Free worldwide streaming of Naruto, coming soon

[Archaic]

Crunchyroll’s 2009 New Year’s Resolution: No to Fansubs, Yes to Worldwide Legal Streaming of Naruto, Gintama, 3 Others

TV Tokyo announced through a press release today that they have partnered with Crunchyroll to broadcast 5 shows online worldwide, 1 hour after they air on TV in Japan. Starting Jan 8th, Crunchyroll will stream the latest episodes of Naruto Shippuden and Gintama, with 3 other works yet to be named, subtitled into English. The streaming will be available to anyone around the world (except within Japan) for a monthly subscription fee, and then one week later they will be made available through free, ad supported streaming.
At the same time, Crunchyroll has agreed to remove all user-uploaded content on the site and only stream video which they have explicit distribution contracts with the content providers for. Currently Crunchyroll has deals with Toei Animation, Gonzo (which was revealed to have a 20% stake in Crunchyroll in recent financial reports), and a few other smaller content providers.
Also announced today, Viz Media will make these episodes of Naruto Shippuden available on their own website (as well as Hulu and Joost) the same time that Crunchyroll releases the episodes for free streaming, one week after airing. Viz will also make the already aired episodes of Shippuden available, eight per week, until every episode that has been aired in Japan is completely available for streaming from their site. Dubbing for this Naruto season has already been started, however the future of the show’s broadcast on Cartoon Network is somewhat in doubt since the cancellation of Toonami.

Pokémon airs on TV Tokyo too....here's hoping it's one of the 3 as yet unannounced shows.

 

[Casual_Furi]

That would make my YEAR if Pokemon was subbed! How much is the subscription fee? I love GinTama but I haven't got a chance to see it lately.

I've been watching shows like Dexter and True Blood on my computer instead of anime recently.

 

[The Outrage]

Pokémon airs on TV Tokyo too....here's hoping it's one of the 3 as yet unannounced shows.

Me too since YTV has been in an un-eding cycle around the Hearthome Doubles tournament and episodes around it.

Let's just hope they get way more anime than that...

Though if it proves successful we might jsut get more legal subs

 

[Nekusagi]

They're also going to stream Shugo Chara, which is nice since I've been wanting to watch more of that series.

 

[timoteyo7]

Yeah I read about this. I'm glad that VIZ is finally showing free Naruto Shippuuden episodes. Sadly Dattebayo will stop subbing Naruto. Even though they pissed me off a few times they were the only ones who subbed Naruto for the fans and for that I am grateful.

 

[Dogasu]

*cough*

Sadly Dattebayo will stop subbing Naruto.

Really!?

About freakin' time. They should have stopped subbing back when Viz announced that they had the rights to the series.

 

[Archaic]

Exclusive Interview: Dattebayo to Stop Fansubbing Naruto Jan 15th in Response to Legal Streaming

* Written by Samuel Pinansky on November 22, 2008
* Anime, Industry, Interviews & Discussion, Shows, VOD, Viz Media

In response to recent announcements by Viz Media, TV Tokyo, and Crunchyroll of new episodes of Naruto Shippuden being streamed for free within a week of airing in Japan, the fansubbing group Dattebayo posted a message on their website saying they would be stopping the fansubbing of the show the same time the official streams are available. Animenews.biz managed to track down the member of the notorius fansub group who posted that message, Interactii, and interview him for a more detailed look inside the decision.

Animenews.biz: You recently announced that Dattebayo Fansubs would cease fansubbing Naruto Shippuden when it would be streamed by Viz within an hour after it airs in Japan. Can you describe how the decision was made in the group?

Interactii: Yes, that is correct, we have announced that we are dropping the show effective January 15th. All major decisions in DB are made with a staff vote, and this was no exception. The vote was nearly unanimous to stop subbing it based on Viz and Crunchyroll’s announcement.

Animenews.biz: How long was it discussed, and was it a contentious decision?

Interactii: We had started discussing it last weekend, and we had made the decision by Thursday morning. It was not contentious at all.

Animenews.biz: Was this something that Dattebayo was anticipating, or did it come as a surprise?

Interactii: We were not anticipating it, and we were taken by surprise, but I think it is a good move overall for the industry if they can pull it off.

Animenews.biz: Why do you think they decided to stream Naruto Shippuden simultaneously? Do you think that DB’s fansubbing was a factor in their decision, directly or indirectly?

