AMC buys the owner of the anime streaming service Hidive
Igor Bonifacic
·Contributing Writer
AMC Networks has acquired anime distributor Sentai. Financial terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, but the purchase includes Sentai's Hidive streaming service. It will join AMC's stable of "targeted" streaming platforms, which already includes services like Shudder, IFC and SundanceTV. As part of the deal, AMC has also picked up Sentai Studios, the Anime Network and the company's extensive catalog of anime titles. Some of the projects Sentai holds the license to include K-On! from Kyoto Animation and Haikyu!! from Production IG.
The acquisition comes less than a year since Sony completed a $1.175 billion deal to buy Crunchyroll from AT&T. At the time, the company said it would work quickly to create a unified anime subscription service that would feature content from both Funimation, which Sony has owned since 2017, and Crunchyroll. If nothing else, today's deal shows just how big of a business anime has become in the west.