Announced last year, the consolidation of the major two anime streaming services – Crunchyroll and Funimation – has taken place.
Sony has announced that Funimation is unifying under the Crunchyroll brand and starting today, Crunchyroll subscribers will have access to library and simulcast content previously available exclusively on Funimation.
The move brings over 1,600 hours of more than fifty newly added titles from Funimation’s lineup to Crunchyroll with no subscription price raises (for now). In total, Crunchyroll will now offer over 40,000 sub and dub episodes.
This consolidation will include Funimation’s subsidiary, Wakanim, as well as Crunchyroll’s VRV with everything now unifying under a single subscription service (Crunchyroll) for anime fans worldwide.
Sony’s Funimation Global Group bought Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion in cash from AT&T. The anime division has now been redubbed Crunchyroll LLC and is a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex. Rebranding has been initiated across its global footprint.
Future new series will be exclusive to Crunchyroll starting April 1st and Funimation will only continue to add new episodes of their current series as the service is phased out.
Source: CrunchyRoll
