Well… that didn’t take long.
Back on October 30th, 2020 we at the J-List blog published an article reporting that Sony was in the final stages of negotiations to purchase the anime streaming giant, Crunchyroll. On December 9th, the announcement went live revealing that the deal had been inked and Sony’s Funimation Global Group was now the new owner of Crunchyroll (pending the results of a regulatory review process). The price tag? A cool $1.175 billion. Yes, that’s billion with a B.
As stated in our previous article, this now gives Sony ownership of some of the largest anime companies in the entire world, including Aniplex, Funimation, and now Crunchyroll in North America, along with Wakanim based in France, and Madman Anime Group based in Australia. What does this mean for the future of anime streaming in North America? Only time will tell, but it’s going to be very interesting to see what happens.
All three companies (Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Sony) expressed excitement at the new venture and put out statements exclaiming as much.
“The union of Funimation and Crunchyroll is a win for anime fans around the world that will elevate the art and culture of this medium for decades to come,” said Colin Decker, CEO of Funimation Global Group.
“We are excited to embark on this new journey. Crunchyroll has built a world-class brand with a passionate fan-base of over 3M subscribers, 50M social followers and 90M registered users. These amazing fans have helped to propel anime into a global phenomenon,” said Joanne Waage, general manager of Crunchyroll.
“The Crunchyroll team has done an extraordinary job of not only growing the Crunchyroll brand but also building a passionate community of anime fans. Crunchyroll’s success is a direct result of the company’s culture and commitment to their fans,” said Tony Goncalves, Chief Revenue Officer, WarnerMedia.
Fans on social media were pretty mixed on the news from what I saw. While some fans were excited at the prospect of being able to watch all of their favorite series in one single place, others expressed concern at the potential monopoly on the anime industry that this would give to Sony.
I’m not a genius, nor do I have the ability to see into the future. That said, I can guarantee that the anime business in North America has just been shaken to its very foundation.
