Anime Specialist Funimation Plans Fall Streaming Expansion To Mexico And Brazil

Dade Hayes

DeadlineJuly 2, 2020, 4:34 PM UTC

Funimation, a leading provider of anime content, plans to expand its streaming service to Brazil and Mexico this fall, offering select subtitled and dubbed anime series in Spanish and Portuguese.

The company, an independent joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex, already operates globally, with nine offices in six countries. The Funimation streaming service is currently available in the U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

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News of the expansion came during FunimationCon 2020, a free, two-day virtual fan festival celebrating anime.

“Anime is special in that it speaks equally to people from different cultures, regions and languages around the world. Audiences in Latin America are among the most passionate in the world and have been clamoring for more,” Funimation GM Colin Decker said in a press release. “Expanding Funimation to Mexico and Brazil is the natural next step for us to serve those fans and extend our brands.”

Over the past year, Funimation says, it has expanded its library by nearly 20% through strategic deals with licensing partners like Aniplex and NIS America. The streaming service has about 13,000 hours of programming spanning 700 series.

Theatrical releases and merchandising are other active areas for the company. In February, before COVID-19 shuttered movie theaters in the Western Hemisphere, Funimation released My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising. The film brought in $29.1 million at the global box office, $13.3 million of that in the U.S.

Another top-selling recent release was a 37-disc, 30th anniversary Dragon Ball Z Collector’s Edition Blu-ray boxed set.

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