Posts Tagged “hulu”

When I read on February 20th that Viz Media asked Hulu and Joost to disable embedding of their episodes, I wasn’t that surprised because it was part of a larger (possibly temporary) pullback by entertainment studios in general regarding how their content is streamed online.

Earlier that same week, there was a back-and-forth between CBS and Hulu following the disabling of embeds Feb. 17 on TV.com, which was part of CBS’ acquisition of CNET Networks in June 2008. (CBS content doesn’t show up on Hulu because the network hosts videos on its proper site as well as TV.com.) That was followed by Hulu pulling content off Boxee (a media center program) and explaining that it was done at the request of their content providers. TV.com came out with an iPhone/iPod Touch application (iTunes link) on Friday, increasing the sense of competition between the two sites.

Joost wrote a short message about the anime matter, saying they “hope to be able to allow you to embed and watch these shows on other sites again soon”. Just before publishing this post, I checked Joost and embed codes have returned to Viz’s shows – I was able to get self-embeds of Death Note and Naruto Shippuden from Hulu to play more often than not, so maybe Viz’s posturing has ended for now.
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Sometimes press releases can provide timely, relevant information by announcing a new product development or a featured guest for a conference but there are instances where a release is purely congratulatory and comes out much later after the milestone itself occurred.

Today’s ‘official launch’ of FUNimation’s partnership with Hulu comes 46 days (six weeks, three days) after Hulu’s concise release on September 23rd announcing the launch of a dedicated anime channel. The only new knowledge a reader would gain from today’s release is that Shuffle!, Peach Girl, and Slayers are debuting on the service this week and the rest is needless padding, save for CEO Gen’s heralding Hulu’s wide reach for “offer[ing] viewers a way to discover new shows”.

One would think that FUNimation would consider the initial debut of some of their managed properties on Hulu as, at the very least, a ’soft launch’ and surely many became aware of their presence on the service when they made a big deal only two weeks ago over putting subtitled episodes of Shikabane Hime on there as well as on YouTube, Joost, and their own website.

A prior incident of ‘after the feast’ behavior that occurred earlier this year was Bang Zoom! Entertainment patting itself on the back on June 17th for dubbing Lucky Star, volume 1 of which debuted on May 6th – exactly six weeks before the release was issued. Bang Zoom!’s release was fairly informative as it provided insight into their dialogue methodology and audio hardware specifics (Neumann U87 studio condenser mics, yo!) but surely it would have been more effective if issued to coincide with the first release of their tiring efforts. And what is this six week delay business? I doubt both are giving tribute to the 1982 film involving Mary Tyler Moore, Dudley Moore, and a 12-year-old girl with leukemia played by ballerina and figure skater Katherine Healy.

*sigh* Public relations managers, please be more prompt in issuing your firm’s press releases as part of your duty as producers of promotional material that is subtler than direct advertising and its upfront approach.

It is pretty clear that FUNimation’s roll out of their new license Shikabane Hime onto streaming video websites on Friday trumped what little bit of buzz ADV planned to generate with its Monday license revelations, not only because the title debuted only three weeks ago on Japanese television but also because of the strings and behavior involved in what will be the company’s most ambitious venture into digital distribution yet.

Let me make this clear before I proceed: I will not intentionally imply or assert that FUNimation has any ill intentions despite what the title of this editorial might suggest through subtle reference to contemporary politics; I simply wish to flesh out the many promises and concerns I have about their influence on how the handling of Japanese animation in North America will evolve in the near future. I will give them respect when due but I will also not hold back on expressing any pertinent criticisms.
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Earlier this week, both Hulu and Joost announced the launch of anime channels on their respective sites. While some people joked about the sliver of revenue publishers get from Hulu or complained about watermarking (get over it, it’s FREE content), I think these efforts as well as any similar future ones are beneficial for the licensing companies in terms of increasing reach and awareness.

The shows Funimation, Viz and others are providing to streaming sites have very likely already made most of the gross revenue they will ever produce. I doubt Slayers, Blue Dragon, and Astro Boy are generating any significant scratch for their rights holders compared to the bigger franchises (e.g. Bleach, Naruto) so why not let online users see half or all of a series they may not have known existed and might never buy on DVD. The more recent fare like the entire Death Note series, uncut and subtitled, has the potential of cannibalizing Viz’s sales of digital downloads through Direct2Drive, Xbox/Zune Marketplace, and the iTunes store along with physical DVD sales.
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