DB RELATED: Department of Justice is concerned about the Sony acquisition of Crunchyroll

[SilverPlaqueVII]

Link:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/24/2234 ... OcMkg30Id8

Sony, the parent company of FUNimation and the licensor of Dragon Ball series, is acquiring Crunchyroll. With the intervention of the U.S. Department of Justice, they are worried Sony will have anime monopoly in America like Standard Oil and AT&T had. Would they find ways to sell off some assets or titles? What do you think if DOJ blocks the sale?

[JulieYBM]

Hope this prevents the deal from going through.

[Shaddy]

Wait, we're starting on monopolies here? Where the hell has the DOJ been for the last, like, thirty years?

[Melee_Sovereign]

Aren't there other anime services besides Funimation and Crunchyroll?

[Brodes]

There's Animelab in Australia, and while it's got a lot of Funimation stuff, it's hardly Funi/Sony only.

(And Netflix has the greatest anime of all time even if the dub isn't too crash hot.)

[UltraInstinctRorikon]

I support this. Monopolies are bleh.

[SilverPlaqueVII]

Aren't there other anime services besides Funimation and Crunchyroll?

Sony owns Aniplex and its American branch. Sentai Filmworks (born from the ashes of ADV Films) is also around, but has decent anime titles.

[MasenkoHA]

Wait, we're starting on monopolies here? Where the hell has the DOJ been for the last, like, thirty years?

When Disney buys everything

DOJ: We’ll allow it


When Sony is starting to get a monopoly on Japanese cartoons in America

DOJ: That’s where we draw the line!!!!

[WittyUsername]

Wait, we're starting on monopolies here? Where the hell has the DOJ been for the last, like, thirty years?

When Disney buys everything

DOJ: We’ll allow it


When Sony is starting to get a monopoly on Japanese cartoons in America

DOJ: That’s where we draw the line!!!!

Disney was able to buy out most of Fox because it directly benefitted Rupert Murdoch, who President Trump was friends with at the time, though I’m not sure if that’s still the case. Of course, Trump was also against the merger between AT&T and Time Warner, but that apparently had less to do with monopoly concerns, and more to do with the fact that Time Warner owned CNN.

[JulieYBM]

It has been approved. Sadly, more power is being consolidated in fewer hands.

[Brodes]

And while I doubt anyone cares, since I last posted in this thread Animelab has since become Funimation. So both anime streaming services available in Australia are Sony owned.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I like Funimation, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about the future of diversity in the industry. Competing businesses is good so companies can see different approaches to their operations, rather than having a company buying all their competitors and enforcing their way of doing things only. I'd support uniformity if Funimation was like Discotek and did everything they do damn near perfect, but sadly with things like shoddy home releases, some questionable dubbing decisions that's not the case. Manga UK is also dead in name, and will no longer be able to deviate themselves from Funimation in any way, so now that the same has happened to Crunchyroll it seems a pattern has been established.

[Super Saiyan Swagger]

There's Animelab in Australia, and while it's got a lot of Funimation stuff, it's hardly Funi/Sony only.

(And Netflix has the greatest anime of all time even if the dub isn't too crash hot.)

AnimeLab merged with Funimation a couple months ago.

And by "merge" I mean that AnimeLab is no longer going to be a thing and users now use their logins for Funimation's crappy app/website with their godawful interface and absolutely unusable TV app. It's a mess.

AnimeLab was so good. Rest in peace.

[The Accountant]

There's Animelab in Australia, and while it's got a lot of Funimation stuff, it's hardly Funi/Sony only.

(And Netflix has the greatest anime of all time even if the dub isn't too crash hot.)

AnimeLab merged with Funimation a couple months ago.

And by "merge" I mean that AnimeLab is no longer going to be a thing and users now use their logins for Funimation's crappy app/website with their godawful interface and absolutely unusable TV app. It's a mess.

AnimeLab was so good. Rest in peace.

Yeah, it is extremely awful, can confirm. Now have to pay premium to watch crappy Blue Bricks, Season Sets, and TV broadcasts of the latter half of Dragon Ball Super. I would shed a single tear if I hadn't already bawled my eyes out.

[Brodes]

There's Animelab in Australia, and while it's got a lot of Funimation stuff, it's hardly Funi/Sony only.

(And Netflix has the greatest anime of all time even if the dub isn't too crash hot.)

AnimeLab merged with Funimation a couple months ago.

And by "merge" I mean that AnimeLab is no longer going to be a thing and users now use their logins for Funimation's crappy app/website with their godawful interface and absolutely unusable TV app. It's a mess.

AnimeLab was so good. Rest in peace.

Yeah, I did post that update earlier today. Wasn't sure how many Aussies were here. I was still able to watch Death Note on Animelab today, so it's still usable for now at least even with nothing new being added. But ugh, that Funimation app is a dog. You're absolutely right about the interface and it's so slow to load, too.

[JulieYBM]

I like Funimation, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about the future of diversity in the industry. Competing businesses is good so companies can see different approaches to their operations, rather than having a company buying all their competitors and enforcing their way of doing things only. I'd support uniformity if Funimation was like Discotek and did everything they do damn near perfect, but sadly with things like shoddy home releases, some questionable dubbing decisions that's not the case. Manga UK is also dead in name, and will no longer be able to deviate themselves from Funimation in any way, so now that the same has happened to Crunchyroll it seems a pattern has been established.

Instead of maintaining a system where competition is necessary to protect from monopolies I think we should go further and propose a system in which cooperation is the only option, which means abandoning capitalism. A system where every individual has all of their basic needs met (and not just the very few currently met by this current system) would help prevent a system in which monopolies can be formed and humans made to suffer.

Also, making it illegal to just buy other companies and patents seems like a pretty smart idea.

[ABED]

Monopolies require a government preventing competitors from entering a market. That's not a feature of Capitalism.

[WittyUsername]

Capitalism isn’t going anywhere. It’s not gonna happen.

[Skar]

Most industries in the world are controlled by oligopolies so I guess it's inevitable that it happens here. There's not much the average consumer can do about it aside from protest with their wallet and support these companies less often although that becomes harder when you have fewer and fewer options. When it comes to entertainment, the content usually becomes more accessible to more people as the company grows. I don't know I try to look on the brightside.

[JulieYBM]

Capitalism isn’t going anywhere. It’s not gonna happen.

Considering how capitalism is what's killing the world in so many millions of ways right now I feel like this is an extremely silly thing to say and will be proven wrong.

Also, like, I'm sorry, I'm just not impressed. I eat bullshit like "capitalism isn't going anywhere. It's not gonna happen" for breakfast.

Better things are possible and discussion is the first of many steps towards those better things.