ASIAN MEDIA RIGHTS AND FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT AGREE TO VIDEO-ON-DEMAND PARTNERSHIP

– Asian Media Rights to begin distributing FUNimation titles on VOD, at theatrical and DVD release –

NEW YORK, NY (January 4, 2011) – Asian Media Rights (AMR), the largest transactional-video-on-demand distributor of Asian film and special event content in North America, is proud to announce a distribution partnership with FUNimation® Entertainment, the leading distributor of Japanese animation in North America.

The agreement, announced today, includes FUNimation’s highly-anticipated anime feature film Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance and the critically-acclaimed animated feature Summer Wars, in addition to live-action feature films such as Alien vs. Ninja and Mutant Girls Squad from the new cult genre film label Sushi Typhoon.  In all, AMR will be licensing more than 20 of FUNimation’s top feature film titles.

Under its agreement with FUNimation, AMR will eventually release titles on cable and satellite VOD “day-and-date” with its theatrical release, or prior to its theatrical release, allowing fans access to SD and HD versions of their favorite anime titles at the earliest window possible in North America.  Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance will be the first anime feature film in North America to be made available on cable and satellite VOD before FUNimation releases an expanded version of the film, Evangelion 2.22, on DVD and Blu-ray on March 29, 2011.

Asian Media Rights co-founder Michael Hong said, “The approach with FUNimation, because they have such amazing stuff and such a passionate and informed fan base, was always about how do we bring these titles to them as soon as possible, and into their living rooms so that they can watch and appreciate it in their large flat-screen HD TV screens”

FUNimation President and CEO Gen Fukunaga said “Transactional VOD is about providing more convenience and choice for the entertainment fan. This new approach allows us to make our anime and genre film titles available to various service subscribers while also  supporting our sell-through product and those fans who enjoy the theater experience and really, reaching the broadest audience for our movies.”

About Asian Media Rights

Asian Media Rights (www. Asianmediarights.com or http://www.facebook.com/asiancrushfilms) is a preeminent distributor of Asian feature films and event programming on cable, satellite, and telco video-on-demand, and other digital platforms in North America. With a catalog of over 200+ titles, AMR has quickly established itself as a leader in the distribution of Asian content. AMR is a privately held company founded by Michael Hong and David Chu.


About FUNimation Entertainment

FUNimation® Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, is the leading company for home video sales of Japanese animation in the United States.  FUNimation has a proven formula for launching and advancing brands, and manages a full spectrum of rights for most of its brands including broadcasting, licensing, production, internet, and home video sales and distribution. For more information about FUNimation Entertainment and its brands, visit www.funimation.com.


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14 Responses to “ASIAN MEDIA RIGHTS AND FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT AGREE TO VIDEO-ON-DEMAND PARTNERSHIP”

  • 1
    Mario1-7 on January 4th, 2011 at 5:08 pm says:

    ………… One Piece Movies?????? And Feature Sengoku Basara Movie?


  • 2
    spastic_jaki on January 4th, 2011 at 5:47 pm says:

    Dude, this is awesome.


  • 3
    Onlera on January 4th, 2011 at 7:12 pm says:

    so they’re licensing 20+ titles, eh? i’m betting it’ll be a bit of a test run for a while, seeing how much use this gets from fans. if the response is good enough, i imagine lots more titles will be picked up as time goes on.

    ergo, if you have access to this service, but don’t see your fave title, you should still use it. you’re upping your chances of it happening down the road. (i, sadly, do not have cable or satellite)


  • 4
    Onlera on January 4th, 2011 at 7:14 pm says:

    also, @FUNimation: way to go!! any extra outlets you can use are good, and this is a great addition. keep up the good work!!


  • 5
    Dragon0 on January 4th, 2011 at 8:56 pm says:

    Same haere Onlera, I have basic cable, but don’t have the box, so I can’t get the specila order channels. But props to funi to increase the ways they get anime to the fans and potential increase the number of fans.


  • 6
    Ash on January 4th, 2011 at 11:45 pm says:

    This is awesome news!!! I just did an embarrassing happy dance. Now Funi just needs a license to re-dub Sailor Moon, and my life will be complete…


  • 7
    Matt on January 5th, 2011 at 5:01 am says:

    So if I understand this correctly this article is basically saying Funimation has sub licensed some of its movies to Asian Media Rights?

    It’s not Funimation buying 20923902309309 movies.


  • 8
    eddie on January 5th, 2011 at 8:21 am says:

    i hope a deal its reach with netflix. because there are alots of series that i missed on because they are not carrying new stuff anymore.

    i wanta see :
    1)sekirei
    2)linebarrels or iron
    3)corpse princess
    4)birdy the mighty decode
    5)dragon ball kai
    an everything else that you have at your disposal.make this happen funi! :!


  • 9
    Dragon0 on January 5th, 2011 at 9:07 am says:

    @eddie
    Are you unable to watch thoes particular shows on the funimation video portal? Out side of Kai I think, thoes should all be on Funimations video page.


  • 10
    eddie on January 5th, 2011 at 11:22 am says:

    @dragon0 the thing is that my internet stutters when i stream because i’m on a 1.5 mbp connection.the only stable connection for me is thru netflix, i mean my internet doesnt stutter as much when i’m instant watching there….

    besides, i’m also paying for the service. so, i want to make the most use of it.lastly, its more comfty to watch netflix from my ps3 rather than from my computer’s chair if you know what i mean? :roll: :(


  • 11
    mike3567 on January 5th, 2011 at 12:38 pm says:

    Join Asian Media Rights fanpage on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/asiancrushfilms

    for more details on the deal with Funimation. Nothing is there now but details will come out shortly. Apparently, they have a deal with Bandai and Viz too. This VoD deal has nothing to do with Internet or streaming, just purely cable and satellite On Demand for rental.


  • 12
    Dragon0 on January 5th, 2011 at 1:36 pm says:

    @Eddie
    Yeah sitting in these chairs can get very uncomfortable.


  • 13
    Kev on January 9th, 2011 at 8:37 am says:

    Wow, this is wicked, hopefully 2011 could also bring somethings like sailormoon perhaps? :)


  • 14
    Jasmine on February 3rd, 2011 at 6:36 pm says:

    I hear FUNimation dubs are amazing. But none of the anime they have I’m interested in…but there is one I’d love to see, let me think…what was it called? There were a lot of people who liked it…and it was and is killer popular. Man, what was it called? I heard you guys might even be getting the lisence to do it…oh! I remember! SAILOR MOON!!!!!!!!!


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