Manga Ent. parent company sold for $186 million

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
Liberty Media have completed a $186 million deal to purchase Manga Entertainment's parent company IDT Entertainment.

When Manga Entertainment was originally acquired by IDT in 2004, this signalled a massive upturn in the then struggling publishers fortunes; especially in the UK - not only did Manga UK continue to press ahead with releasing Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, they also acquired the "most expensive license in the world" Naruto as well as produced exclusive English dubs for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and Millenium Actress.

With Manga Ent. again changing hands this summer, anime fans around the world will be hoping that this all leads to further investment in the anime industry.
 
Manga Ent.'s continual change of hands reminds me of an old episode of Chuckle Vision.

To me - To you - To me - To you!

Indeed i hope it helps the company however it cant be good for staff consistency and feeling secure in their jobs when their boss company keeps shifting.
 
Paul said:
When Manga Entertainment was originally acquired by IDT in 2004, this signalled a massive upturn in the then struggling publishers fortunes; especially in the UK - not only did Manga UK continue to press ahead with releasing Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex...
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And look what happened with that. A total disaster and a shame it had to happen to such a highly anticipated show.
 
WTFDaveMustaine said:
Paul said:
When Manga Entertainment was originally acquired by IDT in 2004, this signalled a massive upturn in the then struggling publishers fortunes; especially in the UK - not only did Manga UK continue to press ahead with releasing Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex...
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And look what happened with that. A total disaster and a shame it had to happen to such a highly anticipated show.
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What part of SAC was a disaster? It was a great show, good releases, great pricing [with the box set] and it has sold very well for Manga.
 
butch-cassidy said:
What part of SAC was a disaster? It was a great show, good releases, great pricing [with the box set] and it has sold very well for Manga.
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The single releases were plagued with technical problems including out of sync subtitles, audio and video glitches, Japanese 2.0 on volume 5 played English 2.0 and on volume 5 a very distracting blac box surrounding the subtitles. They finally got it sorted out by volume 6 but we were pretty much stuck with most of these faults until the boxset release(though some of the subtitles are still apparently out of sync and the black box remains on volume 5).

I reluctantly gave up at volume 5 and just imported the lot. Problem free.
 
I would still hardly call that a disaster. Annoying yes, but not a disaster. Especially considering 70-80% of those who buy the DVDs don’t even use the subs.
 
Well for those of us that prefer subtitles it was a disaster. And forced me for one to give up on them until they got their act together again. I tried buying Millennium Actress when it was released but I was greeted with dubtitles and they made no promise of correcting this in future printings. We did get a rushed, badly mixed sub par dub for it though!

Innocence was the first release they almost got right in a long while. Good dub(though I still largely prefer Batou in Japanese) with a decent mix but after seeing it in the cinema and already owning the US DVD(which I was hoping to disguard with the UK release) the translation of the subtitles disappointed me. A lot of my favourite lines were completely changed and apparently they aren't very accurate translations either. Still, it was a good enough release and the subtitles were watchable but i'm still hanging onto my US release.
 
Manga have probably been the biggest success story of the last year for me, between their exciting acquisition of Naruto and their continued ability to produce proper extras that can outdo R1 DVDs, they are no doubt the one anime company over here capable of pulling out some true surprises.
 
Well, Dub is really the main thing since Uk is an english country, so sorting out subs will take longer as it is not number one priority.

Well, what can this mean for anime like mellenium actress and stand alone complex. Well, I don't really know, I just finding news on bleach's uk release since it rules on youtube.
 
Guyver 0 said:
who have they been bought buy? cos it'll give a strong indicater of what the future holds for the company
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I feel there's a strong hint to your question in the very first line.

Paul said:
Liberty Media have completed a $186 million deal to purchase Manga Entertainment's parent company IDT Entertainment.
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Well Manga Ent. seem to be going from strength to strength at the moment, lets hope this speeds up the strength.
 
