Online anime streamer Crunchyroll.com has gotten a shot in the arm in terms of investment, with broadcaster TV Tokyo taking a minority stake in the company for $750,000. This isn't going to change Crunchyroll's broadcast strategy or site design, but should give them some extra funding to develop new technologies.

At the same time, Crunchyroll announced they're in talks with several major Japanese book publishers to raise more funding, although word is few and far between as to what that'll entail. Perhaps they're looking to develop a legal version of sites like MangaFox and OneManga?

While this is good news, I hope there will be some foresight into the development of the hosting strategies. As Zac and Justin have pointed out on ANNCast, it's a pretty foolish idea to have all the episodes of all their shows streaming on Crunchyroll -- it has a taste of disregard for the American DVD market, and I'd say it could hurt their sales by a bit. And this is a market where just about every disc sold counts.

Well, we'll see what happens when Crunchyroll eventually becomes a pool of competing Japanese interests. Hopefully they can put their heads together and produce something that works.

San Francisco, Calif. and Tokyo, Japan (March 25, 2010) ­ Crunchyroll, Inc.,
and TV TOKYO CORPORATION (TYO: 9411) announced today the expansion of their
industry-defining content alliance and partnership with the February 2010
conclusion of a $750,000 strategic investment by TV TOKYO into Crunchyroll.

TV TOKYO will continue to provide Crunchyroll with content licenses for
world-class Japanese entertainment, including hits like Naruto Shippuden,
Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, and many others, and Crunchyroll will continue to
offer premium access to TV TOKYO content under its subscription plan one
hour after its broadcast on TV TOKYO, and free access to TV TOKYO content
one week after its broadcast on TV TOKYO. In addition, both TV TOKYO and
Crunchyroll will continue to explore new business areas and work on mutually
beneficial ways of developing TV TOKYO's rights business to a global
audience.

TV TOKYO President and Co-CEO Masayuki Shimada said: ³This investment fits
with our three 'challenge goals' of cultivating new hits, developing our
rights business, and discovering new revenue areas. Through Crunchyroll now
more than ever before, we will be able to cultivate new programs to a
worldwide audience, strategically plan a global rights business, and
leverage Crunchyroll's innovation to discover new ways to generate revenue.²

Crunchyroll CEO and Co-Founder Kun Gao said: ³Our vision is to create an
ecosystem for all Japanese rights holders to export their content overseas,
and TV TOKYO has taken a leadership position by being with us from day one.
With this partnership, we formalize our already strong relationship with TV
TOKYO and look forward to building a long-term business together. This is an
historic moment for Crunchyroll, and this solidifies our commitment to
bringing the best in Japanese anime to our millions of fans around the
globe.²

There will be no change to Crunchyroll's corporate structure, strategic
management or operations as a result of this strategic investment, but TV
TOKYO will have shareholder rights as are customary to typical minority
shareholders. Full terms of the investment agreement were not disclosed.

The February 2010 strategic investment from TV TOKYO is the first half of a
Japanese strategic investment initiative, with negotiations currently
underway with an undisclosed group of major Japanese book publishers for the
second half. More details will be announced shortly on the other parties
involved.

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MOAR Tokyo Anime Fair:

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