VRV (officially pronounced "verve", though it is also referred to by its letters) was an American over-the-top

streaming service Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

launched in November 2016 by

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

and

the Chernin Group TCG Capital Management, LP, doing business as TCG or the Chernin Group, is an American investment advisory firm focused on private equity investments in the media, entertainment, technology, sports and consumer and digital media sectors. History ...

. Owned by

Crunchyroll, LLC Crunchyroll, LLC is an American Entertainment#Industry, entertainment company based in Coppell, Texas. It currently operates the anime-focused Crunchyroll, eponymous over-the-top media service, over-the-top video on demand#Subscription models, ...

, run by

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

through a joint venture between

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...

and

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

Aniplex Aniplex, Inc. (株式会社アニプレックス, ''Kabushiki-gaisha Anipurekkusu'') is a Japanese entertainment company and a subsidiary of Sony, Sony Group Corporation, founded in September 1995 by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The company fo ...

, the service bundled together anime, speculative fiction, educational, and gaming-related channels aimed at fans of such content. Some of VRV's content could be streamed for free, while other content required a subscription. The subscriptions to its channels were available for purchase individually, or in a premium bundle. VRV was available only in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, despite some of its partnered content being available for viewing worldwide outside the platform. In April 2023, it was announced VRV would merge with

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

, which was completed later that month.

History

Ellation, owners of

, formally announced the launch of VRV on June 14, 2016. Its initial partners included

Rooster Teeth Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC was an American entertainment company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth was a subsidiary o ...

, Seeso,

Nerdist Nerdist Industries, LLC (also simply known as Nerdist) is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast ( The Nerdist Podcast) created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a net ...

Geek & Sundry Geek & Sundry, Inc. is a commercial YouTube and Twitch (service), Twitch channel and multimedia production company. It was launched on April 2, 2012, by actress Felicia Day with Kim Evey and Sheri Bryant as part of YouTube's YouTube Original Chan ...

, and Frederator's Cartoon Hangover. On September 29, 2016,

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

Adam Savage Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967) is an American special effects designer and manufacturer, fabricator, actor, educator, television personality, and producer, best known as the former co-host, with Jamie Hyneman, of the Discovery Channe ...

's Tested, RiffTrax,

CollegeHumor Dropout, incorporated as CH Media and formerly known as CollegeHumor, is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles that produces content for release on its streaming service Dropout (streaming platform), Dropout as well as YouTube. Dropou ...

Machinima Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, ma ...

, Ginx TV, Shudder, and Mondo Media were announced as new partners. VRV would officially launch on November 14, 2016. On August 9, 2017, the VRV Select channel was launched, featuring content from other sources. It was also announced that Machinima, Ginx, and Rifftrax were being dropped from the service. On the same day as VRV Select's announcement, Seeso announced via its

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page that it would be shutting down by the end of 2017. Though RiffTrax, Machinima and Seeso's channels were dropped, some of their content, including Seeso's '' The Cyanide & Happiness Show'', '' HarmonQuest'', '' Hidden America with Jonah Ray'', and '' My Brother, My Brother and Me'' would migrate to VRV Select. On November 21, 2017, CuriosityStream and

Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

joined VRV. On December 12, 2017,

DramaFever DramaFever was a video streaming website owned by Warner Bros. that offered on-demand streaming video of documentaries, movies, and TV shows with subtitles. DramaFever's content offering was both ad-supported for regular users and available in ...

joined VRV. On May 3, 2018, it was announced that Tested was being dropped, with its content moving to VRV Select. On August 28, 2018, VRV launched

NickSplat NickRewind (formerly The '90s Are All That, The Splat, and NickSplat) was an American late night Block programming, programming block that aired nightly over the channel space of TeenNick. The block showed reruns of mid-late 1980s, 1990s, and ...

, named after the TeenNick programming block, featuring classic

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

series from the 1990s and early 2000s. On October 12, 2018,

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

's content, such as ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then ...

