In practice, I'm pretty sure Crunchyroll has only been useful for premium subscribers for almost 4 years now. Way back in 2022, they moved all of their simulcast series to premium only:...
In practice, I'm pretty sure Crunchyroll has only been useful for premium subscribers for almost 4 years now.
They introduced a "free sampler" section where you could watch a couple ad-supported episodes, but it was extremely limited.
I haven't been able to find any official crunchyroll announcements about this, but there are a bunch of threads from 2022-2023 where of people complaining that formerly free shows were moved to be premium only:
And the article highlights that this effort seems to have accelerated at the end of last year.
Anecdotally, the last time I watched anime on Crunchyroll seems to have been right in the middle of this in Summer 2022. Every time I've checked the site since, the volume of ad-supported content I wanted to watch was becoming vanishingly small
I'm kinda sad about this. I'm nostalgic for when Crunchyroll was my primary way to consume the medium about 15 years ago. Sure the website was ass and the app was worse, but it was a free and legal way to access a pretty big catalog of content. And you could even watch a lot of the newest stuff on a one week delay. Which was huge for me as a kid with no disposable income, and parents would not have even entertained the thought.
I wonder if Crunchyroll primarily viewed their ad-tier as a vehicle to introduce people to the medium, which isn't as useful anymore. Anime is more mainstream and more accessible than ever. If you wanted to try a new series, you're probably already subscribed to a service that has a decent section of anime titles. If you get hooked on the medium, Crunchyroll is basically the only service for North American viewers who want a bigger catalog. And they're probably fine alienating folks on the free-tier who would never consider paying, especially given the increasing quality of streaming on pirate sites.
I agree, I remember watching the first three seasons of Attack on Titan on the ad-supported tier circa 2020 up till the last simulcast episode. Not to mention that Crunchyroll's bitrate was...
I agree, I remember watching the first three seasons of Attack on Titan on the ad-supported tier circa 2020 up till the last simulcast episode. Not to mention that Crunchyroll's bitrate was noticeably higher compared to piracy streaming sites at the time. However, the ads are very easy to bypass on desktop by just installing uBlock Origin, so I can see why they are retiring it.
They introduced a "free sampler" section where you could watch a couple ad-supported episodes, but it was extremely limited.
Right now, at least in the United Kingdom, many show's first season which have finished airing are available ad-supported. If a show only has one season available, like Chainsaw Man, the whole season can be watched ad-supported. Taking this away will suck a lot for younger people who don't have a bank card or whose parents are unwilling to pay, I know as I was one of them.
On the one hand crunchy has been absolutely horrible with their AI subs and dubs. That said I do think this is how more businesses have needed to go forever. The endless “it’s free but here’s...
On the one hand crunchy has been absolutely horrible with their AI subs and dubs.
That said I do think this is how more businesses have needed to go forever. The endless “it’s free but here’s zillions of ads and we’re harvesting all your data” stuff needs to die. It’s not really sustainable and it’s awful for everyone.
The problem is I fully expect this to morph into “pay for it AND we do all the ads anyways” by next year
I hope not, I try to do things legit, but that'd just force me to raise the ol' Jolly Roger 🏴☠️ again if I were unable to block those. I refuse to waste my time on ads, commercials already took...
"pay for it AND we do all the ads anyways"
I hope not, I try to do things legit, but that'd just force me to raise the ol' Jolly Roger 🏴☠️ again if I were unable to block those. I refuse to waste my time on ads, commercials already took enough before I stopped watching TV.
It's not even beneficial to the companies advertising since I'm LESS likely to buy an advertised product and sometimes anything else from the brand if the ad was annoying enough.
Unfortunately, you're not the target audience for ads then. They only need a few click-throughs to break even. Even if you hated the ad, if you remember the company and discuss it, they're happy...
Unfortunately, you're not the target audience for ads then. They only need a few click-throughs to break even. Even if you hated the ad, if you remember the company and discuss it, they're happy because all attention is good attention in the eyes of the algorithm.
