SIGH...
IT'S NOT JUST FANSUBS CAUSING THIS!!!!!
I'm tired of hearing that same old argument.
There are so many other things that are contributing to this. Probably the biggest is the fact that the economy is STILL messed up, both here and in Japan. I know they say that entertainment spending goes up in bad economic circumstances, but I don't think DVD sales was what they were solely thinking about. Second is that the internet wasn't tapped as a potential market fast enough or, when companies did use it, it wasn't tapped properly. Most of these media companies are run by the stereotypical "OH MY GOSH internet is evil kill it with fire" kind of people, so much of these losses are on their heads.
On top of that, many fansub users aren't doing it just to avoid paying for DVDs or subscriptions. Indeed, any survey attempted on the subject shows more people are doing it because they perceive official releases as poorly translated or too localized for their tastes. Thus, even more of this is on their heads. Even if people were doing it to avoid paying for it, that doesn't mean they even CAN pay for it. This myth of "lost potential profits" is a fallacy of the greatest kind. Some people never had the ability to buy AT ALL in the first place. You can't say that a company is being hurt by people who will NEVER buy your shows, fansubs or not.
Indeed, some people even theorize that, however much we don't want to believe it, anime may have been a fad in America, and if that were true, then this means the fad is hitting its tail end. So these companies closing down are more about people just not being interested anymore, than people just refusing to pay for works all around.
tl;dr: fansubs didn't cause this. Greedy companies, who don't know how to keep customers in a rapidly-changing world, and a general lack of money, caused this.
I apologize very deeply if I offended you, or if this thought was not that high of priority in your comment. The "fansubs killing anime" statement is just one of my few epic berserk buttons.
"I always knew you were no mere mortal... but I had no idea that you were a cat." -Wolfwood
Member of the Senna Fan Club
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