Distributor Funimation UK Discussion Thread (Pre-Manga Merger)

Joshawott said:
Well, Manga UK have those shows for home video, so it'll be interesting to see where streaming rights lie.
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Home video really shouldn't be the sole means of distribution if you want any chance of growing your audience. Say someone wants to watch One Piece but, like me, you cannot follow subtitles. If you live here, your only choices are physical box sets which really unattractive in not only price but also the requirement of having to store away a LOT of box sets (specially ij the case of One Piece) that have little resale value.

I hear murmurings around other forums that Toei may or may not give streaming rights to companies who cannot use them or are motivated to supress them. I prefer not to believe that because...well... the licensors wouldn't he that stupid... right?
 
Mr L said:
I prefer not to believe that because...well... the licensors wouldn't he that stupid... right?
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Let's say a smaller TV-station charges 1.000£ per commercial spot during the late afternoon? And let's say they show 10 commercial spots in each episode?
That's 10.000£ per broadcast.
Due to the length, One Piece would most likely air daily (Mon-Fri), so about 250 times a year.
That's 2.500.000£ in commercials every year.

Of course the TV-station would offer Toei only a part of this (as they have other expensives than licensing alone), but I guess that this would still be way more than Crunchyroll or Funimation could offer for UK-streaming rights*. And TV-stations tend to lose interest in shows that are already avaiable on streaming services...

Toei knows that - and thus Dragon Ball Super was made avaiable for streaming shortly after they signed a deal for US-TV-broadcast - and with region- or language-locks for a wide range of areas (e.g. spanish subs region-locked vs spain, as they tried to sell the show to a local TV-station).

Toei realised, that some series like GeGeGe no Kitaro aren't suitable for western mass market - these are offered to streaming services. But for Dragon Ball, One Piece or Pretty Cure? They try to get TV-broadcast-deals...

*:Remember? Crunchyroll said something about 100 Million Dollars?
But that's for 10 years, worldwide and maybe 1.000 different series.
 
Mr L said:
Home video really shouldn't be the sole means of distribution if you want any chance of growing your audience. Say someone wants to watch One Piece but, like me, you cannot follow subtitles. If you live here, your only choices are physical box sets which really unattractive in not only price but also the requirement of having to store away a LOT of box sets (specially ij the case of One Piece) that have little resale value.

I hear murmurings around other forums that Toei may or may not give streaming rights to companies who cannot use them or are motivated to supress them. I prefer not to believe that because...well... the licensors wouldn't he that stupid... right?
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I definitely agree that SVOD and DTO needs to be looked at more seriously, but there's obviously reasons we're not privy to as to why it's not as common as in mainstream TV/Film, such as office politics etc. Home video and streaming rights are often purchased together. That's one of the speculated reasons as to why Sentai Filmworks have started sublicensing to MVM more; because Manga UK wanted streaming rights Sentai weren't willing to give up.

There was even talk a while ago that Toei wouldn't even sell home video licenses until they had exhausted their search for a TV broadcast partner, but simply put, there's little incentive for channels to air anime; it just doesn't bring in the numbers compared to what they could otherwise fill timeslots with.
 
Relaxo said:
Let's say a smaller TV-station charges 1.000£ per commercial spot during the late afternoon? And let's say they show 10 commercial spots in each episode?
That's 10.000£ per broadcast.
Due to the length, One Piece would most likely air daily (Mon-Fri), so about 250 times a year.
That's 2.500.000£ in commercials every year.

Of course the TV-station would offer Toei only a part of this (as they have other expensives than licensing alone), but I guess that this would still be way more than Crunchyroll or Funimation could offer for UK-streaming rights*. And TV-stations tend to lose interest in shows that are already avaiable on streaming services...

Toei knows that - and thus Dragon Ball Super was made avaiable for streaming shortly after they signed a deal for US-TV-broadcast - and with region- or language-locks for a wide range of areas (e.g. spanish subs region-locked vs spain, as they tried to sell the show to a local TV-station).

Toei realised, that some series like GeGeGe no Kitaro aren't suitable for western mass market - these are offered to streaming services. But for Dragon Ball, One Piece or Pretty Cure? They try to get TV-broadcast-deals...

*:Remember? Crunchyroll said something about 100 Million Dollars?
But that's for 10 years, worldwide and maybe 1.000 different series.
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How long before 'enough is enough'? Its excruciatingly hard to get non kid friendly anime on the air here. Hard to say exactly why (our rather lacking version of 'adult swim' may have contributed).last thing I ever daw was 'Kill La Kill' a few months ago (great for me considering Netflix doesn't have the dub for some reason).

