ADV to Sell Geneon Products

[Roy Mustang]

ICv2 has learned that ADV will take over sales, marketing, and distribution functions for all Geneon titles effective October 1st. Geneon will continue to license and produce anime content for the North American market; the changes will affect only how the products reach the market. The notice that went out to retailers made the point. "This change will in no way impact the availability of current or future Geneon titles 'in the pipeline,'" it said.



The extensive Geneon catalogue will continue to be available through ADV, making a formidable combined title roster from the two companies.



The business impacts at both companies seem positive. Geneon rids itself of a sales, marketing, and distribution function that is servicing much lower volume than it did in the days when Geneon was distributing Viz (Pokemon) and Bandai titles. ADV gains the economies of scale of servicing larger volume on a similar expense base.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/11182.html

[color="Red"][font="Book Antiqua"]Col. Roy Mustang[/font][/color]

[KhakiBlueSocks]

[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]Interesting...but I'm a little confused about what this means--is Geneon being bought out by ADV or is this a merger?

And could this also be related to the price drop I've seen in some Geneon titles like "Chobits"? I went into FYE the other day, and I noticed the DVD's are a good bit 'chi'per (cheaper; forgive the pun) than they normal.[/color][/SIZE][/font]

[Tenshi no Ai]

[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]Interesting...but I'm a little confused about what this means--is Geneon being bought out by ADV or is this a merger?
[/color][/SIZE][/font]

Yeah I'm actually lost on that one too. Both are pretty big companies...

[MasterDias]

Neither, from what I gather. It's some sort of partnership apparantly. ADV is handling distribution and marketing of Geneon's titles, while Geneon itself concentrates on licensing/localization.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

Neither, from what I gather. It's some sort of partnership apparantly. ADV is handling distribution and marketing of Geneon's titles, while Geneon itself concentrates on licensing/localization.

In terms of marketing, ADV does have the upper hand, what with Newtype USA, The Anime Network, etc... Besides, IMHO, ADV is a bit more well known than Geneon.

[ashfire]

Geneon use to be Pioneer, but the company split off the video sales to become Geneon and Pioneer kept on with electronics.
I guess like said the Geneon name just didn't get must attention, plus I think they had cut back alot of their items. I was at Otakon and noticed they didn't have any hand out DVDs for previews like years past and this year none while all the others did.

[Roy Mustang]

Neither, from what I gather. It's some sort of partnership apparantly. ADV is handling distribution and marketing of Geneon's titles, while Geneon itself concentrates on licensing/localization.

More or less, you are right. This is a partnership with ADV and Geneon and a press release from both companies should be put out soon.

A partnership for promoting and distributing another anime company is nothing new. At one time, Geneon (which I believe was Pioneer) did distributing Bandai Visual's titles and there has been agreement like this with other companies.

Now for the good and bad side of this partnership.

Having ADV handle distribution and marketing of their Geneon's titles, will help Geneon out as in terms of a bigger marketing plan.

The bad side to this partnership, if this is true.

There has been a few leaks about this news.

In the coming months, the staff at Geneon will be let go over time. There are plans from the the higher ups, that 3rd party groups will handle the production, but will have the Geneon name on it.

I know this just a leak for now, but I think we should pray for the staff of Geneon and hope this is not true. Because a good number of people could be losing their jobs.

[color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color]

[creed4]

yes, this is interesting, In some ways I would rather see a merger, then we could see some high profile anime

[Roy Mustang]

ADV films press release on the ADV Films / Geneon Alliance.

This is the press release that was sent out today.


[quote="ADV Films press release"]ADV FILMS AND GENEON ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE

Partnership Yields Strongest Catalog in Anime Category

HOUSTON, August 29, 2007 — Today ADV Films and Geneon Entertainment (USA) announced a new distribution agreement. From October 1st on, ADV Films will be Geneon Entertainment USA’s sole distributor. ADV Films will handle all sales and distribution duties for the combined catalogue as well as certain marketing functions.

Geneon Entertainment (USA) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based advertising giant Dentsu, Inc. Geneon is a pioneer of anime in America, having helped to launch Pokemon, Appleseed, and Akira on home video. More recent hits include some of the best-selling franchises in anime today, including Hellsing, Ergo Proxy, and the new hit series Black Lagoon.



“This is a great alliance.â€

[Ragsolith]

Quite interesting... I just hope they keep up with the production and whatnot.

*mourns the loss over the lack of ADV manga that's still not coming out*

[MyrrhLynn]

Wow, I feel old. I had no problems understanding any of the press release. Well I've had quite a few business classes, which helps I'm sure, so let me try to explain so everyone else can understand better...

This is basically what this partnership means: Geneon is outsourcing it's sales/marketing/distrubution departments. I assume most of their existing staff in those department will be either fired, move to other departments, or perhaps be hired on at ADV to help with the additional volume.

There are many good things about a partnership like this. Geneon will be saving money by having ADV do that work for them (the same way any other company saves by outsourcing). ADV will be making money from doing this and will likely have to expand their marketing/sales departments to help with the increased workload. This means more jobs at ADV and they will have more money to work with for advertising and distribution.

This does not in any way mean the compaines are going to be merging, or sharing profits, or making releases together. I also see no reason why this would affect the production side of things for either company. I'm guessing that the higher ups at Geneon figured out it was more cost effective to have a different company handle the sales and marketing for them.

Of course I'm sure any business major would be crying about the loss of competion and how something like this will degrade the overall market, blah blah blah. The only big negative I can think of is that a number of people at Geneon are going to loose their jobs.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

In the coming months, the staff at Geneon will be let go over time. There are plans from the the higher ups, that 3rd party groups will handle the production, but will have the Geneon name on it.

