New article: The UK DVD Market - Sorry, how much?!

[Paul]

It has been a hectic few months for anime fans in the UK, but with 2008 finally starting to take shape, our humble writer, Lewis, has taken this opportunity to <a href="http://www.animeuknews.net/article/51/the-uk-dvd-market-sorry-how-much">reflect on</a> one of the most important issues facing the UK industry today; the price of anime DVDs, why they typically cost more than popular Hollywood movies and what the UK industry is doing attract the many anime fans lost to US DVD imports. Joining Lewis in this discussion are two pillars of the UK scene; Andrew from Beez Entertainment and Jerome from Manga Entertainment. Be sure to read this if you want to learn something about the UK anime industry; the article offers a quite telling insight into the workings of your favourite anime publishers. [<a href="http://www.animeuknews.net/article/51/the-uk-dvd-market-sorry-how-much">The UK DVD Market - Sorry, how much?!</a>]

 

[Paul]

This really just goes to show how much the UK industry is hampered by the BBFC; it must be such a risk to try and release relatively unknown anime series considering how anime is still so niche over here and it's got two language tracks, both with separate scripts and therefore require putting through the BBFC twice. Considering all this, it's quite amazing that's there's even a UK anime industry at all, let alone one that contains the likes of Haibane Renmei, Noein, Yukikaze, Mushishi and Kino's Journey.

 

[Jaymii]

The third method...well I can't say too much about it without giving away what the title is. But let's say we're looking at bringing the best extras from the US over for the UK release...

Yay~ This must be Haruhi!. Beez really are a fantastic company with a lot of their approaches to the releases, They are looking for innovative way to constantly improve and give us everything such a fan like many of us want.

That's not to say Manga Entertainment is doing a bad job either, They have really got some superb releases, Mainly because of the number of episodes per release, The only thing I can think of commenting towards them is shortening down the release time between some of their volumes.

 

[J_C_X]

This really just goes to show how much the UK industry is hampered by the BBFC; it must be such a risk to try and release relatively unknown anime series considering how anime is still so niche over here and it's got two language tracks, both with separate scripts and therefore require putting through the BBFC twice. Considering all this, it's quite amazing that's there's even a UK anime industry at all, let alone one that contains the likes of Haibane Renmei, Noein, Yukikaze, Mushishi and Kino's Journey.

The BBFC are an absolute joke, there practices are far stringent and they are so inconsitant compared to the American MPAA.

America doesn't have this problem as the MPAA only rate films any television shows sets are released without classification this includes anime.

It also doesn't help that the BBFC will rate all content on the respective DVD sent for classification, this includes special features, easter eggs and even the menu. This is an nightmare for anime publishers and distributors in general hence why the British DVD's will get half the features than the American release where they just rate the main feature.

Big gripe I have with the BBFC is the 12 and 15 certificate they are ******* pointless! I will bore you with that another day.

 

[Sy]

I find the BBFC to be extremely inconsistant in their ratings and they give the impression that they don't even have any faith in their system themselves.

The article sounds interesting I'll have a proper read through it later.

 

[awadama]

£6/per minute just to watch stuff is a bit of a ripoff really...so anime distributors are paying that twice for dual language stuff. =/

Easy solution...just bring all DVDs out with dub track only. Should mean lower prices and quicker releases. >_>

 

[Sy]

Easy solution...just bring all DVDs out with dub track only. Should mean lower prices and quicker releases. >_>

And back to importing from me... damn the day that we decend back into the dark ages by releasing Dub only releases again.

 

[awadama]

Haha...only kidding. I think that'd send people over the edge!

Those Seed boxes seem interesting...mostly if I didn't already have the first couple of volumes. I might just offload them and get the box if it ends up being good value (and depending how the shirt looks).

 

[Gawyn]

£6/per minute just to watch stuff is a bit of a ripoff really...so anime distributors are paying that twice for dual language stuff. =/

Easy solution...just bring all DVDs out with dub track only. Should mean lower prices and quicker releases. >_>

When they used to do that I tended not to buy. I like to have at least the option of watching a title in its original language regardless of the quality of the respective Japanese or English dubs.

 

[Ryo Chan]

i really have to agree with what manga said

sure, price is a contributor to buying anime from the USA over the UK, but the major one in my eyes, is the time it takes to get over here.

If they suceed in thier plans to bring release dates closer to America and even Japan, i can seriously see the UK getting a big boost in it's anime sales

 

[ConanThe3rd]

...

I have nothing to say, given that I've said my piece rather consistantly over the last however long I've been here.

All I'll keep saying is, Singeles should be £10, end of story. I'm not paying Bandai Visual USA prices for nothin.

 

[kurosaki86]

Good read; I understand why anime costs more than your bog standard dvd's. Looking at my movie collection right now, I have around 150 and looking back, I probably bought at least half of these for under £4(good quality movies as well like scarface, munich, 21 grams, letters from iwojima...).

With the likes of manga, they know that naruto and bleach are likely going to sell really well compared to your average anime release, so they can afford to have 13 episodes for £20+,

With Beez, the gundam seed boxsets sound interesting, but amazon have them lister with an rrp of £69.99 selling the first at £52.49.

 

[D1tchd1gger]

The cost is the reason I haven't brought much Anime.

I saw Witch Hunter Robin the other day in Forbidden Planet and thought I'd check the price as I had liked what I seen when watching it on Anime Central. £40! for half a season!!

You can get any full season of US shows (Lost, 24, etc) for less than that!!

 

[Just Passing Through]

I just imported Cowboy Bebop Remix Collection from the US for £16 including postage and package. That was the pre-release price BTW.

