Crunchyroll Bulks Up Anime Streaming Fare But Keeps Subscription Prices Unchanged As Parent Sony Pictures Starts Funimation Phase-Out

Dade Hayes
·2 min read

After last summer’s official close of the anime mega-merger of Crunchyroll and Funimation, Sony Pictures Entertainment has unified the offerings into a single service.

Crunchyroll subscribers starting today will gain access to streaming fare previously exclusive to Funimation as Sony starts to phase out the Funimation brand. The company paid nearly $1.2 billion to acquire Crunchyroll from AT&T.

More from Deadline

Pricing for the Crunchyroll service is holding steady, even with the addition of Funimation titles. Subscriptions remain at three tiers: $8 a month for the Fan plan; $10 for Mega Fan; and $15 for Ultimate Fan.

Crunchyroll reaches more than 200 countries, streaming in 10 languages. Last summer, just after the merger closed, Crunchyroll said it had reached 5 million streaming subscribers and 120 million registered users.

“When we brought Funimation and Crunchyroll together last year, our top priority was to put fans first,” Crunchyroll CEO Colin Decker said. “Unifying all of our brands and services under the Crunchyroll brand globally enables us to offer more value than ever before as we combine subs, dubs, simulcasts, library, music, movies, manga—all into one subscription. The new Crunchyroll is the realization of a dream, and we are grateful to the creators of anime and the millions of fans who have joined us in making the community what it is today.”

More than 40,000 subtitled and dubbed (“sub and dub”) episodes are available on Crunchyroll. New series from the upcoming spring season will stream only on Crunchyroll. As it phases out, Funimation will continue to add new episodes of current series.

On the corporate level, Funimation Global Group, LLC, will be rebranded Crunchyroll, LLC.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MYLOvuagI?version=3&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://deadline.com&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.