The last time we heard about Crunchyroll being bought by Funimation was a few months ago when the government stated that they were going to get involved with the matter and investigate. Well, that seems to be over and done with because as of this week, Funimation now owns Crunchyroll.
In the press release issued by Sony, Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President, and CEO, Sony Group Corporation stated, “We are very excited to welcome Crunchyroll to the Sony Group. Anime is a rapidly growing medium that enthralls and inspires emotion among audiences around the globe. The alignment of Crunchyroll and Funimation will enable us to get even closer to the creators and fans who are the heart of the anime community. We look forward to delivering even more outstanding entertainment that fills the world with emotion through anime.”
The final price of the business transaction came out to over $1 billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion. Big B.
What does this mean for consumers? Unfortunately, that’s impossible to tell at this junction. If I had to speculate, I’d definitely say that VRV is likely on its last legs of existence unless Funimation decides to re-add all of their content to the service and kick HIDIVE to the curb. Will fans finally get one central hub where they will be able to access the two largest legal libraries of anime all in one place? That’s a very real possibility at some point in the future.
Really though, I’m much more concerned about what this is going to do for the competition. Netflix can’t be happy about this deal going through and, so long as we’re being honest, HIDIVE has never been genuine competition for the big two. So, this could be one of the most significant events in the industry outside of Japan since ADV Films lost boatloads of their library to Funimation in a business deal gone bad (kids, ask your parents or Google about the Sojitz incident, it’s a wild ride).