I know this just a leak for now, but I think we should pray for the staff of Geneon and hope this is not true. Because a good number of people could be losing their jobs.

Col. Roy Mustang

No longer a leak--this is a straight-up flood. Here's what ANN says (sorry if I'm stepping on your toes, Roy):

[quote="Anime News Network--September 11, 2007"]
Geneon USA Lays Off Sales, Marketing Staffers
As part of its transition to A.D. Vision handling its sales and marketing, Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. laid off five employees from its sales team last Friday, and plans to lay off employees from its marketing team at the end of this week. The five employees in the sales team were informed earlier last week that Friday, September 7 would be their last day. According to a recent press release, Geneon USA had 39 employees]

Granted it's not as bad as it could be, it's still sad that these hardworking people and then some have lost their jobs.

[creed4]

Yea this is not a good time to be looking for jobs

[MyrrhLynn]

Umm laying off a total of 10 employees is not a flood. XD Yes it is a large portion of their company but they are outsourcing those departments so what did you expect? Working in the IT industry like I do you here about much larger scale firings due to outsourcing. And while I was still in school they brought it up to us all the time (sometimes I swear just to depress us).

The only difference is that in this situation the outsource went to another company in the United States rather then overseas. Same end result though (people getting laid off). I'm sure ADV is going to have to hire some people though since they are going to have a lot more work to do now in those departments.

[Stephen]

As long as I can keep getting my Hellsing OVAs in those metal dvd cases....I don't care what they call themselves.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

Umm laying off a total of 10 employees is not a flood. XD

Actually, I was talking about the NEWS ARTICLE itself no longer being a leak. Reading is fundamental. "XD".

Anyway...

As long as I can keep getting my Hellsing OVAs in those metal dvd cases....I don't care what they call themselves.

We're talking about ADV here, Sempai! Straight bling all the way--PLATINUM! [size=84]...box.[/SIZE]

[MasterDias]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-09-20/adv-films-geneon-entertainment-distribution-deal-cancelled

ADV Films, Geneon USA's Distribution Deal Cancelled

Geneon USA's current distribution status unknown

The previously announced deal between ADV Films and Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc., in which ADV Films would take over all sales, marketing, and distribution of Geneon USA anime titles, has been cancelled.

In preparation for the transition, Geneon USA laid off the majority of its sales division, including all of its sales people. Customers of Geneon USA have informed us that they have been unable to obtain any information from Geneon USA about the current procedure for returns.

An ADV Films representative declined when asked to comment on the reasons behind the failure of the agreement.

Geneon USA previously distributed DVDs for Bandai Visual USA; Bandai Visual's future distribution plans have not been announced to the public.

In addition to the contracting of Geneon USA's sales and marketing to ADV Films, Dentsu Inc. (Geneon USA's parent company) was also planning on closing Geneon USA's in-house production by the end of the year. It is not known what was to be done with ongoing projects, such as the Hellsing video series, that will not finish in Japan before December 31.

Geneon USA did not respond to requests for comment in time for this article.

Ouch. I wasn't really worried before...but this ...doesn't sound good, and no one seems to know what's going on.

[Tenshi no Ai]

Oh wow... I hope it wasn't some marketing scheme :/ Lay some people off to get rid of the competition or something dumb :/ Not that I suspect so, but whatever's going on right now is odd :/

[TriezGamer]

ADV would get little to no benefit from Geneon going under. It would most likely hurt their bottom line due to lack of trust in what is essentially an unstable market. I doubt this is a hostile action on ADV's part. As has been discussed all over the internet today, I stand behind the people who believe this is simply Geneon's parent company ditching the North American market. The question is, if Geneon goes, what of all the licenses and unfinished shows? Geneon has quite a few titles right now that I actually want to buy when they come out.

[termyt]

Sanity will probably rule in the end. Although this may cause delays in releases, I suspect all the tiles will be fully released eventually. The North American market is a lot larger than the Japanese market, so simply abandoning it does not make good business sense. On the other side, even though anime is more expensive here than domestic media, the profit margin is probably comparatively slim.

My guess is Geneon is trying to figure out how to reduce it’s overhead on this side of the Pacific while maintaining its profit.

[Stephen]

It figures that the one anime I actually care about, that gets delayed enough on its own...is gonna face delay because of this. BLAH.

[Stephen]

Has anyone heard anything new about this?

[TriezGamer]

Yep. Geneon is going to continue to release the titles they have, but stop licensing new shows.

So, at least for now, barring unexpected circumstances, we'll still get all of the DVDs for current licenses.

[Stephen]

God bless you and the news you bring. I almost hurled myself into traffic today thinking that Hellsing OVAs might stop coming out in metal cases.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

I almost hurled myself into traffic today thinking that Hellsing OVAs might stop coming out in metal cases.

So YOU were the nut screaming "TAKE ME NOW!!!!" on the side of the freeway.

[creed4]

At least they are going to continue their current licenses, but this is bad cause it looks like we may be losing a competitor.

[mitsuki lover]

Yes,Geneon used to be known as Pioneer.I have a number of their titles and some of them like Dual have the Pioneer trademark on them.

[Stephen]

So YOU were the nut screaming "TAKE ME NOW!!!!" on the side of the freeway.

It was pretty bad for a while. But yes, that was me.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

Yes,Geneon used to be known as Pioneer.I have a number of their titles and some of them like Dual have the Pioneer trademark on them.

So in theory, that WOULD explain the price drop I've been seeing on Genon/Pioneer titles?

[creed4]

I just read they are stopping DVD sales on Friday at ANN