Crunchyroll is the biggest anime library available to anime fans outside of Japan. Although, Crunchyroll already had a paid subscription plan, but if someone couldn’t afford it, they could always watch the anime episode 1 week later for free (with ads). However, according to the new update, this option is going away.
On the official website of Crunchyroll, it was announced that starting from Spring 2022, it will be necessary to have a premium subscription to be able to enjoy the new anime series.
With the Spring 2022 season and future seasonal releases, Crunchyroll will update our offering of simulcast titles by subscription tiers. It will be necessary to have a monthly or annual premium subscription to be able to see the new simulcasts and those that continue. With the exception of the titles mentioned below, we will no longer offer the option to watch the simulcasts a week later and with advertising. As for ongoing series, the ad-supported viewing option will no longer be available for new episodes, such as the spring season, although previously released episodes will still be available to all users.
Crunchyroll added that to introduce the new Spring 2022 anime series, the first 3 episodes will be free (with ads) to view on the platform.
The first three episodes of these Spring titles will be available for free and ad-supported one week after their premiere for subscriber users and until May 31. After this date, all episodes of the season sampler will require a subscription. We want to encourage as many fans as possible to explore new series and discover all the benefits of Premium access to Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll offers hundreds of hours of content for free viewing through our ad-based access tier and we will continue to offer free content in the future
Many anime fans shared this info on Twitter, and it looks like many fans were not happy with this decision. However, some fans pointed out that with respect to business perspective, offering free episodes (with ads) was not a profitable business model. No other streaming service like Netflix, HBO, etc. offer free content.
What is your opinion in this Crunchyroll’s decision? Let us know in the comment section down below.
Source: Crunchyroll Website