I think that they're trying to set the precedent that Crunchyroll is to be paid for post Sony buyout. "Everything is free except for the latest episode" wasn't making the numbers go brr fast...
I think that they're trying to set the precedent that Crunchyroll is to be paid for post Sony buyout. "Everything is free except for the latest episode" wasn't making the numbers go brr fast enough, and keeping some archival content out in front of the paywall wasn't worth what it was bringing in. But I don't think they would be as adverse to working with an advertiser if they decided to introduce ads on the lower tier or something.
"Everything is free except for the latest episode" wasn't making the numbers go brr fast enough
From what I understand, they got rid of that before the Sony buyout and only a limited selection of old shows have been available for free with ads for quite a while now. Even then, I don't believe it was the full show in a lot of cases. I saw some talk about how only the first 25~ episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was available, but the remaining were paid subscription only.
They changed it in 2022 after the acquisition, around the time they began merging the platforms and moving Funimation content to Crunchyroll. Some things had always required a subscription but up...
They changed it in 2022 after the acquisition, around the time they began merging the platforms and moving Funimation content to Crunchyroll. Some things had always required a subscription but up to that point most new series had episodes available for free a week after release.
From what I've heard over the years (I had a subscription for most of the past decade), they frequently repeated the same ads and those were often for their own products, i.e. not many other...
From what I've heard over the years (I had a subscription for most of the past decade), they frequently repeated the same ads and those were often for their own products, i.e. not many other companies were buying them. Seems like they never developed a good pipeline for it, so I'm not surprised that they finally decided to ditch the option entirely.
It's largely unrelated to AI: https://daiz.moe/crunchyroll-is-destroying-its-subtitles-for-no-good-reason/ To summarize, Funimation used OOONA because they never truly cared about anime, and it's...
To summarize, Funimation used OOONA because they never truly cared about anime, and it's simpler to produce subtitles for every platform with OOONA. Crunchyroll used to use Aegisub because it's designed for anime and handles signs very well. After the merger, the Funimation management is in-charge, and they want to use OOONA again, thus worsening their subtitles for no good reason.
As @zestier points out, they may not have explicitly used AI for subtitles, but Crunchyroll is both exploring the use of AI for subtitling, as well as having been brought under fire for a 3rd...
As @zestier points out, they may not have explicitly used AI for subtitles, but Crunchyroll is both exploring the use of AI for subtitling, as well as having been brought under fire for a 3rd party vendor using ChatGPT in subtitle generation.
So, to paraphrase Futurama, they aren't saying they are going to use AI for subtitles, but they sure are thinking about it loudly.
In practice, I'm pretty sure Crunchyroll has only been useful for premium subscribers for almost 4 years now.
Way back in 2022, they moved all of their simulcast series to premium only: https://web.archive.org/web/20220327075951/https://help.crunchyroll.com/hc/en-us/articles/4962816171412-Changes-to-Ad-Supported-Viewing-
They introduced a "free sampler" section where you could watch a couple ad-supported episodes, but it was extremely limited.
I haven't been able to find any official crunchyroll announcements about this, but there are a bunch of threads from 2022-2023 where of people complaining that formerly free shows were moved to be premium only:
And the article highlights that this effort seems to have accelerated at the end of last year.
Anecdotally, the last time I watched anime on Crunchyroll seems to have been right in the middle of this in Summer 2022. Every time I've checked the site since, the volume of ad-supported content I wanted to watch was becoming vanishingly small
I'm kinda sad about this. I'm nostalgic for when Crunchyroll was my primary way to consume the medium about 15 years ago. Sure the website was ass and the app was worse, but it was a free and legal way to access a pretty big catalog of content. And you could even watch a lot of the newest stuff on a one week delay. Which was huge for me as a kid with no disposable income, and parents would not have even entertained the thought.
