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Funimation Hires Colin Decker as New General Manager
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Sony Pictures Television announced on Monday that it has brought on Colin Decker as the new general manager of Funimation. Decker will report to both Sony Pictures Television chairman Mike Hopkins, and Funimation founder Gen Fukunaga. Decker will work to collaborate with the other anime businesses within Sony, including Sony Music Entertainment's Aniplex subsidiary and Sony Pictures Entertainment's Animax anime channel.
Decker previously worked in Crunchyroll as chief operating officer and then in Within Unlimited as chief operating officer, before joining Funimation. Before Crunchyroll, Decker was the general manager of Discovery Digital Networks.
Sony Pictures Television acquired a majority stake in Funimation in 2017, at which time Funimation founder Gen Fukunaga retained his general manager position and a minority stake in the business. (Funimation revealed in February that Fukunaga is transitioning to a chairperson role.). As a result of the acquisition, Funimation ended its content-sharing partnership with Crunchyroll last November. Funimation has now signed a first-look streaming deal with Hulu.
During the AnimeJapan 2019 event in March, Funimation and Chinese streaming platform bilibili announced a new partnership to jointly acquire anime licenses "over the next few years." In addition to streaming, bilibili also runs several games in Chinese, including Fate/Grand Order since 2016.
In addition to Funimation and Animax, Sony owns the subsidiary anime production companies A-1 Pictures and CloverWorks through Aniplex. Australian film distributor Madman Entertainment sold its anime division to Aniplex in February. Aniplex established a Shanghai-based subsidiary in April with the intent of starting on "full-scale" Chinese animation production, as well as sell merchandise.
Update: Funimation is a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television, not Sony Pictures Television Networks, and it was Sony Pictures Television that made the announcement on Monday.
Source: Press release
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