Exactly the opposite: subscription numbers from the UK are high enough that they were able to talk the people doing the international licensing into making two series available to subscribers even though the free-streaming rights were not available.

Crunchyroll thinks that free streams work as advertising for their subscriptions. If they are willing to free stream to the Democratic Republic of Congo ~ they are certainly going to be happy to free stream to the UK whenever they can get the rights.

Its just that they could not get the free streaming rights for two of their shows (two out of ten, actually ~ Rob Pereyda in Tokyo did a tweet that the UK would get all ten, but two would be subscriber only).

The alternative was not free streaming for those two, the alternative was UK/Ireland would not have had any access at all to those two shows.



edited to catch up to complete announcements

Lets do a quick look at the total score:

US, Canada, UK and Ireland have all ten, but UK/Ireland have two only for subscribers.

Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Portugal and Brazil have eight: Rio, Beelzebub, Gosick, Dragon Crisis, Mitsudome2, Kora wa Zombie, Wandering Son, Level E

Australia & New Zealand have six: Rio, Beelzebub, Dragon Crisis, Mitusdomoe2, Wandering Son, Level E

Spanish America and the Caribbean, and South Africa have four: Rio, Gosick, Kora wa Zombie, Level E

Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, the Middle East and the rest of Africa have three: Rio, Gosick, Kora wa Zombie

The rest of Europe and the Rest of Asia have one: Rio

So in terms of "does anyone have it worse": Everyone in Europe, Africa and Asia outside of Northern Europe and Portugal has it worse, everyone in Central America and the Caribbean has it worse, and everyone in South America outside of Brazil has it worse.

I would have to agree with you on that one. If any were to be delayed I would imagine it would be the noitaminA title they were supposed to get since those usually go to Funimation; maybe there is a contract problem going on or something. Guess we'll have to wait and see, although I hate it when they go to TBD cause sometimes they just fall into the abyss or just go away completely. But I do have to say that this season the announcements have been very smooth, on time and structured, unlike some past recent seasons where we were left guessing for the first few weeks.

Zombie looks like it should be decent as well. Pretty good lineup this season, they got a couple I really wanted to see; getting a pretty decent amount of what I wanted to see this season through legal streams and is getting better every season for the most. I always say that CR never gets the shows I end up liking the best, so we'll see how this one goes; although this season in general isn't too stellar, but there look to be some decent titles.

I fear the same, though I never quite believed CR could get a Noitamina show - and even if they did, I kinda doubt it will be available in my region...

Out of the 3 or 4 that I wanted to see that have been confirmed, 2 aren't available without a membership. For people with money troubles like me this is making us miss out on good anime. I wouldn't be complaining if this was the case worldwide, and I have already said this, but how come this is the case just for our region.

Darn, no chance of us getting Madoka, huh?

Because you have such good subscriber numbers that series where Crunchyroll can't get the rights at all for members in say, Australia, the Japanese production committees are willing to bend because of the royalties generated from UK/Ireland subscribers.

In other words, the UK/Ireland has as many free streams as any country outside the US and Canada ~ subscribers also get access to the other two, which otherwise wouldn't be available to Crunchyroll at all for the UK.

It almost certainly means that one or two companies in the UK are negotiating for those titles, and if they work out a deal, it should eventually see a UK release of some kind.

And if the negotiations fall through, CR would obviously be happy to snap up the free streaming rights if it becomes available.

So odds are that one way or another, it will become available sooner or later ~ but scraping by sometimes means having to be patient.

An optimist would hope that it means this really is a shared title with Funimation (for example, with Funimation agreeing to it because they are uninterested in covering the subtitling costs for a series they will almost certainly not licensed for a DVD dub release) ...
... and the delay is just waiting on Funimation's sluggish announcement schedule.

Kore wa Zombie desu ka? actually looks quite interesting from the introduction. I'll give it a shot.

so no one is going to say anything about the magic chainsaw in the video?

I can give you a definite answer on two of those: Funimation licensed both the first Index series and Railgun last year, and the last I heard, both are to be out on DVD some time this year. Funimation no doubt could stream these now, but as they see streaming as promotion for DVD sales, will probably wait closer to the time of the DVD release to do so.

Although Funimation has not licensed Index II, I suspect the licensor has held off on offering streaming rights "just in case". I keep hoping they'll tire of waiting on Funimation, but that has not happened yet.

As to Arakawa Under the Bridge, the only item I can offer is that I have noticed is that few anime from SHAFT have been simulcast. I think the last one here on CR was Natsu no Arashi ! .

Woot! now that 3 show Crunchy has got which I would love to watch now. Kept up the good work.

oh hell ya looks awesome. CR finally got some epic titles this season

Yay, one of the shows I was waiting for! That makes 2 more.

Cool, good job Crunchyroll. Now just need Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Mr. Lovecraft , Dream Eater Merry,and Mahou Shoujo Madoka ★ Magica then I'll be totally set for this season. I could kiss torrents good bye then.

Will certainly have a look at kore wa zombie.
So I guess both fractale and infinate stratos are definate noes?

Subscriptions in the UK certainly should be high, CR is the only legal website available to us at the last check.

Someone (I think it was mudduck) mentioned angel beats...are we ever likely to get anything from Kyoani on CR?

Anyway, well done CR...looks like a 4/6 score for me.

This looks awesome