Forum - View topicAre anime series on average profitable to the creators?
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simonchubby
Posts: 1 |
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We all know that big name series like Naruto, Death Note, etc. are cash cows, but on average are series profitable? For all the series I don't find entertaining, there are 100 other people that do find it entertaining.
The cost to produce is much cheaper then live action television so that is already a plus. I just don't understand how series like Cooking Master Boy can grab a large enough crowd to pay off all the production costs + put money in its creators' pockets yet it seems to have done that. Does anyone have a link to general revenue generated by series/franchises? Thanks in advance. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7584 Location: Wales |
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On average, they would have to or no studio would survive past their first title.
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siken
Posts: 56 Location: Henrico |
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Doesn't sponsers and stuff pay for that anyway?
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eyeresist
 Posts: 995 Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney) |
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1. Make anime
2. ??? 3. Profit ??? = Sell anime to TV networks, and then direct to viewers via DVD, then milk them with tie-in products. It helps that the anime market is much bigger in Japan, so there's usually a bunch of otaku who have to buy every "collectable" no matter how suck the series. And as Siken said, they get start-up money from sponsors, networks, magazines, independent investors. |
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rg4619
Posts: 163 |
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With otaku anime, there really isn't any outside money involved. On broadcast, the producers operate at a loss, so it's up to DVD, CD, and merchandise sales to turn things around.
However, shows tend to be financed through committees (anime studio, mixed media producer, manga/novel publisher, DVD distributor, music label, etc.), so the risk to any individual company is diminished. Nevertheless, I read that most shows lose money. Under current business models, companies finance a large number of (mostly unprofitable or barely profitable) series in the hope that they land a big hit which offsets all other losses. |
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suchibu
Posts: 39 |
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well, im in the tv and film industry out here in california and i can shed some light on how tv shows out here make money.
there are 2 types of tv show/cartoon/reality show ect.. type 1. the first type is a studio/major entity owned product, usually these will be affiliate owned such as nbc universal, fox, cbs , disney ect.. these products are sponsored or created by the large companies and all in all only afect the companies bottom line. type 2. the second type are the more common non studio backed projects. these programs are investor or even producer backed. some notables include baywatch, and beverly hills 90210 now one very important note most tv channels throughout the united states are independantly owned. what that means is nbc channel 4 in los angeles and nbc channel 5(i think) in new york city may not be owned by nbc rather by independant investors/owners who have licences with said companies and are referred to as "affiliates" afilliates pay the licencing company a structured amount per year for guaranteed programming blocks, such as survivor or heros ect.. other programming is in a loose term purchased by the station for there broadcast year. every year in new york there is a large but generally unknown convention where every tv station sends represenatives to purchase programming from the more numerous people trying to sell said programming. most of these purcahses are made with the money the tv station has generated through advertisements.advertisements are the tv comercials for products like colgate, trojan and many others. included in this is also the dreaded infomercials. thats why in a 30 minute broadcast you may see 6 minutes or more of commercials. depending on the broadcast time and sometimes the popularity of said broadcast will determine what the tv station will make per 30 second commercial(the more popular the more the advertiser will pay for there comercial being in that timeslot). it could be as low as a few thousand dollars per spot to several hundred thousands of dollars. thats why you may see a ipod commercial while watching survivor but not one for zoobooks. each one of the type 2 programming has to pitch there product to the tv stations. sometimes they will get a contract with one of the major tv networks like 90210 or baywatch did. usually these are set contracts that are renewed per year. depending on the contract the rights to the programming may be purchased by the station, but for the most part are not. when a program such as this is finnaly cancelled like baywatch was for instance if the rights were retained by the original type 2 company then they can pitch the programming again in the region to any other network, this is called "sindication" as we should know baywatch remained in sindication many years after the original order had long been cancelled. these type two programming get paid per episode from each station that purchased the rights for it. for example lets say that fictional show " the best potatoe cookoff" was sold to 15 networks across the nation. each network would purchase them in programming blocks of between 12 and 22 weeks(episodes) so lets say each episode is 30 minutes long and costs 128000.00 to produce. 14 telivision stations see it as a morning show (not a premium spot) and purchase 12 weeks at 25000.00 per episode. but one station in wisconsin wants it as a prime time show and they buy the 12 weeks at say 45000.00 per episode. so each episode would net the producers around 350,000.00 per episode. this is fictional, most likely such a show would garner far less. but unlike what some may think this is a buisness and people here are here to make money. if not they would never even bother. i was personaly present when one of the main anime companies did a pitch to a certain asian cable station here in los angeles and of the 4 anime pitched only 2 were purchased ( one was tenjo tenge if thats a good enough hint). if you have any questions or wish me to elaborate further i would be more then happy to. just say the word. |
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suchibu
Posts: 39 |
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also one small thing.
when a company like lets say a anime company says its operation at a loss that is a lie. a operating loss means that the company producing the anime is selling it for less then the projected and expected earnings for when the project was green lit. no company out there worth any time would risk its buisness on the hope that dvd sales would move them into profitability. again there there to make money. if they are always at a loss then these companies would be constantly be in danger of folding, there employees and talent would jump ship. the company i work for has made 37 million this year. were at a projected net loss of 3 million this year...but i will guarante we made 14-17 million in pure profit. thats what pays the investors. |
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eyeresist
Posts: 995 Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney) |
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Thanks for clarifying that "operating loss" stuff. I hardly think Gonzo, Madhouse, etc have been in business so long purely as a charity arrangement!
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