Funimation Channel was founded on May 9,1994, as Funimation Productions by Gen Fukunaga and his wife Cindy Brennan in Silicon Valley, with funding by Daniel Cocanougher and his family, who became investors in the company, which then relocated to North Richland Hills, later to Flower Mound, Texas, and after that in Coppell, Texas.
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Funimation Channel is one of the leading distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties in North America.
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Funimation Channel was originally based in Silicon Valley, but eventually relocated to North Richland Hills, Texas.
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Funimation Channel moved into the Lakeside Business District with a ten-year lease.
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In July 2008, Funimation Channel confirmed that they had acquired distribution rights to several Geneon titles, including some that Geneon had left unfinished when they withdrew from the US market.
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At Anime Expo 2008, Funimation Channel announced that it had acquired over 30 titles from the Sojitz catalog that had previously been licensed by ADV Films.
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In 2009, Funimation Channel signed a deal with Toei Animation to stream several of its anime titles online through the Funimation Channel website.
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On October 14,2011, Funimation Channel announced a partnership with Niconico, the English language version of Nico Nico Douga, to form the Funico brand for the licensing of anime for streaming and home video release.
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In 2014, Funimation Channel released Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods to theaters in partnership with Screenvision.
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On July 12,2018, it was announced that Funimation Channel Films had picked up licensing rights for Dragon Ball Super: Broly in North America and that its English dub would premiere in theaters sometime in January 2019 in the United States and Canada, only around a month after its national premiere in Japan.
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Additionally, it was announced that Funimation Channel would be removed from Otter Media-owned streaming service VRV entirely, being replaced by HIDIVE.
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On December 4,2018, Funimation Channel inked an exclusive multi-year first-look SVOD deal with Hulu.
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On March 23,2019, at AnimeJapan 2019, Funimation Channel announced that they had partnered with Chinese streaming service Bilibili to jointly license anime titles for both the US and Chinese markets.
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On May 29,2019, Funimation Channel announced that they had acquired Manga Entertainment's UK branch, and immediately consolidated the former's UK business into the latter's.
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In December 2019, Funimation Channel launched a "Decade of Anime" poll in which fans voted for their favorite anime across multiple categories.
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On May 1,2020, Funimation Channel announced that they formed a partnership with Kodansha Comics to host a series of weekly watch parties.
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Funimation Channel later revealed that they would launch their Latin American services in December 2020.
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Funimation Channel titles being included in the partnership was hinted at, but not confirmed.
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Funimation Channel stated that they would release an English-dubbed first episode of an anime series every Saturday at 3:00pm ET on the channel, starting with Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World on April 9,2022.
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The only Enoki USA titles Funimation licensed for Funimation Channel were Revolutionary Girl Utena and His and Her Circumstances.
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On September 19,2006, Funimation created an official channel on YouTube where they upload advertisements for box sets, as well as clips and preview episodes of their licensed series.
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In February 2012, Crackle began streaming select titles from Funimation Channel, joining titles previously acquired from Funimation Channel for their localized Animax hub.
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On March 18,2020, Funimation Channel announced that production of SimulDubs would be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; Subtitled simulcasts would continue as scheduled.
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Until 2016, Funimation Channel did not directly release its properties in non-North American markets, and instead sub-licensed its properties to other companies such as Revelation Films, MVM Entertainment, the UK branch of Manga Entertainment, and Anime Limited in the United Kingdom until 2016, and Madman Entertainment and Siren Visual in Australia and New Zealand until 2017.
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Funimation Channel has attempted to distribute Dragon Ball Z to Spanish speaking audiences, and has released a number of Spanish-language DVDs of the series.
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Funimation Channel later distributed My Hero Academia in the region through Universal Pictures UK in 2017, and later through Sony Pictures UK, along with other select titles, in 2018.
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Funimation Channel later began sub-licensing titles to Manga Entertainment's UK branch in late 2018, before acquiring the company on May 29,2019, and releasing titles directly.
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Funimation Channel began directly distributing its titles in Australia and New Zealand in 2017.
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From September 2018, Funimation Channel transferred distribution to Madman Anime, with the company handling distribution and classification within the region.
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In January 2011, Funimation Channel filed a lawsuit against BitTorrent users in the US for allegedly downloading and uploading One Piece.
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Two months after failing to sue BitTorrent users in the North Texas district, Funimation Channel engaged in forum shopping and proceeded to sue 1,427 defendants in the neighboring East Texas district for acting "in concert" to infringe copyright on The Legend Is Born: Ip Man.
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In November 2011, Funimation Channel sued AD Vision, AEsir Holdings, Section23 Films, Valkyrie Media Partners, Seraphim Studios, Sentai Filmworks and its CEO, John Ledford and Switchblade Pictures for a sum of $8 million, citing "breach of contracts" and other issues.
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Funimation Channel conducted an internal investigation of the matter and announced on February 11,2019, that they had ended their relations with Mignogna.
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On July 1,2019, Funimation Channel filed an anti-SLAPP motion for Mignogna to dismiss his lawsuit.
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On October 30,2019, Rial, Toye, Marchi, and Funimation Channel filed a motion to have Mignogna's appeal dismissed, which was denied.
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On November 5,2019, Funimation Channel filed a motion to recover attorney's fees, costs, and sanctions related to the lawsuit.
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On January 13,2021, Jenisa Angeles filed a class-action lawsuit against Funimation Channel, claiming that their online store failed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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