My opinion about Fansubbing and DVD sales

I download fansubs every now and then, so I got some stake in this argument. However, I am interested in buying DVDs. My policy is to delete files once I have watched them, but here's something I would say: the big problem is that people like me cannot afford the premium at which most anime series are sold.

Anime series tend to market at above the cost of a typical DVD, and in what I think is really a hangover from the days of VHS distribution, are split between a number of different, separate DVDs. Contrast this with the way most DVDs of traditional series are sold in America: that is, season by season. It's an inefficient business model, especially when the long term arcs of the series are of great interest to the consumer. Some would say you want consumers to jump through hoops, but the real problem with that is that the hoops are seen as unnecessary, and you have a difficult to control, and much easier alternative on the side.

So what to do?

The best way to do this, I think, is to do what music producers did not do until it was too late: provide a nice, safe legal means for people to do what they do now.

And what do fansubs do? Quick and dirty distribution of high quality anime, within days of broadcast, free of charge. Is this impossible for the corporations in Japan? It's not for the fansubbers. These people, for the love of it, get these things done in hours. I have complete faith that folks who get paid to do this could very easily repeat such feats.

Even if the delay were more like a week, I think something still could be managed. The key here is to understand the paradigm by which both movie and music distribution became online-free-for-alls.

Ask yourself: what is it here that these online means of distribution resemble, aside from the on-demand feature? Radio and Television. Tune in, and depending on whether people pay a premium or not, they can see all kinds of different movies and television shows with no out of pocket cost beyond a monthly bill.

The one big barrier, it seems, to doing all this in a timely manner, is not translation, but dubbing. The need to dub each and every show before it hits our shores is a huge part of both the overhead and the delay in getting this product to these shores. Is dubbing necessary, at least at that stage?

No. It's a nice thing to have, for many people, but the explosive growth of fansubbing demonstrates that it is not necessary to folks for their enjoyment. To get their anime now, in plentiful supply, and follow the stories in progress, people are willing to read the translation at the bottom of the screen. Observing the history of Anime in America, we can see that visuals and story are the primary draws here, not the English language. The conventional wisdom is that people will not go to see a movie drenched in subtitles. Yet people go to see movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Passion of The Christ, Kung Fu Hustle, and many others like them, with little complaint. Heck, the second of the two is written in a couple of dead languages, and the audience didn't seem to mind!

It might be a minus if you're marketing crap, but then that's your fault.

People don't need perfect translations or English dubs to want to seek out and enjoy anime on a near real time basis. Give them a subtitled translation, and they'll watch.

So what am I suggesting?

Two routes of distribution present themselves, so long as the people are willing to do things a little quick and dirty: Digital TV and Streaming Internet distribution, with both premium channel models that remove commercials, and basic channel models that include American commercials from American sponsors.

DVDs can then become what they are for most American shows: a way to milk the cow for those who truly do like what they see. The dubs for these shows can be come a part of the premium package of documentaries and other extras that DVDs are beloved for. You either end up justifying the higher price by making it a premium item, or by giving yourself the kind of volume through your primary broadcasts and webcasts that allows you to price them lower and still reap a profit.

The thing to keep in mind is that recorded mediums have always been premium items. Unfortunately, recorded mediums and distributive mediums are no longer as different in real terms. In certain markets, this used to provide a kind of premium priceability to the market- you either get it here, or nowhere else. The reality of today's market, is that people are now capable, either through legitimate means or not, of bypassing this.

Sooner or later, we have to face the globalizing consequences of digital convergence. You have to realize that you have a product that people want, and your main business model can no longer depend on any ability to keep it from them. Like Luke Skywalker says to Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi, you can either profit from this, or be destroyed.

Profit from people's immediate desire for this product, then profit from their wish to have a deluxe version of the shows they really liked. Indeed, you can measure the ratings that shows get to find where the market's heading.

In the end, the only way to get past fansubbing, is to become the fansubbers yourself, and make it a workable commercial model. That is what I am suggesting here.