VRV (officially pronounced "verve", though it is also referred to by its letters) is an

over-the-top An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...

streaming service launched in November 2016. Owned by

Crunchyroll, LLC Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American Entertainment#Industry, entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's A ...

, run by

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

through a joint venture between

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

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 Group Corporation and is opera ...

Aniplex is a Japanese anime, music production and anime licensee company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Established in September 1995, Aniplex has been involved in the production and distribution of several anime series, such as both ''Fullm ...

, the service bundles together anime, speculative fiction and gaming related channels and the service targets these large

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...

s. Some of VRV's content can be streamed for free, while other content requires a subscription. The subscriptions to its channels can be purchased individually, or in a premium bundle. VRV is available only in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, despite some of its partnered content being available for viewing worldwide outside the platform.

History

Ellation, owners of

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

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

Rooster Teeth Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American digital media company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Warner ...

Seeso Seeso was an over-the-top subscription streaming service owned by Comcast through NBCUniversal, launched on January 7, 2016, and closed on November 8, 2017. It provided comedy content such as original and broadcast television shows. History O ...

Nerdist Nerdist Industries, LLC 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 network of podcasts, a premium conte ...

, Geek & Sundry, and

Frederator Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio which is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc. It was founded by Fred Seibert in 1997 with its first series launching in 1998. (Seibert resigned from Frederator in Augus ...

's Cartoon Hangover. On September 29, 2016,

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

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

Tested ''Tested'' is a live album by punk rock band Bad Religion. It was recorded in the USA, Canada, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Italy and Austria, in 1996, and released in 1997. It is Bad Religion's second live album. Instead of using crowd microphon ...

RiffTrax RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''M ...

CollegeHumor CollegeHumor is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles. Aside from producing content for release on YouTube, it was also a former humor website owned by InterActiveCorp ( IAC) until January 2020, when IAC withdrew funding and the websi ...

Machinima.com Machinima, Inc. was an American multiplatform online entertainment network owned by WarnerMedia. The company was founded in January 2000 by Hugh Hancock and was headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It originated as a hub for its namesake, m ...

Ginx TV Ginx TV, officially GINX Esports TV (stylised as GiПX ESPORTSTV), is a United Kingdom-based media group specialised in esports. Founded in 2007, it develops and operates media businesses dedicated to gaming and esports for its international ...

Shudder Shudder may refer to: *Shivering * ''Shudder'' (album), a 2008 album by American band Bayside *Shudder (streaming service) Shudder is an American over-the-top subscription video on demand service featuring horror, thriller and supernatural fic ...

, and

Mondo Media Mondo Media is an American multimedia company that mainly produces online animation. The company was founded in 1988 by John Evershed and Deirdre O'Malley in San Francisco, California. Before ''Mondo Mini Shows'', the company initially crea ...

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 an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

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 ''HarmonQuest'' is an American adult animated web series created by Dan Harmon and Spencer Crittenden. The show is part animated, part live action. Harmon and comedians Erin McGathy and Jeff Davis, along with game master Crittenden, play a fant ...

'', '' Hidden America with Jonah Ray'', and ''

My Brother, My Brother and Me ''My Brother, My Brother and Me'' (often abbreviated as ''MBMBaM'', pronounced ) is a weekly comedy advice podcast distributed by the Maximum Fun network and hosted by brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy. Regular episodes of the p ...

'' would migrate to VRV Select. On November 21, 2017,

CuriosityStream Curiosity Stream also know as (Curiosity Channel) is an American media company and subscription video streaming service that offers documentary programming including films, series, and TV shows. It was launched in 2015 by the founder of the Dis ...

and

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

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 i ...

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 programming block that broadcast nightly over the channel space of TeenNick. The block showed reruns of mid-late 1980s, 1990s, and early-mid 2000 ...

, named after the

TeenNick TeenNick is an American Pay television, pay-TV channel that is operated by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Aimed primarily at teens and tweens, its programming includes a variety of live-action series inherited from si ...

programming block, featuring classic

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

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

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

's content, such as ''

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

'' 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 Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is Sen ...

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 aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...

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

Final Space ''Final Space'' is an adult animated space opera comedy drama television series created by Olan Rogers and developed by Rogers and David Sacks. The series involves an astronaut named Gary Goodspeed and his immensely powerful alien friend Moonca ...

