Bandai Channel to Launch in US and Europe in 2010

Nikkei’s ITPro portal is reporting that Bandai Namco’s Bandai Channel subsidiary will be launching its new Flash-based streaming service in the first half of 2010 in the United States, Europe and the rest of Asia outside of Japan.

The first show to be streamed will be the first Mobile Suit Gundam series, with the Japanese portal beginning Flash-based streaming of the series on July 19th along with other series such as Agent Aika, and Mazinger Z among others in its region locked beta portal.

The first iteration of the Bandai Channel was launched in 2006 in Japan and used Windows Media based streaming as the main transport mechanism. Intrepid users in the US were also able to view its programming at the time for no additional charge until subsequent region locking was implemented a few months later.

Bandai Channel in its current form serves as Bandai Namco’s streaming platform for its internally produced programming with a mix of exclusive streams (such as FLAG) and shows currently airing on Japanese television for rent or purchase (such as Code Geass, Gundam OO, etc.).

Over the years, rumors began to circulate regarding a version of the Bandai Channel for the US market, but nothing was ever confirmed until now. US subsidiary Bandai Entertainment currently handles online distribution of Bandai Visual properties such as Code Geass, Kurokami, the aforementioned Gundam OO and many others via third-parties such as YouTube, Crunchyroll and Apple’s iTunes via distribution agreement with Manga Entertainment.