Interactii: I think that while no one was saying “Let’s do this because of Dattebayo”, that the trend of high quality, near simultaneous releases that we started a while ago has caught on alot, and the industry is finally reacting to that, since they have seen that the old model isn’t working.

Animenews.biz: Do you feel that with this development, you could characterize your group’s fansubbing of Naruto as a “success”? Do you think that this, as well as the announcement by TV Tokyo to stream a number of new shows simultaneously as well, is the start of a trend, or just another experiment by the anime industry?

Interactii: I think the subtitling was a complete success. Our goal was to bring Naruto to fans in the way we wanted to, and I think we did that very well. I think that the decision by TV Tokyo is an experiment to see if this kind of model can do good things for them, and I think alot of that burden is going to fall on the sites that are driving it, like CR. If this goes well, I think we will definitely see a new trend in anime distribution.

Animenews.biz: Crunchyroll has been successful so far by uploading and streaming fansubs without the permission of the original copyright holders. Although they have promised to get rid of all unauthorized content by January, how do you feel about that site being selected as the very first place to see Naruto Shippuden come Jan 8th?

Interactii: I think CR will have to work very hard to make sure they do everything right. They are making a difficult transition come the first of the year, and it has the potential to have lots of problems. They really have to focus on capturing the people who watch fansubs now, plus lots of new people. If they can succeed at that they will do great. CR has really done alot of work trying to change the way we think about anime. And they are moving in the right direction I think.

Animenews.biz: Recently there has been a lot of consolidation in the R1 market, and a lot of new business models being tried by Japanese companies. Blu-rays are starting to be released in Japan and to some limited extent, the US. What is your general mood about the anime industry in the US and Japan, from the perspective of a fansubber?

Interactii: Well I think people have finally realized that blaming pirates and fansubbers for the downturn will not win them any sales. The new techniques and ideas we are seeing are very exciting to me, there are shows I’d love to own on BluRay. I think that over the next year, the Japanese market will see a resurgence in anime. And that that will follow into the US.

Animenews.biz: Many of your viewers seem to believe that this announcement is fake. Considering the past history of DB and posting fake episodes or other jokes, why should people believe you this time?

Interactii: Yes indeed, many people do think this is another troll, and I almost wish it was, because it would be a really good one. But it isn’t. I suppose that people don’t have to believe us, they will see that as of the 15th, we won’t be subtitling it anymore.

Animenews.biz: Would you like to say anything to the many people who will probably be angry at DB for stopping to fansub Naruto?

Interactii: In the words of Hidan, “Eat a dick!” ;D

Animenews.biz: What do you think the future holds for DB, specifically?

Interactii: Well, we are already planning to relax more, and perhaps look at some additional kids shows. Though we won’t be the popular group we are now, it was never really about that anyway, so we will keep doing what we enjoy.

May I just take this opportunity to say that I've been pushing for this exact model for years now, and I'm glad to see it's finally happening. Hopefully, this will mean a lot more sales of merchandise outside of Japan in the coming years, which is where the real revenue streams should have been coming from in the first place.

 

[Archaic]

A couple more relevant news stories. Put them in a new post because...well....I can. ;p

Nippon TV, Dentsu, Yoshimoto Kogyo Team Up with Joost to Stream Anime, Japanese Comedy

* Written by Samuel Pinansky on November 19, 2008
* Anime, Geneon, Industry, Shows, TV, VOD

On the heels of the announcement of TV Tokyo’s partnership with Crunchyroll to stream episodes of Naruto, Gintama, and three other shows only one hour after airing on Japanese television, Nippon Television announced (Japanese only) that they have partnered with Dentsu and Yoshimoto Kogyo to air anime on Joost, the popular VOD internet site started by former developers of Skype. Yoshimoto Kogyo is one of the largest entertainment companies in Japan that focuses on comedy talent, headquartered in the heart of Japanese comedy, Osaka. Dentsu is the parent company of media producer and distributor Geneon Entertainment, however they have recently announced that they are selling Geneon to NBC-Universal this February.

Starting in December, they are planning to make Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji and Buzzer Beater available on Joost, as well as establishing a channel “Japanese Humor ~Owarai~” which will have variety shows from Yoshimoto Kogyo’s comedy properties available for viewing. All of these will be subtitled in english, and free of charge. Kaiji is a unique anime series about the underworld of high-stakes gambling based on a very popular manga, and Buzzer Beater is a futuristic take on a basketball sports anime. Both originally aired on the Japanese pay satellite network WOWOW. No further information is available about future properties that may be made available at this time, although according to the press release a total of 6 titles and 105 episodes of content are planned to be made available. This service will be available in the US only.

