It has been a year since the Funimation and Crunchyroll merger announcement, and now, it seems that the first step towards merging is underway. Recently, VRV announced that it will soon merge with Crunchyroll.
While this isn’t the previously announced Funimation merger, it does signal the beginning of Sony’s consolidation of the streaming services under the Crunchyroll banner.
Given these developments, it’s likely only a matter of time before we see the Funimation merge get completed.
Crunchyroll and VRV Merger: The First Big Step
VRV is a subscription bundle where subscribers get access to various services including Crunchyroll Mondo, Rooster Teeth, Cartoon Hangover, and others.
There was even a time that a VRV subscription included Funimation and/or HIDIVE access.
Following the Funimation merger announcement last year, it was also announced that VRV subscribers will be migrated to Crunchyroll sometime down the line.
Now, the time has come as VRV gave an official update a few days ago about their service’s imminent shutdown.
Specifically, all VRV subscribers will be transitioned to a Crunchyroll Premium account, with all future billings being handled through Crunchyroll.
As a bonus, VRV subscribers with a linked Crunchyroll account will get their Watch History and Queue info transferred as part of the merger.
Though as a consequence of the merger, VRV Select and Mondo will be shut down once VRV’s service has ended.
It remains to be seen if some of the programs on those services will be transferred to Crunchyroll soon.
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Crunchyroll and Funimation’s Merger
There’s no date yet on when VRV will officially end, but given the update, it’s likely to happen very soon.
What’s also likely to happen next is the start of Funimation’s sunset process.
A year ago, Funimation announced on its official social media channels that all of its content will move to Crunchyroll.
But since then, there have been no major updates about when the merger will be completed.
Merging two huge streaming services is a huge undertaking, both in terms of logistics as well as anime rights. Though we’ll probably hear more news about it as the year progresses.
When the merger does get completed, Crunchyroll is poised to become an even more dominant player in the streaming industry.
While this has sparked fears of a monopoly, there are still rival streaming services that are continuing to get anime release deals, including the likes of Disney+/Hulu, Netflix, and HIDIVE.
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Source: VRV
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