Polygon is reporting the Sony-owned Funimation has acquired Crunchyroll from AT&T and WarnerMedia. The move brings the two biggest Anime companies in the country together and will change the landscape of numerous future distribution conversations. Warner worked Crunchyroll content into its HBO Max service at launch but it looks like Funimation made AT&T an offer it couldn’t refuse. The 1.175 billion purchase will go a long way to AT&T continuing to pay off its debt and focus more on its key brands like HBO, Turner and others moving forward. Ahead of this sale the company had been shuttering other services in order to simplify its portfolio including the DC Universe service which converted into a full-time digital comics app, Korean Drama service DramaFever, and classic film service Filmstruck, which was a partnership between the Criterion Collection and Turner Classic Movies. Crunchyroll has 70 million free members and 3 million paid subscribers. The combined reach makes Sony the big fish in the Anime ocean.
Sony has been buying up Anime companies since 2015 including 2015 the French anime streaming Wakanim, Australian anime distributor Madman Anime and its streaming service, AnimeLab and of course Funimation.
“We are proud to bring Crunchyroll into the Sony family,” Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, added. “Through Funimation and our terrific partners at Aniplex and Sony Music Entertainment Japan, we have a deep understanding of this global artform and are well-positioned to deliver outstanding content to audiences around the world. Together with Crunchyroll, we will create the best possible experience for fans and greater opportunity for creators, producers and publishers in Japan and elsewhere. Funimation has been doing this for over 25 years and we look forward to continuing to leverage the power of creativity and technology to succeed in this rapidly growing segment of entertainment.”
