FUNimation, after a solid amount of complaints about their streaming service for years, announced that they will be re-branding their current streaming service into FUNimation Now in February. It’s exactly the move that needed to be done, so we’ll have to see if any of the criticisms — from how it looks to it actually playing for most people — are actually solved when it arrives in February.

For now though, they still have their existing service, which doesn’t stream to the UK. This was something left off a number of mainstream media outlets’ coverage for unknown reasons. You even get a situation where the text muddies what’s going on, with Polygon’s first and fifth paragraph contradicting each other:

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And that leads to one confused commenter:

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As you can see in the picture, in the tag it lists PR Newswire, so it’s clear they got the information from them. Here is what the PR release states:

 

 

So, intentionally misleading or just lack of research? The PR presumably sent by FUNimation makes no mention of them streaming in the UK, nor does it clarify that this is an update of their current streaming service. Since anime isn’t a realm most media outlets normally cover, you can understand why confusing PR messages may cause other outlets to misinterpret the announcement, and they may not want to spend the time to check certain things out.

Still, since it doesn’t really inform an audience, the PR statement itself only hides information and brings confusion. Two things that are true that the sites linked in this post doesn’t mention:

  1. They’re not entering the streaming market, they’ve already been in it. They’re just upgrading their service with a new name and partnership.
  2. They’re expanding to the UK. This was a goal mentioned by them last year, and they’re trying to fulfill that goal.

It’s nothing complex.