Crunchyroll to stream Dragon Ball in Ireland, UK and France

[sangofe]

Oh okay THAT is true. I dont know if Norway even airs anime on TV. That's a great take. Every country and region is different.

Oh and btw I think The BBC still edits their anime on their streaming service but I think its okay since their streaming service is basically for free. I mean if you pay the license for watching TV you can access it for free.

EDIT: Also why did you quote me if it wasnt adressed at me?

I honestly just pushed quote to quote the other guy. I don't know if there's still anime on TV.. only stuff that has been has been pokemon, beyblade, digimon etc.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

So Kai was just added this week. I still think it's a major missed opportunity for Crunchyroll to not add the Ocean dub as an extra audio option, even just for us UK and Irish fans who grew up with the Westwood dubs.

I encourage anyone who wants Ocean Kai to comment here or email them at support@crunchyroll.zendesk.com.

[songohan619]

A comment on streaming vs. TV! Streaming has indeed taken over, HOWEVER: In Norway, the largest TV-stations has their own streaming-services, and most of the shows on the streaming-services, especially for NRK, HAS to run on TV in order to be on the streaming-service.

Also, this anime just re-aired in Norway! https://tv.nrk.no/serie/den-blaa-sandens-hemmelighet

[MasenkoHA]

A comment on streaming vs. TV! Streaming has indeed taken over, HOWEVER: In Norway, the largest TV-stations has their own streaming-services, and most of the shows on the streaming-services, especially for NRK, HAS to run on TV in order to be on the streaming-service.

Also, this anime just re-aired in Norway! https://tv.nrk.no/serie/den-blaa-sandens-hemmelighet

We have that in the US too where stations have the option to stream their show online but you have to have cable. However, it's not really a popular opinion and most people still elect to watch shows on streaming services that doesn't require cable: Netflix, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime etc

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

A comment on streaming vs. TV! Streaming has indeed taken over, HOWEVER: In Norway, the largest TV-stations has their own streaming-services, and most of the shows on the streaming-services, especially for NRK, HAS to run on TV in order to be on the streaming-service.

Also, this anime just re-aired in Norway! https://tv.nrk.no/serie/den-blaa-sandens-hemmelighet

We have that in the US too where stations have the option to stream their show online but you have to have cable. However, it's not really a popular opinion and most people still elect to watch shows on streaming services that doesn't require cable: Netflix, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime etc

This to me sounds like catchup services for live broadcasts. It's not anything new, they've been around for a while, probably since apps became a regular feature of everyday living.

It seems like a natural progression from the recording feature Sky (British broadcasting giant) brought out in 2001 called Sky+. I remember back then being able to pause, rewind and record live TV to save for watching another time was revolutionary, but now its taken for granted because anyone with a Sky package can do all that. Sky even used to use the tagline "create your own TV channel", as for the first time ever it seemed like customers had the power to do just that.

Towards the end of the 2000s the hunger for instant gratification grew as it became easier to stream any form of media. Video on demand services of any kind (catchup or standalone services like Netflix) fulfilled that desire and worked as a promising means of tackling piracy, which began to grow from the big physical media boom coming to an end.

I'm guessing NRK is the Norwegian equivalent of Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ, who are a semi-state body funded by the TV license fee (a bill households pay annually) but also exist for the purpose of serving the country.

Literally the first two channels on any package are RTÉ1 and RTÉ2, the former gets most of its views from the 6pm news, the Late Late Show (talk show) and weekend sport, the latter caters to non-sporting tastes in entertainment and have even aired some anime, namely Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh.

I work with people who still watch RTÉ's linear channels for programming other than news, sport and the Late Late. They watch whatever pops up on either channel for the watercooler conversations in the office. If they miss a show recommended to them at the time everyone is tuning in they fall back on RTÉ Player, which as of now seems to be streaming recently aired Olympic games, soaps like Eastenders and popular shows like West Wing, Sherlock and Luther.

Our other national broadcaster TG4, which is the-go-to channel for Irish language content (including dubs of said content) has their own version too.

We also had TV3 (not the New Zealand channel that aired Dragon Ball Z) who have since rebranded as they were bought by Liberty Global (who own British telecommunications company Virgin Media, and hence TV3 became Virgin Media One) but I'm not sure if they had a player app, it's possible though as TV3 have only been gone since 2018. In any case Virgin Media Play exists.

I don't think all of this content has to have a linear airing before they become available on the apps. I guess whatever is branded as "catchup" would, but it probably wouldn't be good for business if that was the case for all the content they host on their sites. Linear TV is after all limited by how much you can air throughout the day while also having to make time for commercials.

[timjulius1122]

A comment on streaming vs. TV! Streaming has indeed taken over, HOWEVER: In Norway, the largest TV-stations has their own streaming-services, and most of the shows on the streaming-services, especially for NRK, HAS to run on TV in order to be on the streaming-service.

Also, this anime just re-aired in Norway! https://tv.nrk.no/serie/den-blaa-sandens-hemmelighet

We have that in the US too where stations have the option to stream their show online but you have to have cable. However, it's not really a popular opinion and most people still elect to watch shows on streaming services that doesn't require cable: Netflix, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime etc

This to me sounds like catchup services for live broadcasts. It's not anything new, they've been around for a while, probably since apps became a regular feature of everyday living.

It seems like a natural progression from the recording feature Sky (British broadcasting giant) brought out in 2001 called Sky+. I remember back then being able to pause, rewind and record live TV to save for watching another time was revolutionary, but now its taken for granted because anyone with a Sky package can do all that. Sky even used to use the tagline "create your own TV channel", as for the first time ever it seemed like customers had the power to do just that.

