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Future of TV Media

2016 TV Year in Review: Michael Aragon, General Manager of VRV

By Michael Aragon, General Manager

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December 28, 2016 | 4 min read

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​The below post is part of Found Remote's 2016 Year in Review guest post series and is written by ​Michael Aragon, General Manager of VRV.

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Standing Out in 2017

In 2015, it was widely reported that over 400 scripted series aired during the year. That was twice as many series as were available just 7 years before. The quantity and quality of television content is staggering– it is truly the modern “Golden Age of Television.”

But TV isn’t just about the traditional networks anymore. It’s not a simple 30 or 60 minute episode nicely packaged for a linear broadcast. Today, the burgeoning online video industry means fewer predefined restrictions and newer and more provocative storylines that are captivating viewers. All of this is happening on an exponentially growing number of online video services, devices, screens and formats.

But with an abundance of great content being produced faster and more readily available than ever before, consumers are facing a paradox of choice when it comes to which service and series they are going to invest their valuable time in.

As we enter 2017, the quest to win the free time of prospective viewers is going to depend heavily on how subscription video services can diversify themselves beyond just video content, and how they can deliver experiences that matter to their audience. But, at Crunchyroll and VRV, we don’t simply think about our subscribers as our “audience”... We think about them as fans.

Our belief is that the next generation of viewers are passionate and community-oriented fans who don’t just lean back and consume; they lean forward and engage on a whole different level with content they love. Entertainment is about a more holistic experience: watching the show, listening to the showrunner’s podcast, reading the comic, or attending conventions to meet up with friends who share the same interests. Attracting this audience doesn’t necessarily require the sleekest website or even the widest selection of premium content. Instead, a service needs to ensure that it is engaging with that community from a place of authenticity and providing a place that feels like a home.

For Crunchyroll and VRV, we’ve seen the power of focusing on a particular fanbase to superserve their interests. Crunchyroll offers anime fans a 360-degree experience––through events, forums, e-commerce and other mediums––and the platform is largely run by people who are anime fans themselves. As a result, Crunchyroll has become a beloved brand and a top 10 subscription service, and it is largely because the fans have always been its backbone.

With our new platform VRV, we built on the legacy of Crunchyroll to develop a broader content offering with the fan in mind. We’ve curated channels based on adjacent interests that we saw shared a passionate following — including anime, animation, gaming, comedy, fantasy, horror and technology. We then focused on building features that align with the lifestyle and personal identity of this shared fanbase. Fans interact with the content and engage with the creators of VRV’s various channel partners in their own unique ways, and we are now combining forces under one roof to further increase this engagement. Ultimately our vision for VRV is to be a community first and an online video platform second. By thinking about our fanbase differently, we will provide the content and community that will position both Crunchyroll and VRV for success as the 2017 playing field gets more crowded.

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