WTK

https://help.funimation.com/hc/en-us...remium-Pricing (Aug 31)

New Premium Pricing

Has the price of my Funimation subscription changed?

Beginning August 31, 2022, the price of some Funimation Premium plans have changed. These changes will be reflected in your next billing cycle starting on October 5, 2022, and charged to your current payment method on file.

See the new plan prices below for our ad-free options. If you want to make any changes to your subscription, please visit your account page.



Why is the price changing?

No one likes prices going up, but there are times when we just have to raise them. As you know, Funimation is transitioning to a unified subscription service with Crunchyroll. A necessary step to achieve completion of this unification is for Funimation to adjust the prices for some of our Premium plans.


When will the price change come into effect?

The price increase for new Funimation Premium plan subscribers is effective as of August 31, 2022. If you are an existing Premium Plan subscriber, these changes will be reflected in your next billing cycle (monthly or annual) starting October 5, 2022.


Do I need to take any action?

No, all changes will be reflected automatically in your next billing cycle starting on October 5, 2022, and charged to your current payment method on file. To avoid any increased plan charges, you may also cancel your Premium Plan at any time before your next billing cycle after October 5, 2022.


Where can I see my payment details and pricing?

You can review your current Funimation plan and billing details by visiting My Account. Please note that if you are already a Funimation subscriber, you'll see these changes reflected in your next billing cycle starting on October 5, 2022.


Funimation Annual Price

Existing annual Premium Plan members will be notified of applicable price changes along with their annual subscription renewal notice.


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It's unclear which regions this applies to.


https://help.crunchyroll.com/hc/en-u...e-Increase-FAQ (updated 3 days ago)

fujishig

Wait, why is there still a Funimation service to begin with that's not just a Crunchyroll plan?

I migrated my plan over to Crunchyroll but they somehow kept my Funimation access. If they autorenew me at a higher rate on what is basically a dead platform...

WTK

I'm assuming CR is trying to convince Funimation only subscribers to come to Crunchyroll. There are still select content (getting smaller) that gets upload to both sites.

fujishig

I thought they said a while ago that the new stuff was only going to Crunchyroll? Funi still has some things that haven't migrated over (I should check if they finally did the One Piece dub or not)

WTK

Funimation site is streaming My Hero Academia: Season 6, Pop Team Epic: Season 2, and Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!: Season 2 (so far).

Crunchyroll doesn't have One Piece dub. CR is adding catalog titles very slowly (typically on Tuesdays).

fujishig

You're right, I should've said "all new series"https://help.funimation.com/hc/en-us...oes-that-mean-

I gave up on them moving the queue/watchlist over, which they also said they've been working on since March.

tinlunlau

I've already cancelled my Funimation subscription and opted to watch crunchyroll exclusive titles on other services through VPN instead. It's bad enough I pay for a whole bunch of services. It's getting oversaturated.

fujishig

Maybe I'm not understanding, if you subscribed to Funimation before why not just subscribe to Crunchyroll instead? Some kind of stand against them?

WTK

http://4NN.cx/.195161

Crunchyroll Lays Off Approximately 85 Employees Globally

Sources: Not cost-saving measure but resolving redundancy between Crunchyroll, Funimation

Anime streaming service Crunchyroll laid off about 85 employees last week. According to one employee with knowledge about the recent terminations, the layoffs included employees in the United States, Moldova, France, Germany, and Australia and primarily affected the company's marketing and engineering sectors. The source did not know if the layoffs only affected full-time employees or included contractors.

According to Crunchyroll's job listing page, the company has 12 offices with locations in Culver City in California, San Francisco, Dallas, New York City, Melbourne in Australia, Paris and Roubaix in France, Berlin, Tokyo, Chișinău in Moldova, Lausanne in Switzerland, and London.

Crunchyroll President Rahul Purini informed staff about the layoffs in an email on February 16. The email cites the integration of the Funimation and Crunchyroll teams as the reason behind the terminations. At an "All Staff" meeting on Tuesday, Crunchyroll leadership informed employees that those who were laid off will continue to receive benefits throughout the severance period. Multiple sources cited that the decision was not a cost-saving measure but rather a matter of resolving redundant roles.

