Several posts have been surfacing on social media (both Twitter and Bluesky) from those who work at libraries stating that Crunchyroll has ended their library outreach program. Some have even gone on to say that they hold regular anime and manga events, and they are in danger of being canceled.
The Crunchyroll Library Outreach Program provided affordable access to their anime catalog. As of the time of this writing, there has been no official word from Crunchyroll on an official end-of-service date; however, a company representative did confirm that the program was either being ended or being re-evaluated in the following message:
“This change comes as our community outreach efforts evolve and we are identifying alternate strategic ways to better deliver broad access to the Crunchyroll service to anime fans everywhere. We deeply value the role libraries play in expanding access to content to anime communities and are actively exploring alternative ways to support community initiatives that adhere to local guidelines and align with our platform’s commitments and resources.”
In addition, internet searches that led to a page on Crunchyroll’s site that detailed their outreach program have been wiped, and searching for it no longer returns any results.. The only solution offered was for the user to subscribe to their streaming service, which comes as no surprise, as Crunchyroll has been on a mission as of late to paywall their previously free features.
Source: CBR
