"A remarkably stupid idea!" I totally agree with the sentiment. WHY FIX something that isn't broken! Pure subscription money greed that's going to bite them in the ass. Especially when there's other RUclipsrs like "Why Files" that produce the same genre at about the same if not better quality.
Minimum they're making 500k off the Patreon a year. If one season of a show costs upwards of 100'000 dollars it doesnt make sense how they can't make it back. It honestly sounds like they're getting greedy or there is SERIOUS money mismanagement
I could easily see them struggling to break even. Payroll alone for 20+ people could easily wipe out that 500k especially somewhere with a high cost of living. That isn’t to mention taxes, office/filming space, travel expensesI, insurance, equipment, various permits, etc.. I suspect they just grew too quickly and hired at a rate that they couldn’t support so they are frantically trying to make up the difference. This for sure wasn’t the best move at any rate.
I work in production and I know how much it costs. I get it’s expensive. But they grew to way too many full time staff too quickly (leaning on reliable freelancers while they grow would’ve helped reduce cost without laying anyone off) and are abandoning a channel that can still make them some ad + sponsor revenue while nurturing an audience to their paid content. They need a mixed model. This makes no business sense. They’re friends with the Try Guys for god’s sake. They can see how a mix of premium and free content can work fiscally, and how to grow their staff more slowly. This just so disappointing.
They need to look no further than Good Mythical Morning, which they have collaborated with a few times. GMM has kept 85% of their stuff free on RUclips, they upload at least 13 new shows weekly across their platforms, created the Mythical Society for extra content, they do PPV specials a couple times a year and are the Kings of Merch. Mythical Entertainment is so successful they could afford to buy Smosh for $19 million, babysit it for a couple years and sell it back to the original creators. GMM should be the channel all channels strive to be.
If the Watchers had said "Hey, we wanna provide better experience, so we're launching this website with no ad's, all of our paid and free episodes there, but the paid episodes from Patreon are paid, but if you're already Patreon, you can sync your subscription on the channel and if you wish to change to WatcherTV full time subscription, we'll throw you 30% one time, for life subscription discount code at your email regardless as a thank you." and just... Diversify their sources of income and cut the middleman which in this case is Patreon for exclusive content. Maybe create RUclips Join thingy and upcharge from it baste on the cut that RUclips takes, and provide this platform as an alternative... Watchers were 100% lead stray on this one. They shouldn't have let greed to kick in, just diversify your source of incoming...
I can't f-ng believe they did no research It seems like such a big decision and they have so much experience in the industry only to fumble like that... disappointment is immeasurable
Oh YES Thank you for covering this so quickly. You're the first person I look to whenever major internet drama happens. I don't think I need to repeat what has been already said by hundreds of thousands of people - myself included. However, as a long time fan of Ryan and Shane since the early Buzzfeed days, I'm just so deeply disappointed.
@@nunpho(not personally taking sides with anyone, just explaining what I've seen others bring up) Steven is the official CEO of Watcher, so it's expected that his opinion holds more weight. He also has been making similar tone deaf statements long before this Goodbye video, he has a habit of flaunting his Tesla, and he does a (not super popular) show where he just travels and eats super expensive food.
The Watcher thing is a crazy bad idea. I love Shane and Ryan, I watch all their content. But this is a horrible idea in this economy. At least say "it is streaming exclusive for 2 months, then free on YT", I'd be less angry. As a loyal viewer since 2017/18 Buzzfeed days I'm angry and I've unsubscribed, did my watch hours mean fuck all?
This. I've been a fan since the beginning, before Shane was even involved in Unsolved. Their repeated passive aggressive comments saying everyone can afford it is SO fucking tone deaf. It feels like being told by boomers to eat less avocado toast to be able to afford rent. Steven Lim's Instagram post even comes across as "If you're enough of a fan you'll find a way to join", like super guilt trippy. I'm living off disability payments and food stamps, I literally cannot afford a single subscription. Many international fans said that $6 is literally equal to a rent payment. Obviously they deserve to be paid fairly and I know RUclips has been screwing their creators for years, but this isn't the way to fix that. This whole situation and the way they're handling it feels like such a slap in the face, and it's honestly heartbreaking after supporting them for so many years.
unfortunately, yes. they do mean fuck all. at the end of the day, they dont know or care about any of us nor owe us anything plus money always wins. this proves that.