According to one source, Crunchyroll had an estimated 1,400 full-time employees prior to the layoffs.

Anime News Network contacted Crunchyroll for comment, but a company representative referred to Purini's email. The company declined to provide the exact number of layoffs or current full-time employees at Crunchyroll.
​

fujishig

I figured they'd do this after they sunset Funimation, but that's taking forever so I guess they couldn't wait.

WTK

https://help.vrv.co/hc/en-us/articles/14089090277908

stingermck

I kinda forgot about all this. So are both streamers still going? Is there not just one yet between Funimation and Crunchy?

fujishig

Yes, Funimation is still running. Not everything that was on Funimation has moved over to Crunchyroll. They're still migrating but I thinks some of them are stuck on contracts and may never move over, but I don't understand what their plan is since they asked everyone who wants brand new stuff to go to Crunchyroll period, non stop.

PhantomStranger

I presume they'll shut Funimation down once the contracts end. Their lack of frank direction on this issue indicates something is legally preventing them from simply merging the services completely.

John Pannozzi

When Sony bought Funimation, Gen Fukunaga retained a 5% stake in the latter. I have yet to find any evidence that Sony eventually bought out his stake. Maybe that's the issue?

WTK

https://help.funimation.com/hc/en-us...f-my-download-

Starting Dec 28, 2023, downloading content and offline viewing will no longer be available on Funimation.

WTK

https://help.funimation.com/hc/en-us...nd-of-services

Funimation End of services

As part of Crunchyroll’s unification of fan services announced in March 2022, the Funimation app and website will sunset on April 2, 2024.

Rest assured, this transition will not impact your access to the vast library of anime available on Crunchyroll. We remain committed to delivering the best anime streaming experience and will continue to expand our offerings to cater to your diverse interests!Why should I have Crunchyroll?

fujishig

Ugh:

PhantomStranger

I figured those digital copies included with Funimation BDs would eventually go away. It's why I never bothered redeeming the vast majority of those digital copies. I think it played a role in why they dropped the Funimation brand and service, if I'm being frank.

WTK

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/26/2...y-compensation

Funimation’s solution for wiping out digital libraries could be good, if it works

Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini says the company is working with customers to provide an ‘appropriate value’ for titles that will be lost in April.

The president of Crunchyroll, Rahul Purini, announced that the company is working to compensate customers who will lose their digital libraries in the upcoming Funimation / Crunchyroll merger on April 2nd.

“[We] are working really hard directly with each [customer] to ensure that they have an appropriate value for what they got in the digital copy initially,” Purini tells Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel during this week’s Decoder podcast. “As people reach out to us through customer service, we are responding and handling each of those requests as they prefer.”

When asked what “appropriate value” meant, Purini said, “So it could be that they get access to a digital copy on any of the existing other services where they might be able to access it. It could be a discount access to our subscription service so they can get access to the same shows through our subscription service.”

These options haven’t been formally announced or detailed, and Purini went on to say that it was something Crunchyroll customers are currently taking advantage of. My attempts to secure the “appropriate value” for some digital copies have, so far, been unsuccessful.

The original Funimation offer allowed customers who purchased Funimation disks to redeem a code for a digital copy accessible via a digital rights locker similar to Movies Anywhere. In 2017, Sony acquired Funimation for $148 million. That purchase was followed by its $1.175 billion acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T, which was completed in 2021. With the two anime streaming services under one owner, consolidation was the next step.

The merger came with the news that the Funimation streaming service would be shutting down, taking users’ digital copy libraries with it despite Funimation’s website still promising digital copies would be available to stream “forever” (subject, of course, to a terms of use agreement that most folks don’t read).

When asked on Decoder why customers were going to lose their digital libraries, Purini had a clear answer: “As we look at usage of that and the number of people that were redeeming those and using them, it was just not a feature that was available in Crunchyroll and isn’t in our roadmap.”

He went on to assure Decoder listeners that Crunchyroll had a solution in place for customers losing their libraries. “I will say these are customers that we value a lot and are working really hard directly with each one of them to ensure that they have an appropriate value for what they got in the digital copy initially.”

