easywrite wrote:

w8 w8 w8 w8 w8! Please somebody explain this to me... Does this mean that its true that starting Jan. 8 CR would not be accepting Fan subbed animes? So the animes that would be available on CR starting Jan 8 are limited to the partners of CR? Or CR would still be accepting fan subbed anime but not all countries would be able to watch it? Please Someone tell me

that1guytim wrote:



This is correct. Starting January 8 all fansubs will be removed from the site and no more will be accepted. Only content provided by CR partners will be available on the site. Even then, the ones that are still airing, people will need to be a star member to view them before they become available a week after the air date. That's really pointless because you can view them for free from the fansubs before the 1 week period hence negating any need to pay for a star membership.

hokeymon wrote:



Does that mean we can still watch it 1 week after the airing even if we aren't star members? Or we have to be star members to watch everything on crunchyroll?

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.

This announcement of Crunchyroll’s intent to completely remove all user uploaded content from their website, of which almost all is fansubbed anime, has been met with shock and surprise by many of Crunchyroll’s users. It remains to be seen whether Crunchyroll can maintain its userbase when it no longer offers a huge library of fansubbed anime for streaming, and whether it can turn a monthly subscription model, plus ad supported streaming one week after airing, into a viable business plan. This move was not unexpected however, since most content providers in Japan are extremely wary of dealing with a company whose business model is founded on the illegal distribution of copyrighted video files.