Crunchyroll Gets Anime Streaming Rival This Week With Over 500 Hours of the Greatest Anime for Free
HIDIVE — AMC Networks’ anime-focused streaming service — is launching a new “content sampling initiative” to draw in new viewers. From Oct. 22–Oct. 26, non-subscribers will have complete access to the site’s entire anime catalog for free.
As detailed in a recent press release, Xfinity customers will be given “complimentary access” to AMC Networks’ HIDIVE service as part of Comcast’s “Free this week” program. This initiative is timed to coincide with HIDIVE’s multiplatform launch, which has made the site available via X1, Xumo Stream Box, Xumo TV and the Xfinity Flex. Launched in 2017, HIDIVE is a premium service featuring over 500+ hours worth of both subbed and English-dubbed content, including popular exclusives such as I Parry Everything, Jellyfish Can’t Sing in the Night, From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated, Rock Is a Lady’s Modesty, Loner Life in Another World, Sword of the Demon Hunter and more.
HIDIVE Anime Is Free to Stream All Week for Comcast ‘Free This Week’ Program
As one of only a handful of legal U.S.-based streaming services dedicated almost exclusively to anime, HIDIVE’s most significant competitor is Crunchyroll, which currently stands as America’s fourth-most-watched streaming service for anime fans (as of January 2024). Having acknowledged the appeal of anime among mainstream audiences, Comcast and its affiliates have collectively committed to “continued investment in the anime genre” and to utilizing “strategic distribution tactics” to further broaden HIDIVE’s viewership. “Anime is incredibly popular, and HIDIVE’s ability to consistently deliver the best of the genre has made it one of our fastest growing streaming services,” says Amy Leasca, Vice President of Partner Management & Strategy at AMC Networks.
In addition to the aforementioned exclusives, HIDIVE also carries the license for several well-known fantasy and isekai titles, including DanMachi (or Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?), Made in Abyss, Reincarnated as a Sword, Ragna Crimson and I’m Quitting Heroing, among others. For romantic-comedy fans, HIDIVE also offers works such as Teasing Master Takagi-san, The Dreaming Boy Is a Realist and When Will Ayumu Make His Move? Among works that fall into the dark fantasy and supernatural/occult categories, HIDIVE’s main highlights include Call of the Night, The Eminence in Shadow, The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess, Dark Gathering and The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy.
For those with limited knowledge of anime, HIDIVE is a relatively cost-efficient introduction to the medium. Subscription plans cost roughly $6.99 a month, or $69.99 per year — slightly lower than Crunchyroll’s standard “fan” tier subscription price of $7.99 per month. The latter provides anime fans with ad-free streaming on a single device, while the costlier “Mega Fan” and “Ultimate Fan” tiers offer additional perks such as options for offline viewing and access to Crunchyroll’s 50+ title “Game Vault,” granting users access to various RPGs, visual novels and more. Comcast’s “Free This Week” event will run until Oct. 26, 2025.
