Hey I had a question I have a subscription with y'all on my TV, like I pay to have the anime network as a channel on demand which is approximately the same price as mentioned online. My question is, despite my subscription for on demand, do I have to pay for another subscription to watch the premium anime online?

diquan wrote:


Anime Network on Demand on your TV and Anime Network Online Player on this site are two separate things.

They are quite similar in price, that's true. As of right now, you'd have to pay for both.

Perhaps sometime in the future, the two could be combined, but as for now, they are two separate entities.

Let me try to explain it another way. When you subscribe to the Anime Network VOD, you pay your cable company for the service. The cable company then pays TAN for providing the content, after taking out a portion for the equipment to store and deliver the content (plus a profit.) When you subscribe to the Anime Network Online Player, you pay TAN directly. 100% of your payment goes to taking care of getting you TAN's online content.

I know some providers (HBO/Cinemax and the Turner networks come to mind) have instituted TV Everywhere (TVE) services, where you log in via your cable/satellite provider's online ID and password. Hopefully, TAN will be able to institute a TVE service-but TAN isn't a service the size of HBO or Turner, so it will take some time to get there.

One more thing-subscribing to the TAN Online Player gets you access to simulcasts that won't be on the VOD for many months. In the past, TAN has offered High School of the Dead, Tears to Tiara, Blue Drop, P4-Persona and many other series via simulcast first. Present series you are getting a "first look" at include Mysterious Girlfriend X and Bodacious Space Pirates.

TAN does offer discounts for paying by quarter and annually, plus they regularly offer promotional "deals" to subscribe at a discount. Perhaps that will lessen the sting of having to pay "twice", but rest assured that paying for TAN Online is a clear vote to keep TAN bringing the best anime to the US.

No, I don't work for TAN. I'm just a (usually) happy annual subscriber (and when I'm not happy, I'm just a curmudgeon!)