Sprint, Anime Network team to draw mobile viewers

Sprint announced a deal with cable television channel Anime Network to provide animated mobile video programming to Sprint Power Vision subscribers. For an additional $4.95 per month, users can now tune to Sprint TV channel 66 to view clips from five Anime Network series: the action programs "Mezzo", "Kino's Journey" and "Megaman", the sci-fi opus "Divergence Eve and the comedy "Wandaba Style."

Launched in late 2002 as a free video-on-demand service available through Comcast, Anime Network is now the top-rated VOD service in the U.S., reaching 40 million households via 22 different providers. Anime Network also operates as a 24-hour linear channel available through 17 different providers.

It's difficult to overstate the current popularity of Japanese anime and manga (traditional print comics) on U.S. shores right now. Cartoon Network's late-night "Adult Swim" programming block, which according to Nielsen ranks number one among all ad-supported basic cable networks in the coveted 18-to-34 demographic, includes such anime hits as "Ghost in the Shell", "Fullmetal Alchemist" and "InuYasha". Publishers Weekly reports that seven of October's best-selling comics titles in traditional bookstores and specialty shops are translated manga reprint collections, led by volume 11 of the insanely popular title Naruto. In fact, while the future for mobile anime content is enormously promising, manga may prove even more lucrative: a must-read Newsweek article published Oct. 30 explores Japan's exploding mobile manga market, where wireless comics account for $19.6 million in annual revenues, more than half of the nation's $38.5 million annual digital publishing haul.

For more on the Sprint/Anime Network deal:
- read this release

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