If I were rich...

If I were that, one of the things I'd do is set up an anime distribution company.

Yeah, those companies are a dime-a-dozen. The difference about this one, is that it'll focus on anime-fans, not on business. It'll essencially be a non-profit organization. =)

For subbing, it'll be outsourced to fansub groups. They'll be paid a certain amount per episodes done and be given screen credit (of course, since they're the ones doing the encoding and stuff =P). To be selected, the raw of the first episode would be up for open subbing and the best sub would net the subbing group a contract for the series (maybe block of episodes if the series is real long). It'll be like bidding, only with the quality of their work rather than how much they'll be charging for their services. That way, the best quility would be selected, not the lowest bidder. ;P

Distribution would be tricky. How to make it legal yet not make the fans pau through their noses for their anime?

1. Bittorrent is an excellent way of distribution, the problems are, billing and fans with no/little access to the internet.
   
2. Direct downloads is another way, but their maintaince is gonna hurt. The upside is that billing is easier to handle and more internet users can download easily. The downside, is upkeep and fans with little/no access to the internet.
   
3. Physical products are the third method. Actual VCD/DVD sales reaches the non-net connected group. This opens another can of problems (and expences); taxes, transportation, distributors, overhead.
   

Okay, so it's not going to be easy...

Price. Yeah, here's the _major_ element, and partly the main impetus of this rant. Since the business is gonna be fan-focus and not money-minded, the price should be low. Very low. Low enough that pirates would look at the price and throw up their hands in disgust. With that in mind, the anime producers should get a big percentage of the 'profits', say like 80% (I'm just grabbing a figure outta thin air, I haven't the foggiest of the costs involved ^ ^). The fansubbers get a fixed amount, and a bonus of _everything_ that goes over the profit line.

Okay, so this isn't very well thought out. ^ ^ It is something I would like to have happen if I were rich. ^_^

Well, that's it for this rant. I'll try to think about this a bit more. Feel free to comment and toss in suggestions. ^ ^

Edit: Here's a much more detailed and thought-out version. I didn't know it existed until the author told me. ^ ^ http://pixelscribbles.com/journal/2005/02/what-do-japanese-companies-think-of.html