Author: Gabriel Persechino-Forest Published: January 14th, 2019
Tadashi Sudo recently wrote a piece dealing with several titles having their home video releases halted and whether or not there is a greater concern for the industry as a whole. In the piece, he highlights that streaming and an overabundance of new anime may be the cause for the current situation. The market for physical releases in Japan has shrunk 30% between 2014 and 2016, but in spite of this decline, anime, especially ones that usually relied on disc sales, are being made more than ever before due in part to streaming replacing disc sales and production committees relying on other sources of revenue (Series as advertising, merchandising…).
Within the article, Sudo points out the contradicting situation in North America, where his experience leads him to believe the market has recovered from the crash and disc sales appear to be doing rather well overall.
Sudo states that the biggest problem for Japan is the overabundance of series, which he believes will lead to some series never getting a physical release at all but still believes that the physical market itself will survive. He also sees this issue becoming a source of vital attention in the near future of the industry.
Source: ITmedia (Article image as well)