It's been coming for around a year and now it's finally official. Sony has acquired Crunchyroll from AT&T.
This means that Sony now owns both Crunchyroll and Funimation, the two biggest streaming services for anime. I'm curious what this will mean for the future of anime streaming in the West. I wonder if all titles will be available across both services, so that users may watch on their preferred platform, or if eventually Crunchyroll will simply fuse into Funimation and cease to exist. The press release talks about a unified streaming experience, but it is pretty vague.
What are your thoughts on this news?
Sony’s Funimation Global Group Completes Acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T | Sony Pictures Entertainment
CULVER CITY, CA AND DALLAS, TX, August 9, 2021 — Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (SPE) and AT&T Inc.* (NYSE:T) today announced that SPE has completed its acquisition of AT&T’s Crunchyroll anime business through Funimation Global Group, LLC. Funimation is a joint venture between SPE and Sony...
www.sonypictures.com
This means that Sony now owns both Crunchyroll and Funimation, the two biggest streaming services for anime. I'm curious what this will mean for the future of anime streaming in the West. I wonder if all titles will be available across both services, so that users may watch on their preferred platform, or if eventually Crunchyroll will simply fuse into Funimation and cease to exist. The press release talks about a unified streaming experience, but it is pretty vague.
What are your thoughts on this news?