“There was a deep audience underserved by this anime. “I think the most important thing to understand is that Crunchyroll has succeeded based on the deep understanding of this audience,” Decker said. And knowing the details of exactly what kind of “stuff” anime fans like and how to serve it to them is the primary reason Crunchyroll has seen its growth accelerate.Īlso Read: AT&T CEO Plans to 'Go Hard' on Sponsored Data for Streaming Subscribers While many of its competitors have a one-price-fits-all strategy, Crunchyroll offers two ad-free subscription tiers: Premium for $6.95 a month and Premium+ for $11.95, which includes extras like convention perks and early beta testing of new features for an audience “that really likes stuff,” Crunchyroll’s chief operating officer, Colin Decker, told TheWrap. And that 1 million doesn’t include the ad-supported free version of Crunchyroll, whose parent company Ellation is owned by Otter Media, a joint venture between AT&T and The Chernin Group. To put Crunchyroll’s size in perspective, HBO Now has about 2 million subscribers.
But with anime-focused streaming service Crunchyroll hitting 1 million paid subscribers this month, it also provides a snapshot (or sketch) into what works in the new world of internet television. Anime, has long had a devoted - if niche - fan base in the U.S.