I think the thing that I don't see being talked about enough is that they clearly are hinting (if you want to call it that) that they also plan to run ads! So they want to charge $6 and then get 100% of ad revenue as well. Mad greedy.
He's waiting for viewers. This is what happens when you can't "begin" without at least a thousands people watching him. He doens't feel like just a couple people watching isn't enough for him to even start.
seriously the complete lack of regional pricing is such an amateur decision, did they actually think every single person that watches their content is in the US???
@@carlwheezerofsouls3273It’s most likely just because they are only going to pander towards the majority of their audience(which won’t even be signing on with that price).
They expanded too quickly and now have full time staff they have to support. Growing too quick and eventually having to lay people off is Covid in a nutshell. Unfortunately, they’re going to have to lay people off with the way things are going. The BEST thing they can do is to walk it back completely. Throw up your hands and pray the unsubscriptions stop
The Rooster Teeth model isn't comparable at all because they put the same videos on the website that were on RUclips. The difference would be they uploaded them to the site first, and they didn't censor out the cursing. But it was essentially still the same video on YT. They also had a pay model that would give you access to live content that wasn't aired anywhere else, like being able to watch their podcasts in real time. But you would still get to watch the podcast recording on YT a day later.
That doesn't mean it's not comparable? The videos on Watchers website are the same videos that they would of also been put on RUclips. So both companies moved there videos to another site, only rooster teeth was more audience conscious and didn't nix there YT channel in order to do it. And yeah Rooster teeth did have that 1 pay wall but what they offered is very much on par with modern day Patreons (something Watcher also already has).
@@drumusic5665 The Watchers content is fully paywalled, and will not be releasing future content on YT. Rooster Teeth released their content on both platforms with minor changes to the website version, and even their pay walled content was released on RUclips after awhile. It isn't comparable at all. The RT model was very much completely free and accessible, released on both platforms, and they still released paid content on YT.
I also read that the payment only accepts credit/debit which (from what I've read in other comments - I'm from the US) basically isolates international fans that WOULD have paid but they don't accept things like paypal which can be used for foreign currency
I bet you Steven lim is behind this paywall and is just too greedy or he hired too many of his family memebers that he can’t let go of and has money issues. This was a shtty decision regardless. They’ve lost 30k+ subs so far
The thing with moving the patreon to their own site, to cut out that middle man. They absolutely could have achieved that. Mythical already did that quite successfully with Mythical Society. They turned one youtube channel into an impressive media production company, but not at the cost of charging fans for the main line video content, or, for the most part, compromising their company morals.
ah but you see the problem is, they were planning on keeping the patreon, not that any of this matters anymore, they got bullied into walking it back and making their service an early access thing
The strangest thing involving anyone's death that I knew was my nephew on my dad's side of the family died of stomach cancer but, my parents swore up and down that was to cover up him dying of AIDS. And I think my parents said that because he was gay.
Okay, in reference to the I hate it here lyrics, she literally says two or three lines later "nostalgia is a mind's trick, if I'd been there I'd hate it" like I'm not saying that there can't be critiques, but if you're going to critique something, use the context. And that's not so much about Charlie. That's about people who pick at it in general cuz I know he's just covering what people were already picking at.
I just found Watcher not long back myself and this hurts. I like Ryan and Shane a lot. Sometimes I wish it was just a Ryan and Shane channel but they could fix things if they just back track on the decision. They can admit they were wrong and still hold onto their fan base if they just actually hear us out instead of going into defense mode which I am worried about.
The AI Pan pics - I think the last one, where she is sticking out her tongue, was the real photo. The background is very clearly edited, but the rest looks much less suspect. That may have been what the producer was referring to. But I think they may have used that one to try to make “more”, because the others are clearly AI
I genuinely cannot comprehend by what metric they thought this was going to be a good idea. They walked up to their community of broke college students in the middle of a recession filled with too many streaming services, pissed on them, and then locked all of their content behind a paywall.