I wonder if Crunchyroll primarily viewed their ad-tier as a vehicle to introduce people to the medium, which isn't as useful anymore. Anime is more mainstream and more accessible than ever. If you wanted to try a new series, you're probably already subscribed to a service that has a decent section of anime titles. If you get hooked on the medium, Crunchyroll is basically the only service for North American viewers who want a bigger catalog. And they're probably fine alienating folks on the free-tier who would never consider paying, especially given the increasing quality of streaming on pirate sites.
I agree, I remember watching the first three seasons of Attack on Titan on the ad-supported tier circa 2020 up till the last simulcast episode. Not to mention that Crunchyroll's bitrate was noticeably higher compared to piracy streaming sites at the time. However, the ads are very easy to bypass on desktop by just installing uBlock Origin, so I can see why they are retiring it.
Right now, at least in the United Kingdom, many show's first season which have finished airing are available ad-supported. If a show only has one season available, like Chainsaw Man, the whole season can be watched ad-supported. Taking this away will suck a lot for younger people who don't have a bank card or whose parents are unwilling to pay, I know as I was one of them.
On the one hand crunchy has been absolutely horrible with their AI subs and dubs.
That said I do think this is how more businesses have needed to go forever. The endless “it’s free but here’s zillions of ads and we’re harvesting all your data” stuff needs to die. It’s not really sustainable and it’s awful for everyone.
The problem is I fully expect this to morph into “pay for it AND we do all the ads anyways” by next year
I hope not, I try to do things legit, but that'd just force me to raise the ol' Jolly Roger 🏴☠️ again if I were unable to block those. I refuse to waste my time on ads, commercials already took enough before I stopped watching TV.
It's not even beneficial to the companies advertising since I'm LESS likely to buy an advertised product and sometimes anything else from the brand if the ad was annoying enough.
Unfortunately, you're not the target audience for ads then. They only need a few click-throughs to break even. Even if you hated the ad, if you remember the company and discuss it, they're happy because all attention is good attention in the eyes of the algorithm.
The [now] classic!
End of an era for sure.
Advertising companies must really be a pain to work with for them to just cut it.
I think that they're trying to set the precedent that Crunchyroll is to be paid for post Sony buyout. "Everything is free except for the latest episode" wasn't making the numbers go brr fast enough, and keeping some archival content out in front of the paywall wasn't worth what it was bringing in. But I don't think they would be as adverse to working with an advertiser if they decided to introduce ads on the lower tier or something.
From what I understand, they got rid of that before the Sony buyout and only a limited selection of old shows have been available for free with ads for quite a while now. Even then, I don't believe it was the full show in a lot of cases. I saw some talk about how only the first 25~ episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was available, but the remaining were paid subscription only.Edit: Never mind. My sense of time is off.
They changed it in 2022 after the acquisition, around the time they began merging the platforms and moving Funimation content to Crunchyroll. Some things had always required a subscription but up to that point most new series had episodes available for free a week after release.
From what I've heard over the years (I had a subscription for most of the past decade), they frequently repeated the same ads and those were often for their own products, i.e. not many other companies were buying them. Seems like they never developed a good pipeline for it, so I'm not surprised that they finally decided to ditch the option entirely.
Enshittification strikes again. How long before they pull an Amazon and try dubbing their anime with AI?
They already use AI for subtitling.
They do not use AI subtitles.
Crunchyroll are fucking up their subs, but that's unrelated to AI. The new Funimation management just hates anime.
It's largely unrelated to AI: https://daiz.moe/crunchyroll-is-destroying-its-subtitles-for-no-good-reason/
To summarize, Funimation used OOONA because they never truly cared about anime, and it's simpler to produce subtitles for every platform with OOONA. Crunchyroll used to use Aegisub because it's designed for anime and handles signs very well. After the merger, the Funimation management is in-charge, and they want to use OOONA again, thus worsening their subtitles for no good reason.
As @zestier points out, they may not have explicitly used AI for subtitles, but Crunchyroll is both exploring the use of AI for subtitling, as well as having been brought under fire for a 3rd party vendor using ChatGPT in subtitle generation.
So, to paraphrase Futurama, they aren't saying they are going to use AI for subtitles, but they sure are thinking about it loudly.