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Anime is definitely well known nowadays, but I wouldn't call it mainstream. Just look at the decline in Adult Swim over the past couple years as evidence. The anime has always had lower ratings than their other shows, as terrible as we may think they are. They keep pushing back the anime later and later to the point that I really don't think they're going to push very hard to get good licenses anymore.
Granted, it could be the fact that they push their home-grown stoner shows, so the audience that watches Adult Swim has migrated away from anime.
CR has shown that there IS potential in same-day English streams, but at the same time you have fragmentation issues to worry about. CR only has a licensing agreement with a handful of parties. Then if Joost has some of it, and Funimation streams some, etc etc. It becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of where everything actually is that you can watch. Especially when none of it is really advertised at all.
The same issues are true of anime on TV now -- The Funimation Channel and Anime Network are only available in select regions. Then there are a number of smaller networks and premium extra channels that also have 1-2 titles. It gets to be a real mess. TBH though -- there are always going to be cheap bastards, that there will be a "market" for ripping streams like Naruto.
I've considered getting a CR subscription to just support the business model and say "hey guys, this really is a step in the right direction, keep going!" to the Japanese companies. But currently the selection is very small, the CR player is buggy for me, and I don't like the fact that CR was profitting off of fansubs for years now suddenly go "legit" and we're all supposed to throw in behind him. I'm also worried about Gonzo or TV Tokyo pulling out, and then I'm left with a subscription I paid and no content I want to watch.
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