RetroCrush Growth Makes Anime a Red-Hot Genre for Cinedigm

RetroCrush, experiencing strong distribution and subscriber growth, is turning anime into a red-hot genre among the Cinedigm (NASDAQ: CIDM) family of channels. The surge of the genre gives Cinedigm, the premier independent streaming entertainment company super-serving enthusiast audiences, another expanding content category – alongside other genres such as horror and faith & family.

Anime is the 3rd most in-demand subgenre worldwide (5.5% demand share) according to Parrot Analytics with around 30% of American adults being a fan of anime (according to Morning Consult). In addition, while Anime is the most popular in Japan, the United States is the largest international market for Anime (according to Parrot Analytics).

Thanks to new distribution and continued growth across paid subscribers, YouTube and its social footprint, and overall monthly viewership across its SVOD, AVOD and FAST offerings, RetroCrush has become the top independent anime streaming brand. During the last year, the RetroCrush FAST channel has added distribution partnerships that include Samsung TV Plus, Sling TV, Philo and Amazon Freevee.

Additionally, Cinedigm has announced today the rebranding of its Viewster Anime channel as RetroCrush – now available as an a la carte SVOD option on The Roku Channel. Concurrently, RetroCrush has begun to roll out its newest version, powered by Cinedigm's proprietary Matchpoint Blueprint 2.0 platform, across desktop, mobile and CTV devices. 

During the last year, since Cinedigm acquired RetroCrush from DMR (along with several other streaming channels), RetroCrush's DTC app has seen its monthly active users rise 660 percent, minutes watched jump 95 percent, and paid subscribers rise 17 percent year-over-year. On social media, RetroCrush's YouTube subscriber base jumped 15 percent to nearly 900,000 subs, making it Cinedigm's second most subscribed YouTube channel after only AsianCrush, and its total Instagram followers rose 4X during the same period of time.

Noted EVP and General Manager, Cinedigm Networks, David Chu, "By curating top-quality content and expanding its availability, RetroCrush has become a go-to destination for fans of classic anime movies and TV series. It's hard to believe that RetroCrush launched on social media just a few years ago and quickly grew into a full-fledged VOD and FAST channel with a passionate fanbase. The channel's continued success is a testament to the strength of being a part of the Cinedigm streaming portfolio for the past year, and we look forward to the next phase of growth."

Driven by its growing popularity and position in the streaming anime space, the company is taking a 360-degree approach to genre, as it has successfully done with others such as horror. It has plans to expand the RetroCrush brand through audio content as part of the Cinedigm Podcast Network, and is actively pursuing editorial, consumer products, home entertainment and strategic theatrical distribution opportunities.

RetroCrush is adding a variety of new content ranging from the Yu-Gi-Ohseries and movies (all of which are classic properties), theUrusei Yatsura movie collection, and for the first time ever, a new remastered version of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water will be available exclusively for streaming this June via the company's partnership with GKIDS.