Sunday, January 6, 2008

The hits don't stop coming: ADV's latest announcement

So I just came across this piece of news on ANN. It seems that ADV is going to cancel the 24/7 service for The Anime Network.

Now really, I'm of two minds on this one. At first, I'm thought, "Well shoot, there goes another pretty fan friendly service right down the tubes." And really the article does paint pretty dramatic tones as far as the troubles for broadcasting anime. It seems that the field is shrinking for broadcasting anime.

And how can we bring new fans into the fold without these type of services. I mean we owe at least a portion of the current fanbase to Adult Swim and Toonami. So losing a 24/7 broadcaster of anime is a pretty significant hit.

Except that it really isn't. Let's face it, they've just opened up a better 24/7 portal on their Website. (Except that I've only gotten it to work twice on my computer, I'm not sure if that's my computer or the site). And they're working on catering to their existing customer base rather than a maybe customer base, that might actually get their programming.

In fact, the entire idea of a 24/7 anime channel seems a bit silly when I really think about it. Granted, I'm sure there are people who love to sit around and watch whatever ADV decides to put on there, but in reality, those aren't the new customers. And it wasn't widely availible. I couldn't even get it, even though I do get their VOD service. (Which I use pretty frequently.)

So while, I do have the urge to run around screaming, "Oh no, what's going to happen next?". I'm not entirely concerned.

Now if I could only get their online site to work.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree that the end 24/7 channel is not a big deal. It was an experiment that didn't work out so well. However, the VOD service is very successful for them, and the online service may work out very nicely as well. So they can afford a few misses in their track record.