TV Tokyo to Stream Shugo Chara and Skip Beat via CrunchyRoll

CrunchyRoll has announced that it will stream the Shugo Chara and Skip Beat shojo titles via licensing from TV Tokyo.

This follows the previous announcement earlier in the week that TV Tokyo would begin to stream various shows on CrunchyRoll such as Naruto Shippuden, Gintama, and other titles that were previously unannounced on a week delayed basis after the Japanese airing for subscribers with ad-supported streams another week after.

Shugo Chara and Skip Beat have been two of the most popular shojo series on the streaming service and rumors were circulating that they would be the next shows to be announced for legal streaming.

It's probably worth mentioning also, there's a few groups who'd already put up stuff on Crunchyroll prior to this. Some aren't putting any subtitles on at all...but do give ways for the community to subtitle them for everyone to see. Open source legal fansubs with official recognition from the license holders? I like the sound of that.

 

[Satoshi-chan]

If the price is right, and there is a good selection of anime, I probably would consider subscribing to this. Seems that something good might have come from the popularity of speedy fansubbing.

Open source legal fansubs with official recognition from the license holders? I like the sound of that.

This is definitely a way for fansubbers to keep the "fan" in their name. By actually working as a community to provide translations for legit programming without breaking any laws, this is a very positive thing.

 

[CaptKirby]

Gintama? Awesome. Removing a lot from crunchyroll? Definitely not awesome (for people with low bandwidth)

 

[Snake Bandage]

If they're putting it on Crunchyroll, then the "worldwide streaming" bit of the first report is a goddamned lie.

 

[Ben Cousins]

First Dattebayo stops subbing Shippuuden, and now we'll have to wait a week to see it subbed (and chances are that this will probably be US-only). :-(

 

[Dogasu]

You're whining and moaning about a measly week wait? That's NOTHING.

 

[Ben Cousins]

I don't know a thing about licensing but chances are this streaming will be US only.

Thats why I'm whinging. It usually takes me a week to give a shit about watching the sub anyway. ;-)

 

[Archaic]

I don't know why people would think that because it's on Crunchyroll that it's not worldwide streaming, but for Naruto and the other TV-Tokyo shows at the very least, it's confirmed to be worldwide.

If you want the shows 0-day, pay the $12 US a month to get access to every one of the TV-Tokyo shows an hour after broadcast.

 

[Satoshi-chan]

$12 a month isn't a bad price to pay! That's less than a DVD (new) a month... and less than what I used to pay when I was a regular video renter. It's about time that people are offered a good legit way to view anime shortly after broadcast. If the shows offered at the time that Crunchyroll starts doing this are ones that I would be interested in, I'm totally paying.

Maybe TV Asahi will do the same eventually, I'd love to be able to catch the current airing of Doraemon soon after broadcast without having to resort to downloading chinese fansubs.

 

[Satoshi-chan]

http://www.crunchyroll.com/preorder?src=msg

Preorders for the Crunchyroll Anime Membership account are available:

$6.95 for monthly
$19.95 for three months
$59.95 for a year

Very fair prices, and this account will allow you to get the anime a week before everyone else, allow you to view hi-def streams if your computer is powerful enough (and their hi-def sample looks very awesome), and you get to view without annoying ads. Oh, you also get star membership benefits as well. I'm thinking about going with the three month preorder and seeing what kind of a selection they will have when this launches. Not too expensive to get a taste of what they have to offer, and if their offerings are enough to make me happy, I might just have to continue doing this.

 

[The Outrage]

If you want the shows 0-day, pay the $12 US a month to get access to every one of the TV-Tokyo shows an hour after broadcast.

An hour....

...but I want it now! That's it. I'm resorting back to fansubs!!

6.95 a month isn't that bad and going for the yearly deal is just five dollars a month. This could fit into my budget when I go off to university....

Of course, I want to know what else they'd have, other than naruto.

 

[Satoshi-chan]

Yeah, they're going to list more titles as they get closer to launch. Check out the FAQ linked on the website that I link to on my last post. I think this will be a very interesting thing to watch and see how it grows.

 

[Nyarth]

Only two weeks left until it launches... Bye bye fansubs =*(