The basic vibe I get from Republic City is that it's Hong Kong meets New York.
It has to do with who owns the license in some regions, I believe. Nick doesn't have a channel in every country, so it often sells the rights to the series to 3rd parties (who then get it on TV) because it nets them money with basically zero effort. It's probably already sold the rights to Korra based simply on the strength of the previous show.I don't understand ANY reason why that concept is even logical in general.
This was a legitimate problem for many years in Japan, though I'd say the real problem is that they over-charge for their product, not that people won't pay it.It's one of the bigger reasons why Anime and Manga take so very long to come to the US. In japan it costs more for a DVD or DVD set than american buyers are willing to pay. If they sold it in english in the US simultaneously it would simply be re-imported to japan and still be cheaper than the market rate in japan for native materials.