I think they will still move forward because their success on RUclips has given them an inflated ego. It's like they thought eh so what we will lose some people it will be worth it!
They were stupid to break off where they were. They will never reach those heights on this venture. Puppet History was great, but cooking shows? c'mon man, that's Kay's turf.
You might have heard this a bunch but have you heard about the Lexi Bonner situation it’s scary you might have addressed it in this stream it’s just I don’t have the time to watch it at the moment
Even if that were true, who cares? It’s a piece of clothing, it doesn’t cause irreversible change and if it makes them feel more confident in their bodies, that’s all that should be important.
My favorite Pop-Tart is s'mores! 11:03 Somebody wants to leave RUclips to go to a subscription-based something or other... I sense a scandal coming and they're trying to head the news off at the pass.🤘🫵🐎🤔
"A remarkably stupid idea!" I totally agree with the sentiment. WHY FIX something that isn't broken! Pure subscription money greed that's going to bite them in the ass. Especially when there's other RUclipsrs like "Why Files" that produce the same genre at about the same if not better quality.
Minimum they're making 500k off the Patreon a year. If one season of a show costs upwards of 100'000 dollars it doesnt make sense how they can't make it back. It honestly sounds like they're getting greedy or there is SERIOUS money mismanagement
after tax
they're trying to fund Tesla's and penthouses in LA.
@@stockmahoganyAnd pay the rent of that Hollywood studio with 25+ employees.
@@kevink1575median salary is 90k in LA, cuz below that is barely livable there ig
I could easily see them struggling to break even. Payroll alone for 20+ people could easily wipe out that 500k especially somewhere with a high cost of living. That isn’t to mention taxes, office/filming space, travel expensesI, insurance, equipment, various permits, etc.. I suspect they just grew too quickly and hired at a rate that they couldn’t support so they are frantically trying to make up the difference. This for sure wasn’t the best move at any rate.
I work in production and I know how much it costs. I get it’s expensive. But they grew to way too many full time staff too quickly (leaning on reliable freelancers while they grow would’ve helped reduce cost without laying anyone off) and are abandoning a channel that can still make them some ad + sponsor revenue while nurturing an audience to their paid content. They need a mixed model. This makes no business sense.
They’re friends with the Try Guys for god’s sake. They can see how a mix of premium and free content can work fiscally, and how to grow their staff more slowly. This just so disappointing.
They need to look no further than Good Mythical Morning, which they have collaborated with a few times.
GMM has kept 85% of their stuff free on RUclips, they upload at least 13 new shows weekly across their platforms, created the Mythical Society for extra content, they do PPV specials a couple times a year and are the Kings of Merch.
Mythical Entertainment is so successful they could afford to buy Smosh for $19 million, babysit it for a couple years and sell it back to the original creators.
GMM should be the channel all channels strive to be.
Bruh
They could look at good mythical morning and mythical society for inspiration
@@snowcattish.
If the Watchers had said "Hey, we wanna provide better experience, so we're launching this website with no ad's, all of our paid and free episodes there, but the paid episodes from Patreon are paid, but if you're already Patreon, you can sync your subscription on the channel and if you wish to change to WatcherTV full time subscription, we'll throw you 30% one time, for life subscription discount code at your email regardless as a thank you." and just... Diversify their sources of income and cut the middleman which in this case is Patreon for exclusive content. Maybe create RUclips Join thingy and upcharge from it baste on the cut that RUclips takes, and provide this platform as an alternative... Watchers were 100% lead stray on this one. They shouldn't have let greed to kick in, just diversify your source of incoming...
YES! Comments like this prove they did zero research. Fans have the best feedback ffs
I can't f-ng believe they did no research
It seems like such a big decision and they have so much experience in the industry only to fumble like that... disappointment is immeasurable
Oh YES Thank you for covering this so quickly. You're the first person I look to whenever major internet drama happens.
