The Viewster interview

Written by A. H. on 05 Mar 2015

Although we're used to talking about anime-specific streaming services here at UK Anime, one notable expansion of the market in recent times has been the addition of brand-new anime to video on demand services that perhaps aren't immediately obvious as "go-to" destinations for fans, but that have nonetheless been adding some compelling content to their catalogues

Foremost amongst these broader streaming services quickly becoming beloved of anime fans is Viewster, who have won the hearts of UK viewers of late by bringing us a number of simulcasts that otherwise threatened to be unavailable to us on these shores.

To find out more about Viewster, their goals and both current and future plans, we caught up with the service's marketing specialist Casper Meljholm - read on to learn more about Viewster's place in the UK anime market.

UK Anime: First of all, many thanks for taking some time to answer our questions!

Viewster: Thanks for having us!

UK Anime: For anyone who might not be aware, can you just briefly explain what Viewster is?

Viewster: Sure. We’re a free online video service available in more than 120 countries with a rapidly growing selection of anime series and simulcasts. We also have loads of other stuff available, like Sci-Fi, Horror, Indies, weird documentaries and so on.

If you’re into watching on the go, we have free apps available for Android and iOS. If TV is more your thing, our app also comes pre-installed on smart TVs from all major manufacturers.

Besides optimizing the streaming experience, we focus on connecting like-minded fans from across the world, and artists with their followers, so we increasingly spend more time and budget on projects relating to that, whether that’s through social media, interviews, conventions, blogging or community features in our products. We also host the world’s largest online film festival with a goal of giving more power to the viewers when it comes to putting entertainment in the spotlight, and bread on the table for creators.

We’re a team of around 60 people scattered across the globe from Berlin to Tokyo to Kiev to Los Angeles.

UK Anime: How did the site and service first come into existence?

Viewster: The company was founded back in 2008, where the service provided a general selection of entertainment, some free and some on a subscription basis.

UK Anime: Although Viewster isn't specifically an anime streaming service it's increasingly becoming known for its anime content - what led you down the path of pursuing anime to add to the service so aggressively?

Viewster: It’s a good question and we’re happy you guys notice the recent... err... anime infiltration. :) We have a big passion for community culture, anime and niche fandom in general, so we decided to finally embark on a journey to create the most awesome platform for these three things. Shape-shifting an entire service is not easy (I’m sure you noticed a few glitches), but we decided to go for it.

We found out that anime viewers can basically help us help them in a variety of ways, compared to the less passionate viewers of other genres (basically, we found that almost no other genre has an audience as passionate as anime). With
the amount of content consumed by anime viewers, as well as the overwhelming amount of engagement and feedback, we are able to make our catalogue and service much better, much more quickly. At the moment we continue getting passionate anime fans on-board for a variety of exciting projects, which I hope we can show you soon. If you read this and have any interesting ideas or ways you think you can contribute, please hit us up.

Also, we like a good discussion. Whether that’s about characters, scenes, rumours, plots, whatever – we always had the most fun talking about anime. With a more dedicated anime focus, it means that we can start spending more budget and time on fostering this community, going to conventions, meeting you and create activities that connect fans. And we’re happy to. It’s not a secret that we also need to earn money somehow, but when our anime viewership is growing this rapidly, it’s a no-brainer for us to throw more eggs in that basket.

UK Anime: Were there any particular difficulties in convincing content creators to allow their shows to be streamed on the service, compared to services that are specifically targeted at anime fans that they might be used to?

Viewster: Not really, no. Of course we’re still very new in the space compared to other players, but I wouldn’t say we experienced difficulties in licensing. Some licensors are actually particularly interested in licensing to us because we serve a wider audience while still being an independent company, without ties to big studios. We probably had to spend more time negotiating than other services, but we found licensors to be very open to also expose their work to viewers outside of the anime-sphere.

UK Anime: We've noticed that the schedule for new episodes of anime simulcasts going online can be erratic - what are the problems you have when it comes to creating and maintaining a schedule for simulcasts? Is there anything that can be done to improve this?

Viewster: Basically our publishing process needed tons of work to be compatible with streaming simulcasts compared to simply uploading movies and series in bulk (surprise!), and our team is working on improving this process every day. I won’t bore you with the technical details of this, but we’ve expanded our tech team and also acquired new systems that will allow us to become much better, very soon.