Crunchyroll launches a 24-hour free anime channel

On Wednesday, October 11, 2023, anime streaming service Crunchyroll announced that it will be launching a brand new 24/7 linear anime channel that will be completely free. The channel is born out of a collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Game Show Network (GSN) and will launch on various other platforms and streaming services starting on Wednesday.

The new Crunchyroll channel will feature several exciting series available at launch, including household names such as Code Geass, Horimiya, Ranking of Kings, and Psycho-Pass. The channel will also feature scheduled promotional, genre, and thematic programming blocks, hence the aforementioned linear nature of the channel.

This Crunchyroll announcement comes at an interesting time for the company as it deals with both a class-action lawsuit and the fallout of the completed acquisition of Right Stuf anime. While the announcement may not necessarily have been made at this time to try and dwarf this bad press, it’s not a stretch to say that the two are related in some way, shape, or form.

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Crunchyroll announces free offerings amidst swirling controversy over platform’s recent behind-the-scenes actions

The latest

As mentioned above, Crunchyroll is set to begin running a free, but ad-supported, channel in the United States starting today. The channel will be available on LG Channels, the Roku Channel, and Vizio WatchFree+. The channel will then join Amazon’s Freevee service beginning on Tuesday, October 17, 2023.

The channel will primarily feature a lineup of older anime series dubbed in English. Including those mentioned above, the channel will feature Horimiya, Ranking of Kings, Moriarty the Patriot, Psycho-Pass, Arifureta, Sugar Apple Fairy Tail, To Your Eternity, and Code Geass. It’s currently unclear at the time of writing if more series will be added to the platform at a later date.

Newer and more premium shows, however, will remain a part of Crunchyroll’s subscription and ad-supported streaming services for the foreseeable future. It is also assumed, but not confirmed, that classic series on the level of popularity such as Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and others will also remain a part of the subscription and ad-supported streaming services.

While exciting, the news does come at a seemingly convenient time for the company as it deals with the fallout of a class-action lawsuit and the negative fan reception of its Right Stuf acquisition. The recently settled suit alleged that they violated the United States’ Video Privacy Protection Act by disclosing subscribers’ personally identifiable information to third-party companies, such as Facebook.

The Right Stuf acquisition, meanwhile, has fans criticizing the nerfing of Right Stuf’s pre-order and backlog system, which many fans specifically used the former site for. Fans are also criticizing the general roll out of the new store, as well as bugs such as credit card information being saved even when customers don’t request it.

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Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.