Minor Complaint- PVs and CMs region encoding

[gunform1010]

I've never understood this. You know how on websites they have the PVs or CMs for like stuff for Gundam or Ideon? They say "this service is not available in your country". How come they're un-viewable outside of Japan? What is the point? Is it some exclusive format that doesn't exist outside of Japan? Or what?

[Kuruni]

Not "outside of Japan", it's "your country". There're BIG different between those.

My advice, move to Sealand, I heard that they never block anything in that country.

[gunform1010]

Not "outside of Japan", it's "your country". There're BIG different between those.

My advice, move to Sealand, I heard that they never block anything in that country.

You mean the "Big-Shell" country? Hmm. Always wanted to visit.

[Destiny_Gundam]

It's pretty common for videos to be region locked. Like how you can't watch stuff on Hulu outside of the States.

[Kratos]

Bandai's streams are all region locked. In fact, the stuff of theirs meant for foreign audiences - like, say, their subbed streams of Build Fighters - is actually blocked from JAPANESE audiences.

Yes, really. Anime fans in Japan can't access officially-subbed streams put out by a Japanese company. I can't fathom the reason, either - surely reverse importing of freely-distributed streams isn't an issue - but there you have it.

[gunform1010]

Bandai's streams are all region locked. In fact, the stuff of theirs meant for foreign audiences - like, say, their subbed streams of Build Fighters - is actually blocked from JAPANESE audiences.

Yes, really. Anime fans in Japan can't access officially-subbed streams put out by a Japanese company. I can't fathom the reason, either - surely reverse importing of freely-distributed streams isn't an issue - but there you have it.

That has got to be the strangest thing I've ever heard. Bandai probably assumes that the Japanese fans won't care. :/

In any case. BOO. It's frustrating to see the PVs and CMs for stuff like Ideon blocked.

[mobiusdiablo]

Bandai's streams are all region locked. In fact, the stuff of theirs meant for foreign audiences - like, say, their subbed streams of Build Fighters - is actually blocked from JAPANESE audiences.

Yes, really. Anime fans in Japan can't access officially-subbed streams put out by a Japanese company. I can't fathom the reason, either - surely reverse importing of freely-distributed streams isn't an issue - but there you have it.

Ehhhh... I wouldn't be so sure about that. Well, at least for part of the reason. I'm going out on a limb here and assuming that the main broadcast in Japan each week is where Sunrise really makes their money and shore up viewership and get the revenue from commercials. I'd assume that they DID pay for the 25 episode time slot that they ran Build Fighters in, so naturally they'd want to get the ratings and revenue that come from that. It'd be nice to let everyone watch it free on Youtube, sure - but that also kind of shoots them in the foot as well. Given how AGE's ratings tanked later on (Someone posted them up in one of the AGE threads) and how it was recieved, I'd think that Sunrise would want to make sure that this show didn't lose TV viewership in Japan that it didn't have to.

And, as we've seen, they have started releasing Japanese-subtitled (odd, I'd assume that they'd release it raw but alas) episodes of GBF soon after the English run, and I presume the broadcast run in Japan ended. As of this post, they've uploaded episode 17 two days ago. Not only does this seem to support my conjecture, but it might be a decent business strategy. They already got the revenue from running ads on Youtube for the foreign versions and the ratings from the broadcast run, and now they're getting a bit more by uploading the Japanese ones. And if people in Japan don't want to deal with the subtitles, the Blurays are already out.

I don't know how easy it is to take off subtitles, but I do know how easy it is to rip a video from Youtube - there's a whole bunch of services that I won't mention that make it easy for you. That COULD be part of the reason to avoid a Japanese upload, but I think it's a small one at most. It seems to me - and as an American with only research and no real first hand knowledge of Japan, I could be completely off the mark - that this is more of a buisness maneuver than anything.

[gunform1010]

But that would not explain PVs and CMs, which have no real issue with revenue. Just argh. What's wrong with watching something like a Ideon PV? JUST ARGH.

[Heaven Piercing Man]

Or the gundam.info MS encyclopedia short videos. I had to go all out with the proxies for these!

[Strike Zero]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't companies have to pay YouTube more money if they want their content to be available in different countries? If that's true, then the reason why certain countries can't access certain content is pretty plain.

[gunform1010]

Never heard that before.

That still doesn't excuse videos off of YT.

[Kratos]

Except it feels like region locking is the exception on YouTube, rather than the norm, since it's a pretty rare phenomenon to encounter there. Is it just something that YouTube does for major corporations, and all the major music labels and movie companies buy into it EXCEPT Banrise (seriously, I think theirs are the only videos that I've come across with this issue)?

[Kuruni]

(seriously, I think theirs are the only videos that I've come across with this issue)?

Try move to mainland China, you will have much better luck there.