They'be bern okay with Crunchyroll streaming it subbed leaving only sight-impaired sods like me to be stuck with home release prices. The recent Sailor Moon remasters and re-dubs haven't even seen a disc release here. They aren't exactly consistent in their approach.

How long beforr they realise it might be worth trying to see if streaming yields better results? Many other companies doh't have an issue with it. 'My Hero Academia' is one of the most popular anime around and it gets shown on
Funimatioh Now over here in both languages. And it hasn't stooped them getting it broadcast on US TV recently (behind the streaming broadcast).
 
Mr L said:
Its excruciatingly hard to get non kid friendly anime on the air here.
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One Piece, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Fairy Tail, Case Closed and Hunter x Hunter have been produced as "kid friendly" anime by japanese standards - not by BBFC-guidelines.
And Toei Europe tries to get the TV-deals themselves - and acts profitable that way in other european countries.
Other producers may bundle the TV-rights with disc- and streaming-rights, so it's up to the local licence holder to get the show on local TV. This may cause long-running series to pause, once the TV-station loses interest (as aquiring and dubbing new episodes may get too expensive). I don't know when Funi (or Japan?) signed their deal with Toonami...

As TV-revenues for late-night series are lower, the licence holders don't need to get them on TV - even if they bought the tv-rights bundled with other rights.
 
Relaxo said:
One Piece, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Fairy Tail, Case Closed and Hunter x Hunter have been produced as "kid friendly" anime by japanese standards - not by BBFC-guidelines.
And Toei Europe tries to get the TV-deals themselves - and acts profitable that way in other european countries.
Other producers may bundle the TV-rights with disc- and streaming-rights, so it's up to the local licence holder to get the show on local TV. This may cause long-running series to pause, once the TV-station loses interest (as aquiring and dubbing new episodes may get too expensive). I don't know when Funi (or Japan?) signed their deal with Toonami...

As TV-revenues for late-night series are lower, the licence holders don't need to get them on TV - even if they bought the tv-rights bundled with other rights.
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Well that's just my point, instead of waiting ten thousand years for the BBFC or British networks to change., adjust your distribution methods for that market. If 'bundling' is what they're doing then that sounds pretty outdated especialky ehen you compare to most other licensers these days.

Again, their US branch doean't have this hang-up. The longer they wait, the more people will seek their shows via other means. The longer they wait, the more people will look at 'other' means of watching their stuff.
 
Mr L said:
Well that's just my point, instead of waiting ten thousand years for the BBFC or British networks to change., adjust your distribution methods for that market.
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The adjusted distribution methods wouldn't be profitable enough for Toei...

Mr L said:
If 'bundling' is what they're doing then that sounds pretty outdated especialky ehen you compare to most other licensers these days.
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Bundling is, what other licensors do. And why should it be outdated?
For most non-english territories, the revenues of disc-sales and special streaming services aren't high enough to finance a dub for long-running series - but with the support of a TV-channel it may work.
For shorter late-night-series the TV-revenues aren't important - but for the disc publishers it's advertisement they even get paid for :)

UK might be special in some case, as most UK-publishers only buy disc-rights from their US-partners. But Sentai, Funimation and Crunchyroll had to buy all these rights bundled in Japan in many cases - sometimes they even got cinematic rights for TV-series bundled...
Same goes for various non-UK european publishers...

Mr L said:
Again, their US branch doean't have this hang-up.
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Toei's US-branch acts similar - or have you ever seen other Pretty Cure series hitting the US? The missing simulcast of Dragon Ball Kai? The simulcast of Dragon Ball Super with more than a year delay?
One Piece and Sailor Moon are special - but both failed years ago on US-TV...
 
So many other companies are able to accept the lack of TV over here and allow the streaming of dubs. So, yes I get why they would desire the potential profits of TV but they should consider changing viewing habits, especially amonst the younger audiences they would desire. Part of what drives piracy isn't just cost, its also timing. People don't like huge time gaps between the release of a new episode in different regions and will pirate because they don't want spoolers plus they may want to be part of online discussions. Many TV broadcasters have been doing their best to minimise that gap. Obviously streaming shows do not need to worry about this.
 
