17th April 2017: Tons of Indian otakus watched their favourite anime one last time on the Television, not knowing the channel they loved so much will die the next day.

Its been two years and that's more than enough. It is about time we got the channel back.

THE PROBLEM :

According to the Internet, Animax has stopped broadcasting on the DTH (Direct to Home) networks in India because it isn't earning enough revenue through advertisements to pay the carriage fee to the service providers. This is because of low the TRPs (Television Rating Points) of its shows, which results in advertisers not investing in the channel, resulting in lower profits; not enough to pay the carriage fee. This is mainly because the Otaku community of India was foundational that time, thus very small. Added to this was the fact that a lot of people didn't know the channel existed.

REASONS WHY THE PROBLEM CAN BE SOLVED :

Over the years, the Otaku community (mainly anime viewers) has grown exponentially. This can be proved by the efforts to bring Tenki no Ko to the Indian theatres. Vkaao even posted on October 12th that the response to the movie has been "staggering" and they "intend to rope more shows in the coming week." The efforts put in by the Otakus in bringing the movie to the Indian screens goes around showing its strength. It's about time we try and get Animax back to our homes too.

Another good thing is that delivering channels to consumers through coaxial cables have been completely banned by the Indian government. It is now mandatory to have an STB (Set-Top Box) to stream the channels. Everyone now has access to the channel list and the ones interested in the channels can subscribe to them. This will make more and more people avail the channel package and thus increase the TRP.

Again, back in 2015s, not the majority of people had access to phones and Youtube. A majority of the people didn't know what anime was. But this has changed a lot in recent years. With the recent "Digital-tsunami" caused by Reliance Jio, which made internet available for everyone at a significantly cheaper rate, everyone has been streaming and downloading anime from websites without a license, which is basically illegal. But this is the only choice the Otaku community of India has as there are no alternatives available. Everyone is sure to want to watch it legally which will make more people watch the channel. Added to this, people are more "curious" about anime.

SOLUTION :

Considering the aforementioned points, it is clear that streaming Animax in India is sure to be a humongous success. With the number of otakus coming out each day, the TRP is sure to be massive. Animax will start getting advertisements and sponsors and be able to pay the carriage fee. Agreed that Animax will never be as popular as the Indian soap operas but it is sure to be able to sustain itself in India.

CONCLUSION :

"We" let Animax fail in India. There's no other way around it. But it's time we got it back. I hope this petition can reach the target signatures and we will be able to make a CHANGE.