Crunchyroll to stream anime in BMW and Mini cars as FORVIA deal opens the door to 40 more brands

Crunchyroll, the Sony-owned anime streaming service, is putting its catalogue on car dashboards. Under a distribution agreement with Appning by FORVIA announced on 12 August, the service will initially become available on the infotainment screens of selected BMW and Mini vehicles, before expanding across the wider BMW Group and potentially to more than 40 automotive brands that use Appning's application platform.

The deal brings more than 50,000 anime episodes — roughly 25,000 hours of content — to a viewing surface that barely existed as a streaming target five years ago. The rollout will reach drivers in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, India and Australia, making it one of the broadest in-car entertainment launches yet attempted.

At a glance

• Crunchyroll signed a distribution agreement with Appning by FORVIA, announced 12 August 2026
• Service arrives first on selected BMW and Mini models, then across the BMW Group
• More than 40 further brands on Appning's platform could follow, including Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Lotus and SAIC
• The catalogue spans 50,000+ episodes, roughly 25,000 hours of anime
• Video playback is disabled while driving and available only when the car is parked
• Rollout covers North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, India and Australia

How it works behind the screen

Appning by FORVIA operates as an app marketplace for carmakers — a layer that lets manufacturers offer approved apps across very different in-car operating systems. Inside BMW vehicles, Appning runs the underlying marketplace while TiVo handles content recommendations for Crunchyroll subscribers, surfacing shows on the central display much as a smart TV would.

Crunchyroll follows the same safety restrictions already applied to video apps on the platform, such as YouTube: playback is disabled while the vehicle is moving and becomes accessible only once the car is parked. In practice that makes the target audience passengers waiting in the car, drivers at charging stops, and anyone killing time on a school run pickup.

Why carmakers want streaming apps

The push to fill dashboards with entertainment is closely tied to electrification. Charging stops of 20 to 40 minutes create a captive audience in a seat facing a large, high-resolution screen, and manufacturers increasingly see software subscriptions and app ecosystems as recurring revenue rather than a novelty. BMW has been among the most aggressive, adding games and video platforms to its curved-display models.

For FORVIA, one of Europe's largest automotive suppliers, Appning is a bid to become the default app layer across brands — the deal's mooted expansion to Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Lotus and SAIC vehicles would put a single distribution pipeline inside rival marques.

Why anime specifically travels well

Crunchyroll's catalogue has two properties that suit the format: episodes are typically 22 to 24 minutes — close to the length of a fast-charging stop — and the audience skews young and international. The service has grown from a niche fan platform into one of Sony's most strategically important media assets, and distribution deals like this one are aimed at making a subscription feel present everywhere a subscriber's day happens.

The company frames the move as meeting fans in new places rather than chasing new viewers; an existing subscription simply gains another screen at no extra cost.

The UK angle

British BMW and Mini drivers are inside the launch footprint, with Europe named among the first-wave regions. Mini's UK-built models have shipped with the BMW Group's latest infotainment stack since 2024, which is the generation Appning targets. Whether the app appears on a given car will depend on model year and software version rather than badge alone.

What happens next

The first BMW and Mini deployments are due before the end of the year, with the wider BMW Group following and additional brands after that. The more interesting test is behavioural: whether parked-car viewing becomes a real habit or remains a demo feature. If charging-stop streaming sticks, expect every major service to negotiate its way onto the dashboard — and the car to quietly become the next front in the streaming wars.