Kitty Media Opens Premium Streaming Portal

[media-credit name=”Kitty Media” align=”aligncenter” width=”615″][/media-credit]Lost in the news of Media Blasters laying off staff and its subsequent announcement of the forthcoming April release of Fushigi Yugi as a license rescue this past week, the beleaguered publisher and distributor has announced that it has added a streaming portal to its website to stream its Kitty Media library of adult animation titles.

The portal requires age-restricted registration and functions much like a conventional streaming portal with two membership levels, a free trial membership where select titles feature trailers to view, with paid memberships unlocking all content. Memberships are priced at $19.99 for the first month and are recurring at a reduced rate of $8.99 per month, making it $1 more expensive than an equivalent monthly subscription to Funimation’s Elite premium subscription and Crunchyroll.

The paid membership also includes discounts on DVDs as the Kitty Media online store is integrated with the streaming portal and will also include other specials yet to be announced. Kitty Media previously announced an agreement with adult manga aggregator FAKKU! last year in which the distributor would allow the portal to stream select titles on the site’s video portal for the site’s members.

The Kitty Media streaming portal is also an attempt to combat the hundreds of adult VOD sites which host hentai anime illegally, with many directly hosting titles licensed by Kitty Media without permission and generating thousands of dollars in revenue per month without paying for content.

The issue of illegal streams is even greater for Kitty Media as there are many streaming portals dedicated to hosting its entire library of titles without permission. The idea of a legal portal for streaming hentai anime a la Crunchyroll is long overdue and this is only the first step toward that goal.