Sony’s plan to combine Crunchyroll and Funimation into a streaming service to lead its anime empire seemed as simple as playing a billion dollars for AT&T. But now the plan is reportedly worrying enough that the U.S. Department of Justice is extending its antitrust review of the $ 1.175 billion purchase into a full investigation, according to three sources who spoke. The information.
The DOJ is focused on whether the deal limits the options for Japanese studios looking to license programs in the U.S., according to The informationsources of. “WarnerMedia and Sony told the Justice Department that Crunchyroll and Sony’s anime empire are just two of the many options that anime creators have to distribute their programs outside of Japan,” The information writes, but even if direct competition is not a concern, there may be other reasons to be concerned.
Controlling Funimation and Crunchyroll means one thing in the context of anime streaming services in the U.S., but compared to all the other things Crunchyroll does, like publishing manga and anime conventions, and the international anime companies that Sony already bought in Australia and France, the company could have great control over the entire sector.
As we wrote in 2019, Funimation and Crunchyroll were already two of the biggest anime streaming services outside of Japan, while big companies like Amazon, Netflix and even the latest HBO Max have also increased their anime offerings. If the DOJ doesn’t block Sony’s deal and manage to merge Crunchyroll and Funimation, Sony could easily become the hit anime streaming provider.
Sony, AT&T and DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment.