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Sony’s plan to combine Crunchyroll and Funimation into a streaming service to run its anime empire seemed as simple as throwing AT&T away a billion dollars. But now the plan would be worrying enough that the US Department of Justice would extend its antitrust review of the $ 1.175 billion purchase to a full investigation, according to three sources who interviewed. Information.
According to Informationthe sources. “WarnerMedia and Sony have told the Department of Justice that Crunchyroll and Sony’s burgeoning anime empire are just two of the many options available to anime creators for distributing their shows outside of Japan,” Information written, but even if direct competition is not an issue, there might be other reasons for concern.
Controlling both Funimation and Crunchyroll means one thing in the context of anime streaming services in the United States, but caught up with all the other things Crunchyroll does, like manga editing and anime conventions, and the international anime companies that Sony has already bought in Australia and France, the company could have enormous control over the entire industry.
As we wrote in 2019, Funimation and Crunchyroll were already two of the biggest anime streaming services outside of Japan, while big players like Amazon, Netflix and even the most recent HBO Max also beefed up their offerings. with cartoons. If the DOJ doesn’t block Sony’s deal and manages to merge Crunchyroll and Funimation, Sony could very easily become the anime streaming provider to beat.
Sony, AT&T and the DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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