Towards the end of the 2000s the hunger for instant gratification grew as it became easier to stream any form of media. Video on demand services of any kind (catchup or standalone services like Netflix) fulfilled that desire and worked as a promising means of tackling piracy, which began to grow from the big physical media boom coming to an end.

I'm guessing NRK is the Norwegian equivalent of Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ, who are a semi-state body funded by the TV license fee (a bill households pay annually) but also exist for the purpose of serving the country.

Literally the first two channels on any package are RTÉ1 and RTÉ2, the former gets most of its views from the 6pm news, the Late Late Show (talk show) and weekend sport, the latter caters to non-sporting tastes in entertainment and have even aired some anime, namely Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh.

I work with people who still watch RTÉ's linear channels for programming other than news, sport and the Late Late. They watch whatever pops up on either channel for the watercooler conversations in the office. If they miss a show recommended to them at the time everyone is tuning in they fall back on RTÉ Player, which as of now seems to be streaming recently aired Olympic games, soaps like Eastenders and popular shows like West Wing, Sherlock and Luther.

Our other national broadcaster TG4, which is the-go-to channel for Irish language content (including dubs of said content) has their own version too.

We also had TV3 (not the New Zealand channel that aired Dragon Ball Z) who have since rebranded as they were bought by Liberty Global (who own British telecommunications company Virgin Media, and hence TV3 became Virgin Media One) but I'm not sure if they had a player app, it's possible though as TV3 have only been gone since 2018. In any case Virgin Media Play exists.

I don't think all of this content has to have a linear airing before they become available on the apps. I guess whatever is branded as "catchup" would, but it probably wouldn't be good for business if that was the case for all the content they host on their sites. Linear TV is after all limited by how much you can air throughout the day while also having to make time for commercials.

How do you think catchup services and streaming apps have impacted people's viewing habits compared to the earlier days of linear TV and Sky+?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

How do you think catchup services and streaming apps have impacted people's viewing habits compared to the earlier days of linear TV and Sky+?

There is no doubt both have caused linear TV viewership to decline. I remember when I was growing up in the 90s and early 2000s linear was the only game in town for the masses, but of course nowadays there's a lot more competition between cheap DVDs, Blu-Rays and every digital option under the sun.

I wouldn't rule out traditional TV ever making a comeback if it becomes a cheaper option than whatever streaming bundles are on offer or if the people not interested in home media get sick of keeping track of who has the rights or what service the series they want to watch is on.

If VHS of all things could find a niche in 2024 (and yes a little known company called Vice Press is releasing Evil Dead II and Suspiria on the format) whose to say there's no hope for linear TV?

[The Tori-bot]

Does anyone know what source Crunchyroll's footage came from for GT? I’ve heard people with non-UK Crunchyroll say it’s identical to the “Green Brick” sets, but over here at least that’s definitely not the case. I actually started watching GT on DVD last week via the “Complete Series” set, after you-know-what in Daima got me in the mood (and I’d just finished a year-long DB + Kai + Super + movies marathon - yes it was awesome). Having only seen the full show in Japanese once whenever that boxset first came out, it seemed like the right time to revisit.

So before I watched the first episode I thought I’d spot-check the streaming version just out of curiosity, expecting nothing but a differently-compressed version of the DVDs… and was shocked to discover it’s actually superior in every way! Crunchyroll UK has the original Japanese logo, title cards & credits/song lyrics which, for me, are all lovely to see as part of the actual show for the first time. Steve Simmons' subtitles are present & correct & identical to the DVDs (except for the nice HD lettering ofc), and the series itself looks great. Like holy cow, where did this master come from?! I don’t remember the old GT single DVDs that well, but they definitely didn’t look this good. I don’t know if it’s Dragon Box footage, but it’s certainly HD-quality, and free of all the DNR and “smeary” look that plagued the season sets. If they put this version out on a Blu-ray, I would happily snap it up tomorrow.

So, suffice to say I will now be watching DBGT exclusively on streaming lol. Though annoyingly, Crunchyroll doesn’t have the TV special up, so I guess I'm not getting rid of that DVD set just yet…

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I haven't checked out Dragon Ball GT on Crunchyroll UK, but I'd assume they used what was on the Manga UK DVDs, meaning Madman's version of the green bricks released in Australia and New Zealand.

The GT singles and green bricks are both based on the Dragon Boxes, although the latter had some DNR applied that made the image look somewhat softer.

Is the picture quality better than these?

Single:


Green Brick:


Note that these screenshots are from the US release, I couldn't find any for Madmans, but there should be little difference with them.

[The Tori-bot]

Yes, absolutely better than both those screenshots. Colours look far more natural & not oversaturated. The lack of DNR was especially noticeable when comparing them one after the other - there’s a healthy amount of (real!) film grain. And it can’t be a straight port of the Green Bricks, because those used the shinier, shittier Funimation logo in the intro. Every episode on Crunchyroll has the original OPs/EDs with title cards, song lyrics & episode-specific credits in Japanese, none of which were on the Green Bricks.

The only thing missing is the next-episode previews, and I swear those WERE included on the old single DVDs… so I have no idea what they’re using for this. It's so un-Funi-fied that I’m almost wondering if there was an error somewhere and Crunchyroll thought they were using the Green Brick versions like did Toei just accidentally give them the good stuff for once?

EDIT: Holy shit, just before posting this I flipped the audio to English just to see what happens… and it literally changes the footage to the Green Bricks masters! Complete with shiny Funimation logo & textless theme songs. Everything looks appropriately DNR'd and blurred to shit now too. Flipping back to Japanese audio changes the footage to the good-looking master, with hard-coded English subs. What the actual even? Do other shows on Crunchyroll do this? Try it at home, kids. This conspiracy is even bigger than I thought!