They have been bought out by the Starz Entertainment Group who are primarily a TV company who acquired LDT (including Manga) to bolster their presence in other forms of entertainment (ie home video and such) and to spread themselves into a more global market. That was pretty much the spin they gave when the buyout was first announced a couple of months ago.
 
butch-cassidy said:
I would still hardly call that a disaster. Annoying yes, but not a disaster. Especially considering 70-80% of those who buy the DVDs don’t even use the subs.
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My interpretation of this affair is a bit like what bugs and glitches are to a video game. The bugs / glitches in a game are irritating but not crippling, bit like with this.

I think it depends whether people are willing to make concessions on these matters. I personally wouldn't abandon buying the UK editions despite these bugs / glitches, because I feel there's a lot of trial and error processes in getting these products to a certain level of quality (and the North American territories have been releasing regular animè on DVD for longer and on a grander scale than the UK for a while now too so they should be good at it - though I bet there are still some official releases out there that go tits-up now & again! Way people go on about it, its as if the USA can't do no wrong, but I wonder what releases they've had which are of slightly inferior quality which people have failed - or conveniently bypassed - to mention?), and also that continued investment will also help out iron these issues out eventually (as seems to have occured with Manga Entertainment UK products and also Tartan).

Slightly off-topic, but in many ways the benefits of the DVD format are its own worst enemy. Things have become so technical and standards so high (further "hampered" :wink: :lol: by people purchasing very expensive TV's and Sound Systems and as a result wanting the most optimized performace each and every time, which is an unrealistic expectation because one can't expect a TV series to have picture and sound on par with something like, say, Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence [or using a non animè sample Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith]) that many have forgotten with incredible swiftness that less than ten years ago having multiple language options for foreign material (or even subtitles for the hard of hearing) was a pipedream (yet alone extra features, scene selection, remastered and restored sound and picture etc.).

Thought I'd share that. :)
 
Paul said:
Manga have probably been the biggest success story of the last year for me, between their exciting acquisition of Naruto and their continued ability to produce proper extras that can outdo R1 DVDs, they are no doubt the one anime company over here capable of pulling out some true surprises.
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Roll on G.I.T.S: S.A.C - Solid State Society, that's what I say (assuming they get to release it on DVD in the UK which logic would dictate they should). :)
 
Hovis! said:
Roll on G.I.T.S: S.A.C - Solid State Society, that's what I say (assuming they get to release it on DVD in the UK which logic would dictate they should). :)
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I see no reason why they wouldn't. It's a good seller and they grab everything Ghost in the Shell related as soon as possible.
 
Anyone know what the average license costs? I know it varies from series to series, but is it large sums of money were talking about here?

Just asking out of curiosity. :-D
 
It varies from studio to studio and title-to-title. I heard some figures bandied about that Gonzo, for instance, have a licence fee policy where they charge something like $10,000 per (24 min) episode or something like that... That was for US licences so I don't know whether the same pricing structure carries over to the UK market or whether it is a smaller price tag due to the smaller market.
 
Gawyn said:
It varies from studio to studio and title-to-title. I heard some figures bandied about that Gonzo, for instance, have a licence fee policy where they charge something like $10,000 per (24 min) episode or something like that... That was for US licences so I don't know whether the same pricing structure carries over to the UK market or whether it is a smaller price tag due to the smaller market.
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It makes you think that even the hobbies and interests people enjoy are all still a result of nothing more than an economically beneficial construct.

Apologies, I'm going through one of those moments! Doesn't mean I'm suddenly abandoning my likes, just going through a realisation process, which will be forgotten in the not to distant future only to resurface on a latter date and the cycle continues. lol

Area 88 just now triggered it.

Sorry folks! :roll: :D
 
Hovis! said:
Anyone know what the average license costs? I know it varies from series to series, but is it large sums of money were talking about here?

Just asking out of curiosity. :-D
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It depends on the series. Tokyo Underground set Manga back between £20 - £30K for the whole series, while the Stand Alone Complex series set the company back several times more. TU was cheaper because it’s not as 'well known' and the company was just happy to get it licensed. Also the UK is a smaller market than the US so it is defiantly cheaper here.
 
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