New York Comic Con News—At the New York Comic Con Funimation announced a partnership with NicoNico, the subsidiary of the major Japanese video streaming site Nico Nico Douga.  The new joint venture "Funico" will license anime for streaming on NicoNico and for release on DVD, Blu-ray and sale by digital download by FUNimation.  The new entity will be an anime powerhouse and the preferred North American destination for anime series, with the kind of licensing muscle that has to be seen as a threat to both other streaming services such as Crunchyroll and to other anime companies such as Bandai Entertainment, Viz Media, Media Blasters, and Sentai Filmworks.

 

For North American anime fans, if NicoNico can get past its technical issues and offer its series in HD, the new partnership should be a boon and should greatly increase the number of anime series available for viewing here in the U.S. at the same time that they air in Japan.  It could eventually provide NicoNico with the kind of market dominance that would allow it to move more aggressively toward the kind of subscription pricing that would provide a truly viable financial model for streaming services.  

 

FUNimation is already the dominant North American company when it comes to licensing (though some of the other American players like Bandai Entertainment & Viz Media have strong relationships with parent and related companies that give them an "in" on certain series), but this deal should give Funimation even more licensing clout, plus it should provide Funi with valuable information about the level of audience interest in the various series that are streamed on NicoNico.

 

The first wave of series that will stream on NicoNico this fall includes many of the more promising series that are debuting on Japanese TV this season such as: C (Cubed), The Future Diary, Guilty Crown, Haganai (Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai), LastExile-Fam: The Silver Wing, Maken-Ki!, and Shakugan no Shana III Final.