Jaka: Speaking of licensing, um, how come CR never licenses any “big shows”? As in ones made by prominent studios. Like SHAFT/Kyoani/Madhouse(?)/Bones(?).
Sam: The main reason is that most international sales departments still have a philosophy that all rights should be sold as bundles. CR isn’t interested (and can’t afford) DVD and blu-ray rights. But for big shows where there’s a good chance Funi or someone else will buy it for DVD, they don’t let CR have just the streaming rights.
Jaka: So does the animation studio have a big say in what gets licensed and what doesn’t?
Sam: Only if they are part of the production committee. But the sales people aren’t dumb. They know when a show is “big” enough to get bought for DVD and it’s usually done by the good studios. Also, that’s not true about SHAFT. CR had Natsu no Arashi.
Jaka: Oh yeah i forgot about that, whoops.
Sam: Kyoani is obviously special.
Jaka: What about MBS?
Sam: MBS doesn’t do international licensing I don’t think.
Jaka: So, just wondering, DTB S2 was a huge hit last season. Did CR try to acquire it?
Sam: Sure they did, and they were quoted a price that included DVD rights and told, “Well this is what funi will pay us for it. Can you do better?” And the answer is of course, no.
Jaka: So this comes all the way back to the bundle-talk.
Sam: Oh sure, Crunchyroll could make them a lot more money _from streaming_ than funi could, but splitting up the license is not in the cards.
Jaka: I see.
Jaka: Okay, what will happen if something results into Funi vs CR?
Sam: That happens all the time.
Jaka: But judging from what you said that will not happen because funi always have first say?
Sam: Usually.
Jaka: So has CR ever won against Funi in licensing?
Sam: Like, outbid them?
Jaka: Yeah, for rights of a title.
Sam: I don’t know, actually. But I doubt it. They can’t make nearly as much revenue as Funi can still. Per show, anyway.