'' was made available to watch on VRV Select On November 8, 2018,

Otter Media Otter Media Holdings, LLC was an American digital media company owned by WarnerMedia. The company was founded in 2014 by AT&T and The Chernin Group as a holding company of the anime streaming service, Crunchyroll who the latter invested in 2013 ...

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 October 27, 2014 on Adult Swim. The series features Mike Tyson solving myster ...

'' 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 ...

'' as upcoming programs for VRV that were going to be added in 2018. However, both series never actually came to the service. ''Mike Tyson Mysteries'' was eventually added to

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

in 2020 and

Tubi Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...

in 2022, while ''Jabberjaw'' has yet to appear on a streaming service. On August 9, 2021, Crunchyroll was acquired by

-owned

, making Sony the new owner of VRV. On September 8, 2021, HIDIVE announced that it would be leaving VRV on September 30, 2021. On November 18, 2021, it was announced via email to subscribers that Rooster Teeth would be leaving VRV on December 13, 2021. Cartoon Hangover was also removed at the same time. As of February 2022, the only remaining channels are Crunchyroll, Mondo, and VRV Select. On March 1, 2022, it was announced that VRV would be merged into Crunchyroll itself, alongside

and

Wakanim Wakanim SAS was a French subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by U.S.-based Funimation, a joint venture of Sony Corporation of America's two subsidiaries: Sony Pictures Television and Sony Music Entertainment Japa ...

Channels

Current

—

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

and simulcasts *

—Adult animation * VRV Select—A curated selection of movies and shows for premium subscribers

Former

–Cartoons from

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

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

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

from

Frederator Studios Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio which is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc. It was founded by Fred Seibert in 1997 with its first series launching in 1998. (Seibert resigned from Frederator in Augu ...

(left December 13, 2021) *

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

—

Korean drama Korean dramas (; RR: ''Han-guk deurama''), more popularly known as K-dramas, are television series in the Korean language, made in South Korea. They are popular worldwide, especially in Asia, partially due to the spread of Korean popular cultu ...

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

—Japanese anime dubbed into English (left November 9, 2018) * Geek & Sundry—Geek culture and lifestyle programming (left April 1, 2019) *

—

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, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

-related content *

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

Machinima Machinima, originally machinema () is the use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation. The word "machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''ma ...

—gaming-related content (some content is still available via VRV Select, the rest will be available through Rooster Teeth soon) *

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

—Fandom-related news, podcasts, and comedy programming (left April 1, 2019) *

NickRewind NickRewind (formerly The '90s Are All That, The Splat, and NickSplat) was an American late night programming block that broadcast nightly over the channel space of TeenNick. The block showed reruns of mid-late 1980s, 1990s, and early-mid 2000 ...

—Television series from Nickelodeon that aired in the 1990s and early 2000s (left August 29, 2020) *

— MST3K-style movie commentaries (some content is still available via VRV Select) *

—Web animation and gaming-related content (left December 13, 2021) *

—original and licensed comedy programming (shut down on November 8, 2017, some original programming were migrated to VRV Select) *

—

Horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

s (left August 1, 2019) *

(left May 3, 2018, some content is still available via VRV Select)

Original programming

Series

Continuations

Availability

VRV can be accessed through its website, as well as apps for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

(on iPhone and

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

), Android,

Android TV Android TV is a smart TV operating system based on Android (operating system), Android and developed by Google for television sets, digital media players, set-top boxes, and soundbars. A successor to Google TV (operating system), Google TV, it fe ...

tvOS tvOS (formerly known as Apple TV Software) is an operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. Starting with the second-generation ...

Apple TV An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

(on 4th generation and 4K),

Chromecast Chromecast is a line of digital media players developed by Google. The devices, designed as small dongles, can play Internet-streamed audio-visual content on a high-definition television or home audio system. The user can control playback with ...

Fire TV Amazon Fire TV (stylized as amazon fireTV) is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed via the Internet to a connected ...

Fire HD The Fire HD, also known as Kindle Fire HD, is a member of the Amazon Fire family of tablet computers. Fire HD refers to Amazon Fire family tablets with HD resolution. The ten generation Fire HD subfamily consists of: 7" and 8.9" (2012 models), 7" ...

, newer

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...

streaming devices,

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...