In a recent interview with The Verge, Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Purini admitted that ads weren’t making the anime streaming service money. Per an extract from the transcripts of their conversation:
The Verge: “With the ads, are you making money there? Is that profitable?“
Purini: “It’s early days. We launched—“
The Verge: “That’s a no, that feels like a no. I just want to be clear.“
Purini: “Yes, it’s still early, still nascent. Ways to go for us.“
In the hour-long podcast, Purini spoke about the Crunchyroll and Funimation merger, the controversy and now-compensation scheme over unsupported “forever” digital copies, and how Crunchyroll is open to more mergers and acquisitions if the situation “made sense.” Purini’s comment on ads arose during a segment on the past, present, and future of streaming. Crunchyroll’s launch of Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) streaming services like Pluto TV was highlighted as an example of how streaming services appear to be reverting to the days of cable TV. Purini added:
“I still think it’s early days for streaming. I think there will be paradigm shifts that will happen because of this exact tension and the messiness that the consumer is finding because they don’t know which show is where. That’s all going to get addressed, in my mind. For example, we’re noticing it from our fans, they have a hard time managing all these services. So we just launched Crunchyroll as an a-la-carte channel on Amazon Prime, as an add-on to Amazon Prime. We are not only finding that we are attracting a set of audience that we weren’t able to reach before, but we are finding that the audience prefers that experience because they have one place they can go to get all of their entertainment subscription services.“
Netflix is for normies; Crunchyroll is for more seasoned anime viewers.
A major motivator for Crunchyroll’s free, ad-supported, and bundled offerings, such as Pluto TV, the Crunchyroll Channel, and its Amazon Prime add-on, is to help introduce fans to anime. When they’re ready, they’ll take up one of the three Crunchyroll subscriptions: $7.99 for the Fan tier, $9.99 (Mega Fan tier), and $14.99 (Ultimate Fan tier).
Currently, following Crunchyroll’s 2022 policy change, fans can still freely watch (with ads) shows that aren’t currently airing despite having no subscription, such as the first seasons of Mashle, Jujutsu Kaisen, all three seasons of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and more. All episodes of the currently airing One Piece can also be watched. Naturally, this hopes to entice anime viewers, with access to Crunchyroll’s large catalog being the next big step.
Surprisingly, a major facet of Crunchyroll’s plan to win over new anime fans is Netflix. Netflix’s broad reach plays a major (and free) role for Crunchyroll in helping fans discover anime — and its platform by extension. Polygon’s recent report into anime streaming habits revealed that Netflix is by far the most popular anime streaming service in the U.S. for Gen Z and Millenials. Crunchyroll placed below Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video for anime streaming. This owes to anime fans watching significantly more than just anime.
In this sense, Netflix acts as a massive billboard for anime streaming, while Crunchyroll’s far larger anime catalog + connections with Japan can swipe fans ready to take the next step. Purini spoke on this, saying:
Yeah, so Netflix is ubiquitous, right? They’re in every household. The Gen Z audience obviously is watching anime on Netflix, but they’re also watching anime on Crunchyroll more so than any other demographic, like you said. Our value proposition to them is the depth and the breadth of content we’re bringing to them. They get anime, great anime, on Netflix that gets them interested in that, but if they want to go broader and deeper — watch a broader set of genre stories — Crunchyroll is the destination. That’s what we are bringing to the table.
So once you’re a fan, a casual fan, and you want to try more, you come to Crunchyroll. So that’s why we also work with our partners that are in general entertainment that have broad reach, whether it is Netflix or Hulu or Amazon, to help reach this audience, engage them, and then we have the confidence that when they want a deeper experience, they’ll come to Crunchyroll.
In the same vein, while normie fans may have likely heard the results of the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, fans looking to become a little more seasoned can check out all of Anime Corner’s 2023 Anime of the Year Winners.
Source: The Verge
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