Crunchyroll Launches 24-7 Anime TV Channel

As any avid Toonami watcher knows, Crunchyroll has been rather stingy of late with what they’re licensing for linear television. Granted, we don’t know the real answer here (maybe their licensing fees are too high, or maybe Zaslav reduced the Toonami budget to five dollars) but what IS obvious is that there isn’t as much of a variety of anime on TV as there once was — it seems to be all exclusive to streaming.

What we didn’t see coming is Crunchyroll launching a TV channel THEMSELVES. The Crunchyroll Channel launches today and broadcasts a 24/7 anime schedule. The channel is a collaboration between Sony Pictures Entertainment and GSN.

This isn’t a cable channel; it’s a free one one anybody can get through a Roku device. All modern Vizio and LG TVs can also access this channel through the VIZIO WatchFree+ and LG Channels marketplaces respectively. Amazon Freevee will get the channel starting next Tuesday,

“The Crunchyroll channel is a gateway to the world of anime where we will guide viewers to discover new worlds, new stories and new characters,” said Rahul Purini, President of Crunchyroll. “And thanks to our distribution partners at launch, millions of fans have easy access to the medium that is taking the world by storm!”

At launch, the schedule is mostly the dub versions of Horimiya, Ranking of Kings, Moriarty the Patriot, PSYCHO–PASS, Arifureta, Sugar Apple Fairytale, To Your Eternity and Code Geass. Other promotional, genre and theme programming blocks are planned for the future, but it has yet to be revealed what will be on them.

It’s worth nothing that some of the biggest and most popular anime have their own Roku channels already, that beam nothing but that specific show 24 hours a day. This fact could complicate what’s allowed to be shown on the Crunchyroll Channel (or Toonami for that matter). You can find Crunchyroll’s new TV station at the aforementioned places.