Following recent deals to release the Viz Media manga catalogue on the Kindle and Comixology in Europe, Viz is now offering more than 1600 volumes of digital manga for sale through Apple’s iBooks store. The titles are available beginning today and generally sell for $6.99.
The 1600 volumes represent volumes from across about 130 different Viz manga series. Until recently Viz has distributed its digital manga via its own Viz Media app for Apple and Android and through Vizmanga.com and Weekly Shonen Jump, a weekly digital anthology that publishes Viz manga titles simultaneously in Japanese and English. But just prior to New York Comic Con, Viz announced a two deals to distribute its digital manga far beyond its own retail platforms. Now the manga publishers has added Apple’s iBookstore to recent deals with Amazon and Comixology via Viz Media Europe and Kaze, Viz’s French language subsidiary.
Indeed during New York Comic Con, Viz Media publishing director Leyla Aker told PW that the Comixology deal is the first for European digital distribution of Viz manga but definitely not the last. Every country in Europe has its own legal and rights issues over digital distribution, Aker said, emphasizing that Viz will roll out digital manga in Europe country by country.
The new digital distribution deal via the iBooksore now “brings some of the genre’s most popular and acclaimed series to legions of new and existing fans across North America,” said Gagan Singh, executive v-p and CTO of Viz Media. “Viz Media remains fully committed to the proliferation of high quality digital manga content, and we look forward to nurturing and continually expanding this robust catalog.”