Mr L said:
So many other companies are able to accept the lack of TV over here and allow the streaming of dubs.
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I don't know a single one...
Just to understand: Funi, Sentai and/or Crunchyroll bought (for most shows) the TV-rights bundled with other rights directly from Japan. And thus Japan doesn't care weather these shows air on TV or not, as they got paid for it anyway.
That's the difference.
But when MVM, Manga oder Anime Ltd buys licenses from Funi, Sentai or Crunchyroll, they buy (for most shows) only the disc-rights - while the other rights (incl streaming + TV) are kept by the US-companies.
(You know that Funi and ADV operated their own pay-TV-channels?)

Mr L said:
People don't like huge time gaps between the release of a new episode in different regions and will pirate because they don't want spoolers plus they may want to be part of online discussions.
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People? Adults ;)
One Piece, Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon have been produced as kids-orientated shows - that's the difference.
But regarding spoilers: Anime-episodes air about one year after the original Manga-chapter got published. And the Dub of One Piece is another 5 years behind the original simulcast.
If a streaming-service (like a UK-equivalent of Hulu as Crunchyroll couldn't) would offer Toei a fee that could be compared to traditional TV-revenues, they might talk about...
But than: It's Toei Europe! And Toei Europe doesn't allow HD-broadcast for One Piece episodes 1 to 619, no matter what you pay for. That's annoying...
(The series was produced in HD from episode 207 onwards and Toei US allowed to stream upscaled versions of older episodes)
 
Wonder what the source is for your statement? I know Japanese sale numbers are published from month to month on animenewsnetwork but i guess there is no such source for UK sales?
 
Based on Amazons Best seller lists, it sold much better than Food Wars or Overlord, but much worse than Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Side of Dimensions, the Gits Movie Double Pack and (not that much) worse than Dragon Ball Super.
 
Stiivun said:
Wonder what the source is for your statement? I know Japanese sale numbers are published from month to month on animenewsnetwork but i guess there is no such source for UK sales?
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If Sony was only going to consider 300 print run of S2 LE before cancelling it. That means the sales data showed that it barely sold in the UK to consider it in the first place, and ultimately led them to not do it.

Relaxo said:
Based on Amazons Best seller lists, it sold much better than Food Wars or Overlord, but much worse than Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Side of Dimensions, the Gits Movie Double Pack and (not that much) worse than Dragon Ball Super.
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Overlord successfully sold 1000 CEs and sold standards so I don't know how could say MHA S1 sold better than Overlord.
 
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Relaxo said:
I don't know a single one...
Just to understand: Funi, Sentai and/or Crunchyroll bought (for most shows) the TV-rights bundled with other rights directly from Japan. And thus Japan doesn't care weather these shows air on TV or not, as they got paid for it anyway.
That's the difference.
But when MVM, Manga oder Anime Ltd buys licenses from Funi, Sentai or Crunchyroll, they buy (for most shows) only the disc-rights - while the other rights (incl streaming + TV) are kept by the US-companies.
(You know that Funi and ADV operated their own pay-TV-channels?)


People? Adults ;)
One Piece, Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon have been produced as kids-orientated shows - that's the difference.
But regarding spoilers: Anime-episodes air about one year after the original Manga-chapter got published. And the Dub of One Piece is another 5 years behind the original simulcast.
If a streaming-service (like a UK-equivalent of Hulu as Crunchyroll couldn't) would offer Toei a fee that could be compared to traditional TV-revenues, they might talk about...
But than: It's Toei Europe! And Toei Europe doesn't allow HD-broadcast for One Piece episodes 1 to 619, no matter what you pay for. That's annoying...
(The series was produced in HD from episode 207 onwards and Toei US allowed to stream upscaled versions of older episodes)
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I know I seem rather more adamant about all this but its ojoy due to my specific circumstance. I get why things arevthe way they are but I still fdon't have to like it and will complain when appropriate. I just have to keep hoping there'll efentualky be an affordable means for me to support more shows I enjoy like others can.
 
Relaxo said:
Based on Amazons Best seller lists, it sold much better than Food Wars or Overlord, but much worse than Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Side of Dimensions, the Gits Movie Double Pack and (not that much) worse than Dragon Ball Super.
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Unless you have specific sale figures for these titles then im not sure how you came to this conclusion. Overlord in particular sold out as Lamba said. MHA S1 was overpriced and a lot of people imported so I would suspect it didn't sell as well as they hoped.
 
crashmatt said:
Unless you have specific sale figures for these titles then im not sure how you came to this conclusion. Overlord in particular sold out as Lamba said. MHA S1 was overpriced and a lot of people imported so I would suspect it didn't sell as well as they hoped.
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Pretty sure I'd seen someone here state that MHA S1 sold around 200 copies upon release. Think most people off here ended up buying the Australian version in a JB Hifi bogof deal.
 
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