But in practice, Crunchyroll’s policy seems inconsistent and difficult to take advantage of.

I opened a customer service ticket with Funimation expressing concern that my digital copies were going away in the coming sunset and asking what, if anything, the company would do about it. I received two emails that were essentially the same boilerplate customer service response apologizing for the inconvenience but not providing any kind of solution to my issue.

The Funimation account I used to test this was a free account that had a digital copy of The Vision of Escaflowne in its library, and I was also able to add a digital copy of Steins;Gate. In my most recent communication with Funimation customer service, I explained that because I have a free account, I will no longer be able to watch Steins;Gate digitally since that show requires a premium subscription. Additionally, The Vision of Escaflowne is not a title currently available on Crunchyroll, so unless the show is transported over when Funimation sunsets, I’d lose digital access to that as well.

I asked if Crunchyroll would at least be willing to comp me a premium subscription so I could continue to watch Steins;Gate — something Purini said the company was actively doing for customers who ask. As of publication, Crunchyroll customer service has not responded.

The Verge reached out to Crunchyroll public relations to clarify how exactly the company was working with its customers to provide an “appropriate value” for their digital libraries and if this was something it is actively doing right now or something to come in the future. We asked if it planned on communicating this to its customers, if there were any restrictions customers needed to be aware of before pursuing this, and how long this would be on offer.

Brian Eley, vice president of communications, responded in an email writing, “Funimation users who have questions about digital copies can contact Funimation here. A Funimation account associated with a digital copy redemption is required for verification.”

As frustrating as this was, this isn’t the first time Sony customers have had their digital purchases put in jeopardy. In December, PlayStation issued permanent suspensions to users from its PlayStation Network, cutting them off from their digital purchases before restoring access to those affected without offering any explanation for the bans. That same month, it also announced that it would remove a host of Discovery shows from users’ libraries due to expiring content licensing arrangements before reversing that decision. Hopefully, Crunchyroll’s handling of its users’ digital libraries will follow suit.

fujishig

They are working hard with each customer, meaning you have to call in to complain and get lucky with your customer service rep? Why not just do a blanket remediation?

WTK

http://4NN.cx/.208086

Crunchyroll Confirms Testing A.I. for Subtitling

Company also tests using generative A.I. for different workflows

In an interview with technology news website The Verge on its Decoder podcast on Monday, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini confirmed that the company is testing the use of generative A.I. (artificial intelligence) on subtitling and closed captioning. The testing is an effort to "optimize [their] processes" to allow them to release subtitles in more languages closer to the Japanese release date of seasonal anime episodes.
The company is also testing generative A.I. to assist users in personalizing their experience and discovering titles, and is testing A.I. in general for different workflows in the company.

Crunchyroll previously released poor-quality subtitles for the first episode of the The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons television anime in October 2023, then removed the episode after complaints over the subtitles spread on social media and Crunchyroll's own website. It reuploaded the episode with updated subtitles after a week, explaining that it "work[ed] with the licensor of the series" for the updated subtitles.

Sony's Funimation Global Group completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T on August 9, 2021, after the company first announced the acquisition in December 2020. The purchase price was US$1.175 billion, and the proceeds were paid in cash at closing. Funimation's home video releases are now listed under Crunchyroll.

WTK

http://4NN.cx/.208204

Crunchyroll States 'No Announcements About Price Change' Except for Funimation Legacy Subscribers

Some customers have price increase if switching from Funimation legacy subscription following its closure

Amidst rumors of a Crunchyroll price change for subscribers, Crunchyroll told ANN on Thursday that it had "no announcements about a price change at this time." The company clarified that some people will experience price changes if they were switching from a Funimation-only subscription to Crunchyroll. ANN also inquired about any possible price changes within the next two years, and Crunchyroll responded that it would be improbable to predict a price change for that time frame.

Funimation's website lists that the subscription price may change for some, but not all customers. Specifically, the website states that "legacy" subscribers for Funimation, who have been grandfathered into lower subscription prices even after Funimation had increased its costs, will experience a price change upon the transfer to Crunchyroll. In addition, subscribers located in Canada will experience a currency change in their subscription. In Canada, customers with a Funimation annual subscription will not find their current plan available on Crunchyroll, and thus, it will be canceled upon Funimation's closure. Funimation has sent its users emails about its closure and subscription pricing.

