Via ANN.
So TV Tokyo is going to try and focus on overseas marketing in order to increase its revenue. One of their executives cites this as the only way to preserve the industry in the long run. Now the question is, is this a good idea?
Well, look at the American industry. It’s not doing terribly well. Geneon closed its doors a few years ago, this is obviously not a good thing. I don’t know the status of the other branches of distribution, but I think I’m safe in saying however they were doing, it’s worse with this recession. They’ve been experimenting with other outlets, such as online distribution, but it’s too soon to be able to rely on this paradigm shift for real results. I can’t imagine other regions to be too much different from this model.
And so logically, TV Tokyo’s plan is to continue to increase the channel bandwidth overseas.
Did I miss something here? No, really, I want to know. Because I don’t see this being a viable option for the industry. I think time would much better be spent in figuring out how to reduce costs to some extent. I don’t know, look to see if new technologies can decrease costs over the long run, cut back a little in the overly shiny production value, think about the shows you’re producing to determine if they’re actually going to be marketable or not.
So again, I invite you readers to comment. Does TV Tokyo have the right idea in mind, or should they stop looking across the pond and start examining there own machinery?
Another article states that the new anime department will deal with overseas partners from China and South Korea, concerning not just licencing, production was mentioned foremost. I read somewhere else (I can’t remember) that with this move TV Tokyo is going to invest more in production whereas previously they relied on outsourcing to other companies.
Granted, though I still think jumping on expansion in a bad economic time isn’t a brilliant idea. I mean, if you managed to examine *everything* and find that at the end, the only viable way to survive is expand, you might as well take a chance. Corporations are pressured to keep the profit line rolling, but in economics, even operating at a loss is not a horrible thing if it’s the best overall option available.
As far as internal production versus outsourcing, that’s very dependent. Either one can be cheaper and more efficient depending on the situation presented.