'' and ''

ReBoot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

'', were made available to watch on VRV Select. On October 18, 2018, Funimation announced that they would be leaving VRV, as their partnership with Crunchyroll ended, and all of their titles would disappear on November 9, 2018. On that same day, VRV announced that

Hidive Hidive (stylized in all caps) is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service was launched in June 2017 after the dissolution of The Anime Network's online service, which survived after the liquidation ...

would be joining the service to replace Funimation. On November 1, 2018, Hidive was launched on VRV and it was announced that

Boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...

would be joining the service on November 13, 2018. On November 7, 2018, season 1 of TBS's ''

Final Space ''Final Space'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated space opera comedy drama television series created by Olan Rogers and developed by Rogers and David Sacks (writer), David Sacks. The series involves an astronaut named Gary Goodspeed ...

'' was made available to watch on VRV Select. On the same day,

Otter Media Otter Media Holdings, LLC was an American digital media company owned by AT&T. The company was founded in April 2014 by AT&T and The Chernin Group as a holding company of the anime streaming service Crunchyroll, in which the latter invested in ...

announced ''

Mike Tyson Mysteries ''Mike Tyson Mysteries'' is an American adult animated television series, and is the first collaboration between Warner Bros. Animation and Williams Street. It premiered on October 27, 2014 on Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult S ...

'' and ''

Jabberjaw ''Jabberjaw'' is an American animated television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired 16 original episodes on ABC from September 11 to December 18, 1976. Reruns continued on ABC until September 3, ...

'' were also going to be added to VRV in 2018. On August 9, 2021, Crunchyroll was acquired by

-owned Funimation, making Sony the new owner of VRV. On September 8, 2021, Hidive announced that it would be leaving VRV on September 30, 2021. On December 13, 2021, Rooster Teeth left VRV. Cartoon Hangover was also removed at the same time. On March 1, 2022, it was announced that VRV would be merged into Crunchyroll itself, alongside Funimation and

Wakanim Wakanim was a French subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service specialized in online streaming and simulcasting of Japanese anime series. It was also the first platform to offer videos for download without digita ...

. VRV ceased operations on April 29, 2023.

Channels

–Cartoons from

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

(left December 1, 2020) * Cartoon Hangover—Web-original

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

from

Frederator Studios Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio founded by Fred Seibert in January 1997. It is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc., itself a part of Kartoon Studios' Canadian holding company Wow Unlimited Media. T ...

(left December 13, 2021) *

—

Anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

and simulcasts (left April 29, 2023) * CuriosityStream—Non-fiction documentaries relating to science, technology, nature, and world history (left November 19, 2019) *

—

Korean drama Korean drama (), also known as K-drama or Koreanovela, refers to Korean language, Korean-language television shows made in South Korea. These shows began to be produced around the early 1960s, but were mostly consumed domestically until the rise ...

s (shut down on October 16, 2018, subsequently left VRV days after) *

—Japanese anime dubbed into English (left November 9, 2018) *

—Geek culture and lifestyle programming (left April 1, 2019) * Ginx TV—

Esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

-related content *

—Dubbed and subtitled anime (left September 30, 2021) *

—gaming-related content (some content was still available via VRV Select) * Mondo Media—Adult animation (left May 8, 2023) *

—Curates classic and arthouse films (left October 2018) *

—Fandom-related news, podcasts, and comedy programming (left April 1, 2019) * NickRewind—Television series from Nickelodeon that aired in the 1990s and early 2000s (left August 29, 2020) * RiffTrax— MST3K-style movie commentaries (some content was still available via VRV Select) *

—Web animation and gaming-related content (left December 13, 2021) * Seeso—original and licensed comedy programming (shut down on November 8, 2017, some original programming were migrated to VRV Select) * Shudder—

Horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

s (left August 1, 2019) * Tested (left May 3, 2018, some content was still available via VRV Select) * VRV Select—A curated selection of movies and shows for premium subscribers (left April 29, 2023)

Original programming

Series

Continuations

Notes

References

External links

Official website
(archive) {{VOD services 2018 mergers and acquisitions 2021 mergers and acquisitions Advertising video on demand American companies disestablished in 2023 American companies established in 2016 Android (operating system) software Companies based in San Francisco Crunchyroll Defunct subscription services Defunct video on demand services Former AT&T subsidiaries Former Sony subsidiaries Internet properties disestablished in 2023 Internet properties established in 2016 Internet television streaming services IOS software Mass media companies disestablished in 2023 Mass media companies established in 2016 PlayStation 4 software Streaming television in the United States Subscription video on demand services Video game culture Xbox One software Xbox Series X and Series S software