Sony Corp is in final talks with AT&T to buy U.S. anime streaming service Crunchyroll. The offer is reportedly for 100 billion yen ($957 million). That’s a lot of money for an American based anime streaming service.
Sony already owns a U.S. based streaming service. Funimation is a competitor of Crunchyroll and Sony owns 95% of Funimation.
I’ve subscribed to both over the years. I haven’t been a subscriber to Crunchyroll since they and Funimation were in a partnership of sorts. Crunchyroll would focus on anime with subtitles, Funimation would focus on anime with English voice-actors. I’ve always preferred dubbed anime over subbed anime, even when dubbed anime was looked down on.
The truth is, I usually have trouble keeping up with the dialogue with subtitled anime. I never have a problem with subtitled foreign films. Just anime. Plus, when I watch anime, I don’t want my eyes glued to text. I want to watch the animation.
Funimation ended its two-year partnership with Crunchyroll on November 9, 2018. If Sony is able to finalize a deal with AT&T and buy Crunchyroll, it looks like the two will be in a partnership of sorts very soon.
I’m hoping when the deal goes through, AT&T will finally have enough money to fix their horrible, unreliable wireless telephone service.
