A
promotional handout from Pioneer Entertainment says the anime business in
the U.S. has sales of around $500 million each year. That's a small number
number when compared with the rest of the American entertainment industry,
but a big number for a niche market. That's why anime companies continue
to grow, and one of the reasons for the ADV Films launch of the Anime Network.
Matt Greenfield of ADV said that the success of the Cartoon Network wasn't
the reason that the Texas company decided to start an anime-only cable service,
but the expansion of the former Turner Broadcasting cable nets did demonstrate
how that sort of service could be started. When Ted Turner bought the MGM
film library he started Turner Network Television, and his acquisition of
the Hanna-Barbera film library paved the way (along with Turner holding rights
to some MGM and Warner Bros. cartoons) for the Cartoon Network. ADV has its
own large collection of English-language rights to anime series, and the
number of series they control made it easier for ADV to start the cable system.
Carl Horn, who works for the publishing arm of Viz L.L.C., one of ADV's competitors,
called the Anime Network "...one of the most important developments out there.
It's one thing to license titles, its another thing to have something to
do with them - this expands the market." The ADV service has started to expand
beyond its original Philadelphia test market, but Greenfield would not say
when other cable systems would start carrying it. He did say the Anime Network
would expand in the next six months, and in that time frame they would exceed
their goal of making the service available to ten million households.
For the time being, the service will exist as a video-on-demand offering;
Greenfield said it probably won't go on DBS services such as DirecTV for
a while.
The
North American anime industry is linked to the manga and anime publishing
industry. Manga publishing has changed with the decline of short monthly
books and the rise of tankobon-style graphic novels. Horn said Viz is pursuing
that change to take advantage of the biggest change in the anime and manga
business, the move of product beyond comics specialty stores and into mainstream
retail stores and bookstores. "For most of its history in the U.S., manga
has been the little brother of anime - now manga can sell on its own without
anime to sell it," Horn said. He noted that some video stores are cross-promoting
the products by selling graphic novels and anime DVDs. And there's also the
rise of new anime magazines, Newtype USA and Anime Insider, to join the established
English-language publications Protoculture Addicts and Animerica. Newtype
USA is expensive to publish and purchase, but Greenfield said it's making
money and has circulation beyond 100,000.
A
promotional handout from Pioneer Entertainment says the anime business in
the U.S. has sales of around $500 million each year. That's a small number
number when compared with the rest of the American entertainment industry,
but a big number for a niche market. That's why anime companies continue
to grow, and one of the reasons for the ADV Films launch of the Anime Network.
Matt Greenfield of ADV said that the success of the Cartoon Network wasn't
the reason that the Texas company decided to start an anime-only cable service,
but the expansion of the former Turner Broadcasting cable nets did demonstrate
how that sort of service could be started. When Ted Turner bought the MGM
film library he started Turner Network Television, and his acquisition of
the Hanna-Barbera film library paved the way (along with Turner holding rights
to some MGM and Warner Bros. cartoons) for the Cartoon Network. ADV has its
own large collection of English-language rights to anime series, and the
number of series they control made it easier for ADV to start the cable system.
Carl Horn, who works for the publishing arm of Viz L.L.C., one of ADV's competitors,
called the Anime Network "...one of the most important developments out there.
It's one thing to license titles, its another thing to have something to
do with them - this expands the market." The ADV service has started to expand
beyond its original Philadelphia test market, but Greenfield would not say
when other cable systems would start carrying it. He did say the Anime Network
would expand in the next six months, and in that time frame they would exceed
their goal of making the service available to ten million households.
For the time being, the service will exist as a video-on-demand offering;
Greenfield said it probably won't go on DBS services such as DirecTV for
a while.
The
North American anime industry is linked to the manga and anime publishing
industry. Manga publishing has changed with the decline of short monthly
books and the rise of tankobon-style graphic novels. Horn said Viz is pursuing
that change to take advantage of the biggest change in the anime and manga
business, the move of product beyond comics specialty stores and into mainstream
retail stores and bookstores. "For most of its history in the U.S., manga
has been the little brother of anime - now manga can sell on its own without
anime to sell it," Horn said. He noted that some video stores are cross-promoting
the products by selling graphic novels and anime DVDs. And there's also the
rise of new anime magazines, Newtype USA and Anime Insider, to join the established
English-language publications Protoculture Addicts and Animerica. Newtype
USA is expensive to publish and purchase, but Greenfield said it's making
money and has circulation beyond 100,000.
