In a recent press release from Sony Pictures Entertainment, it was announced that the eight-month-long process of acquiring Crunchyroll from AT&T through Funimation was complete. At the nontrivial cost of $1.175 billion, Crunchyroll is now officially a part of Funimation.
As of right now, both subscription services remain active as their own streaming services, but CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Tony Vinciquerra, made it clear that their goal is to have a single subscription service when it comes to anime, “Our goal is to create a unified anime subscription experience as soon as possible.” Despite that, no timetables or pricing options were mentioned in the release.
And Sony Group Corporation CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, talked about their company’s excitement over the deal.
“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 other interesting wrinkle in this whole situation is how it’ll impact the anime that Crunchyroll streams via HBO Max. There was no mention of how or even if the deal between AT&T and Sony would have an impact on the handful of anime series featured on HBO’s streaming service.
For those unfamiliar with Crunchyroll, it is an anime streaming service with 120 million users who access ad-based streaming and five million subscription-based users across over 200 different countries.
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