Japanese associate professor of economics at Keio University and member of the Japanese government’s Research Institute of Economy, Trade & Industry, Tatsuo Tanaka, has personally published a research paper that determines that unauthorized anime streaming and peer-to-peer distribution results in a marginal increase in commercial DVD sales. Tanaka studied 105 different anime television series found on YouTube, 58 of which were also distributed via peer-to-peer download system Winny. His findings were that “a 1% increase in YouTube views correlated with a 0.25% increase in DVD sales.” “A 1% increase in Winny downloads resulted in a statistically inconclusive 0.06% increase in DVD sales… and a 1.11% decrease in DVD rentals.” These findings suggest that streaming anime does encourage consumers to purchase official DVDs, and unauthorized downloads may have little impact, or a marginal net improvement on DVD sales.<\/p>\n
If anyone cares, it’s no secret that I download and watch anime without official authorization. I also spent over $400 purchasing licensed American anime DVDs just this past week alone.<\/i><\/p>\n