FUNimation Launches Video Portal
FUNimation has launched the beta version of its online video service, offering free access to hundreds of full length anime episodes both subtitled and dubbed, including the American premieres of Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino, Shigurui: Death Frenzy, STRAIN: Strategic Armored Infantry, and Romeo X Juliet. The site also hosts trailers, exclusive interviews, podcasts and other FUNimation original productions. The site will launch in its finalized form next spring.
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…and this doesn’t hurt sales how? This is rather frustrating, considering how important it is sell units in retail and weed people away from being satisfied exclusively with online content. I would understand if they wanted to use this as a promotional item, amended to fit the design of individual series launches, but I’m hard pressed to take a look at the state of the industry and applaud them for essentially opening up a healthy fraction of their catalogue for free.
I’m of two minds over this. On one hand, I agree that it seems difficult to conceive of how FUNimation expects to monetize its properties if they’re giving them away for free. On the other hand, TV series on DVD continue to be a strong suit of American commerical home video sales.