WTK

https://www.polygon.com/anime/240925...ates-interview (March 7)

Crunchyroll execs respond to AI subtitle controversy and the Funimation merger

‘If it never gets there, then it never gets there’

In a recent interview with The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini revealed that the anime-focused streaming service was experimenting with implementing AI-generated subtitles for the service’s library of titles. Purini’s proposition was that AI could expedite the workflow of subtitling and closed captioning in order to launch episodes “as close to the Japanese release as possible” for worldwide anime fans.

Crunchyroll, which was acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. in 2021 and subsequently merged with Funimation in 2022, is arguably the largest streaming service dedicated primarily to Japanese animation. As of this past January, the post-merger subscriber base comes in at over 13 million. That market share combined with Purini’s vision for potential implementation of AI subtitles prompted some anime fans and media commentators to voice concern.

The core argument: AI technology is nowhere near sophisticated enough to adequately translate the nuances of Japanese speech and text. Then there’s the concern for how such AI would impact human translators and localization teams whose work forms the bedrock of simulcasting and simuldubbing anime.

Polygon spoke with Purini and Crunchyroll COO Gita Rebbapragada at the 2024 Crunchyroll Anime Awards to discuss the controversy and how Crunchyroll is considering the red flags from its audience.

“We hear all of those concerns,” Rebbapragada told Polygon. “The two things we are solving for are: We want to provide a meaningful viable alternative to piracy [and] we want to share in success with the creators and our partners. When the content is pirated, we are unable to share in that success with them and that is something that’s very important to us.

“We have to look at what technologies exist and how to deliver the best fan experience and the best ability to combat piracy. We’re not different in that many companies are exploring this, and many pirate sites are exploring this. Now, having said that, anime is very unique. It’s not like translating general entertainment. There are a lot of references, there’s a lot of meaning, there’s a lot of subtext. And we use human translators, obviously, right now, and I oversee the subtitling team, and they take an incredible amount of care to honor the creative intent behind the story. And so that is something we take really seriously. It’s not something that we take for granted at all. And that is an important value for us.”

In an interview with Polygon, Purini clarified that Crunchyroll is not currently using AI in subtitling.

“AI is new, we are curious to see what it can do, what it cannot do, to understand it better,” he said. “Quality is of paramount importance for us, and if we find out the technology is not to the level that it can create the best subtitles we want for our fans, then we will wait until the technology gets there. And if it never gets there, then it never gets there.”

Purini declined to comment on a timeline when asked when and how Crunchyroll might implement AI-generated subtitling and closed captioning into the company’s localization workflow. “We still don’t know if we can get them done. It’s really, really early testing so far,” he said.

Additionally, Polygon spoke with Purini about the upcoming sunset of the Funimation app and website on April 2. This move, too, has not been without its share of controversy, as digital copies of anime purchased via home video sets distributed by Funimation and redeemable via the Funimation website will no longer be accessible following the closure of the Funimation app and website.

“We understand this is a value to fans,” Purini said when asked what the company is doing to serve customers frustrated by the impending inaccessibility of their digital copies. “We are helping customers as they reach out to us on customer service. We are trying to make them whole. That could mean a discount to our subscription service, or it could mean giving them the value on a different service where they can get access to a digital copy.”

When asked if or when fans can expect the remaining anime titles on Funimation — titles such as Tenchi Muyo, The Vision of Escaflowne, and Serial Experiments Lain — that have not yet migrated over to Crunchyroll to be added to the latter’s streaming library, Purini told Polygon that company was still in the process of seeing those and more titles moved onto the platform.

“We’ve been working really hard to move all that content from Funimation to Crunchyroll,” Purini said. “The majority of that content has already been moved over to Crunchyroll. There are a handful of shows that are in the process of being moved over. I expect by April 2, everything that we can move over will get moved over. There might be a handful of shows that we do not get permission to move to Crunchyroll, and we will continue to work on those with our partners in the future.”

fujishig

It still boggles my mind how Crunchyroll went from monetizing piracy to where it is now.