So how much have Beez discounted their ages old half season Region 2 Stereo sets for?

 

[Zentron]

Just reading away and saw the comparison between Anime and big titles like 300, though thing with 300, the public actually got told about it being released. Having an full page(or small section) advertisement in Neo about a Naruto release(for example) is all and good to those of us who read that magazine, but the most of the general public do not. I hardly ever see any Anime being advertised anywhere else other than Anime orientated magazines and nothing on TV(and the only times I ever saw one was that old Manga Entertainment advert which was only ever shown around 1 or 2 am, so that was quite useless), so Anime is bound to have less of a good sale if no-one really ever knows about it(other than us Anime fans of course).

And then there's the subject of the BBFC, which I get the impression that they don't really know what they are looking at half the time. Take the 'Ichi the Killer' live action movie, I inquired about one scene that they cut out and I was told it was taken out because they ruled it as 'sexual torture'... now I have the full uncut movie from the Netherlands(which has the film being rated for '16' and over... fully uncut folks, compared to our 'cut' 18 rated UK version. Can everyone say lame-o?) and I can state that it was just plain old torture, seeing as the whole point to torture is just to cause unimaginable pain and does quite heavily focus on the sexual organs(which is different from 'sexual torture' which is the use of pain to release endorphins, etc and is illegal UK side). Just one example of what a bum deal the BBFC are selling!

Costs are inevitable, but with wise spendings you can achieve a greater return.

 

[Gawyn]

Just reading away and saw the comparison between Anime and big titles like 300, though thing with 300, the public actually got told about it being released. Having an full page(or small section) advertisement in Neo about a Naruto release(for example) is all and good to those of us who read that magazine, but the most of the general public do not. I hardly ever see any Anime being advertised anywhere else other than Anime orientated magazines and nothing on TV(and the only times I ever saw one was that old Manga Entertainment advert which was only ever shown around 1 or 2 am, so that was quite useless), so Anime is bound to have less of a good sale if no-one really ever knows about it(other than us Anime fans of course).

The problem with that is the massive cost in getting an advert into a primetime slot. The returns would not have outweighed the cost by a long stretch. You have to consider the differences in the budgets. 300 is a movie with backing into the millions of pounds. On the flipside anime has returns of at most 10s of thousands of pounds and that is for a popular release (and is pure revenue at RRP market value, not taking into account any costs incurred, which would reduce the net profit to thousands or hundreds of pounds). I do not know the exact costs myself but I cannot imagine it is particularly economically viable.

 

[beez_andrew]

I just imported Cowboy Bebop Remix Collection from the US for £16 including postage and package. That was the pre-release price BTW.

So how much have Beez discounted their ages old half season Region 2 Stereo sets for?

Funny you should mention that as that was discussed recently and hopefully should go through in the near future, reduction of the box set price I mean .

In the meantime taking away from the individual example you give there, we're making moves to change this with future box set releases - for example coming up in the next two months, for £24.99, you can have your pick of:

- Crest of the Stars
- Gunbuster 2
- Stratos 4

And for £49.99:

- Fantastic Children
- s-CRY-ed

Whereas for the Gundam Seed boxes, we are asking for a bit more but you get 5 DVDs as well as extras never released anywhere else. So we are taking heed of the fan's views and moving with them on our future releases. I will also personally look into what kind of discounts can be offered on previous titles to improve their appeal to fans, though it's not ideal, I hope you can agree it's better than not offering to do anything!

With more boxsets planned for 2008 at a range of prices later on in the year too ! So hang in there everyone - we are all listening to you!

 

[kurosaki86]

The cost is the reason I haven't brought much Anime.

I saw Witch Hunter Robin the other day in Forbidden Planet and thought I'd check the price as I had liked what I seen when watching it on Anime Central. £40! for half a season!!

You can get any full season of US shows (Lost, 24, etc) for less than that!!

The reason for this is those shows would already have a very large install base thanks to prime time slots on the likes of Sky One. You can sell it cheaper if you have a larger group of people who are guaranteed to buy it.

 

[Nyu]

Just reading away and saw the comparison between Anime and big titles like 300, though thing with 300, the public actually got told about it being released. Having an full page(or small section) advertisement in Neo about a Naruto release(for example) is all and good to those of us who read that magazine, but the most of the general public do not. I hardly ever see any Anime being advertised anywhere else other than Anime orientated magazines and nothing on TV(and the only times I ever saw one was that old Manga Entertainment advert which was only ever shown around 1 or 2 am, so that was quite useless), so Anime is bound to have less of a good sale if no-one really ever knows about it(other than us Anime fans of course).

To be fair Tales of the Earthsea got a run by Tescos recently. But as said in the article you have to weigh up the costs of advertising to the benifits. Advertising outside of this niche market is a really, really big gamble.

 

[Zentron]

The problem with that is the massive cost in getting an advert into a primetime slot.

Doesn't have to be prime-time, at least a decent time, say 10 or 11pm, y'know, when people are actually awake. And anyway, an advertisement in some popular magazine would be a good thing too!

On the flipside anime has returns of at most 10s of thousands of pounds and that is for a popular release.

Of course it will only have a small return, we're the only ones who ever really even know about them!(aka the fans)

To be fair Tales of the Earthsea got a run by Tesco's recently. But as said in the article you have to weigh up the costs of advertising to the benefits. Advertising outside of this niche market is a really, really big gamble.

I know, I bought mine from Tesco, but it was in a slightly obscure position on the stands, so I doubt many will have noticed it there... and it was only because I was looking for a copy of the 'Night Watch & Day Watch' double DVD that I noticed it. ASDA were selling 'Steam Boy' at one point too, but it was just the English language version so I ignored it!