Sony is in final talks with US anime streaming service Crunchyroll for an estimated $1 billion acquisition, as per Nikkei Asia.
Sony has been interested in the streamer, which has 3 million paid subscribers, for a while now and the negotiations have reached the final stage.
Crunchyroll is currently owned by US telecommunication giant AT&T, which also owns WarnerMedia. It is looking to reduce its debt load, currently over $150 billion, with the sale.
With the acquisition, Crunchyroll could find itself competing with global streaming giants such as Netflix and Hulu.
Sony already owns US anime distributor Funimation, but has struggled to expand its user base of 1 million paid subscribers.
Taking over Crunchyroll would also give Sony over 1000 anime titles for expanding its own content library.
With lockdowns around the world drastically increasing the user base for streaming content, the streaming war is more intense than ever before.
Netflix has already singled out anime as its answer to Disney pulling out animated content from its library after launching a streaming platform of its own: Disney+.
The streaming giant has signed deals with Japanese studios to create extensive original anime content.
With another anime streaming catalogue under it, Sony will look to expand its anime slate all over the world.
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