everdred12a (post: 1260510) wrote:Because the anime industry is still technically a 'new' industry in America. Anime has its roots set in Japan as an established industry and probably garners much better ratings in Japan than it would in America. Despite the fact that anime has grown in popularity in America, you have to keep in mind that it's still largely a niche sort of thing here.
Besides, while we might pay 25 bucks for 4 episode DVD's, I remember reading that the Japanese pay more per DVD and only get 2 episodes per disc to boot. So consider yourself lucky.
Actually, more than anything we suffer from lack of imagination in our business leadership here. My wife pays a monthly fee ($16, if I remember correctly) to watch streaming Video-on-demand from ABS-CBN (the largest Filipino television network) on her computer. She's had this service for several years.
The Anime Network (aka ADV) has had a lovely website for years, but only recently began adding an online player to its site. Funimation and ImagineAsian TV have yet to follow suit AFAIK. So the emigrants from a third-world economy in Southeast Asia continue to be a more lucrative market than the teeming international hordes of Anime fans?
Somehow, given the preponderance of anime on Youutube, Veoh, etc., I have a feeling that it isn't actually true. What is happening instead, in my opinion, is that the US anime industry is stuck in the days before streaming video and have yet to figure it out.
The same industry that is being so vocal about pirated anime on the Internet could easily be using that same internet to provide a more attractive product than random fansubbers can produce , and get some bucks back in the bargain. Would I be willing to put up with ads and/or a subscription fee to get my episodes in a consistent quality and format, on a reliable basis? Is the ocean wet?
Actually, the Japanese are missing out on a bet, too. Animax and the others could hire some of these fansubbers to knock out half-decent subs of their current seasons, and then put these onto streaming video sites themselves. No more American or European middlemen, just a global marketplace to sell advertising time on.
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