Forum - View topicNEWS: Anime Network Online Streams Frame Arms Girl Anime
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switchgear1131
Posts: 219 |
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well RIP this series. Getting taken up by ANO is the first nail in the coffin.
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Zoneflare
 Posts: 523 |
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Pretty sure that honor went to anime strike. Seriously though why does sentai even bother with anime network after their apparent partnership with Amazon? Funimation keeping their streaming service (as crappy as it is) makes sense because of the simuldubs but what sentai is doing is just a waste of money. |
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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Money, my friend, money. Anime Network has a value in the people / hardware / tech that has been put into it.
So, it will remain a venue for Section 23 / Sentai for the foreseeable future. I don't think they are inclined to put all their eggs in Amazon's Anime Strike-Out basket. Mark Gosdin |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3563 Location: Finland |
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Chances are, Sentai chose Strike! because TAN hasn't turned out as well as expected. Though it might prove a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire... |
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Yuri Fan
 Posts: 394 Location: Finland |
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Yeah. I can't watch that channel here. Gotta go with fandubs. |
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mgosdin
Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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Sentai's reasons for working with Amazon are understandable, again money is one of them obviously, but I'm not certain of the longer term wisdom of that choice. On the other hand, they likely were taking the "Least Bad" of the options available. Mark Gosdin |
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azabaro
 SubscriberPosts: 253 |
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[quote="Zoneflare"]
Just a guess, but: Sentai is offering content to Amazon as a way to help counter the Funimation/Crunchyroll behemoth (or perhaps now it's just the VRV behemoth). However, I don't think Amazon has the same strategic perspective - they're just looking for initial content that's interesting. So sometime Sentai offers them a show and Amazon slaps them with a stack of bills, and other times Amazon just isn't interested, in which case Sentai falls back to streaming on The Anime Network. Either way, they can still count on their home video revenue. Another possibility is that Sentai strategically chooses not to offer some shows to Amazon. Since they have bigger titles this season going to Anime Strike, I'd have to guess this would be based on some notion of maintaining the Sentai/TAN brand. OTOH. given the rumors about what Amazon paid for noitaminA show exclusivity, I think Sentai would have to value The Anime Network's brand incredibly highly to not even try for that Amazon money. I really suspect Amazon just wasn't interested. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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The Anime Network's primary business is its cable and satellite VOD offerings. That makes up the bulk of its revenue and profits, especially since they've been able to get back on Comcast now that the Funimation Channel is officially dead. It's online streaming offerings are just additional revenue, and they allow them to do things like simulcasts that are much more difficult with VOD, where the schedule has to be planned out months in advance and forwarded to their partners ahead of time. If there are any last minute glitches on the Japanese side, it's much harder to get things corrected on VOD. Not to mention, they generally tend to add all their new content once a week, so day and date simulcasts would be almost impossible. Though many of their simulcasts tend to hit VOD within a few weeks of their premiers, once they have several weeks of buffer to make up for any issues that can arise. Plus, considering what happened with their CR partnership, it makes sense to keep other alternatives open. Placing all your eggs in one basket, even one with as much money as Amazon, is risky. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I subscribe to Crunchyroll and used to subscribe to Funimation, but I never gave much thought to subscribing to TAN as well. Yes, they have some catalog items from the ADV days, but that's about it. I do wonder how many subscribers TAN has? It's got to be pretty tiny in comparison to CR and Funimation.
Why TAN doesn't offer an advertiser-supported alternative is especially puzzling given its likely fairly low subscription revenues. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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They did for some time. First, they used a third party ad network, and then they switched their free streams to Hulu feeds (at least for the US, while other regions were given the TAN feed.) I'm guessing that the time, work and cost involved wasn't worth whatever return they were getting, especially given that it likely cut into their subscriber revenue. A lot of fans don't seem to realize the amount of work that goes into a streaming site. Not only do you need technical expertise, but renting server space, in this case from Amazon, isn't cheap. Plus, you have to deal with all the complaints when Amazon's servers go down, as we've seen in the past. Not to mention, there are legal and patent issues involved. I still find it a bit ridiculous that Netflix was able to patent their online queue system, and even went after Hulu and Blockbuster for using similar systems. The licensing costs for the streaming software and features can be very expensive. With TAN's recent expansion into other regions, namely the U.K. and Latin America, it's something that I'm willing to bet they will explore again in the future. But finding the right advertising service can be difficult and expensive. Honestly, I think the best thing long term for Sentai and Anime Network, is not only to continue working with Amazon, but also work more closely with their U.K. and Australian partners. Animatsu/Manga in the U.K., and the Australian distributors have also been hit hard by the Funi/CR deal, especially without Funimation now streaming directly in those markets and offering more titles on home video directly as well. Consolidating Anime Lab and Anime Network's streams could be a win-win, especially if they offer dubbed content that CR doesn't. Not to mention, Sentai could replicate region A/B discs for their distributors there and cut down on their production costs. It would also allow their partners to offer titles on Bluray that their markets can't support a print run on their own. They've already done this is in the past with Hannabbee, MVM, and others, so the possibility is definitely there. Plus, if Funimation expands more of their distribution through Universal, Madman may eventually find themselves in need of a new partner. |
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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I do. That's why I wonder how TAN survives.
The expansion of "business process" patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office seems absurd to me as well. I once offered my clients a spam-scanning service where I'd accept mail addressed to them, scan it for spam and viruses, and forward along the cleaned stream. It turned out that this very obvious "process," built entirely on open protocols and open software, was patented by Postini, the company that Google bought as it built its Google Mail for Business service. I never heard from them because I was hardly a threat, but I was in violation of Postini's patent. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Usually the single biggest cost for any streaming service is the acquisition of new content. Since we don't know closely related TAN and Sentai are at this point, having been legally separate entities in the past at least, it's hard to say how much the content is costing them. If the cost is low enough and stable, they could easily cover the rest of the costs. As for why the do it, the reason is basically future proofing. While VOD services are the largest part of their business, growth there is slower as compared to online streaming. And with such uncertainty around the cable business these days, it makes sense to keep another business line where growth is more rapid, even if it's much smaller and only marginally profitable. It makes more sense long term for them to continue to invest in their streaming business. They've improved their interface and reliability over the years, and are currently at work for replacements for this iOS and Roku apps among others. Work on a PS4 and Apple TV apps are also under way as well. |
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