I don't think I need to repeat what has been already said by hundreds of thousands of people - myself included. However, as a long time fan of Ryan and Shane since the early Buzzfeed days, I'm just so deeply disappointed.
CoffeeZilla also went over it in detail imo.
31:00 That 'little devil on their shoulder' is known as Steven Lim 😑
This all feels like his idea, the guy owns a tesla, whilst talking about them having a lack of sponsorship money
Why are people going after him? It's a group decision
💤
@@nunpho(not personally taking sides with anyone, just explaining what I've seen others bring up)
Steven is the official CEO of Watcher, so it's expected that his opinion holds more weight. He also has been making similar tone deaf statements long before this Goodbye video, he has a habit of flaunting his Tesla, and he does a (not super popular) show where he just travels and eats super expensive food.
@@KryptidKaty How much money would they save if they just nixed his vanity show? 🤔
The Watcher thing is a crazy bad idea. I love Shane and Ryan, I watch all their content. But this is a horrible idea in this economy. At least say "it is streaming exclusive for 2 months, then free on YT", I'd be less angry. As a loyal viewer since 2017/18 Buzzfeed days I'm angry and I've unsubscribed, did my watch hours mean fuck all?
This. I've been a fan since the beginning, before Shane was even involved in Unsolved. Their repeated passive aggressive comments saying everyone can afford it is SO fucking tone deaf. It feels like being told by boomers to eat less avocado toast to be able to afford rent. Steven Lim's Instagram post even comes across as "If you're enough of a fan you'll find a way to join", like super guilt trippy.
I'm living off disability payments and food stamps, I literally cannot afford a single subscription. Many international fans said that $6 is literally equal to a rent payment. Obviously they deserve to be paid fairly and I know RUclips has been screwing their creators for years, but this isn't the way to fix that.
This whole situation and the way they're handling it feels like such a slap in the face, and it's honestly heartbreaking after supporting them for so many years.
unfortunately, yes. they do mean fuck all. at the end of the day, they dont know or care about any of us nor owe us anything plus money always wins. this proves that.
You think any streamer/youtuber actually cares about their audience?
Its all about money, nothing else.
You are so naive just like most of their fans. Its all about money
Obviously it meant fuck all
Going to be interesting seeing the reaction to the Watcher situation over the next few days. I’m looking forward to their response lol
I think the thing that I don't see being talked about enough is that they clearly are hinting (if you want to call it that) that they also plan to run ads! So they want to charge $6 and then get 100% of ad revenue as well. Mad greedy.
Going from buzzfeed to watcher i was really optimistic about their show and now this devastating news 😔
i figured they would fall....where are any of the cast of Sourcefed Nerd now?
watching charlie aimlessly click in the beginning of his streams is what really keeps me goong
He has multiple monitors
He's waiting for viewers. This is what happens when you can't "begin" without at least a thousands people watching him. He doens't feel like just a couple people watching isn't enough for him to even start.
gooning to charlie?
@@rundown132 exact opposite my comprehension deprived friend.
Not much of a life you have 🤣
At the end of the day as much as I love Watcher and their content, we genuinely do not know these guys and their motives.
imagine if every youtuber went private and expected 5.99 to watch their content and then said "It's that price because anyone can afford it!"
"anyone and everyone!" What about places in the world where 6USD is like a weeks worth of groceries?
seriously the complete lack of regional pricing is such an amateur decision, did they actually think every single person that watches their content is in the US???
@@carlwheezerofsouls3273It’s most likely just because they are only going to pander towards the majority of their audience(which won’t even be signing on with that price).
They expanded too quickly and now have full time staff they have to support. Growing too quick and eventually having to lay people off is Covid in a nutshell. Unfortunately, they’re going to have to lay people off with the way things are going. The BEST thing they can do is to walk it back completely. Throw up your hands and pray the unsubscriptions stop
The Rooster Teeth model isn't comparable at all because they put the same videos on the website that were on RUclips. The difference would be they uploaded them to the site first, and they didn't censor out the cursing. But it was essentially still the same video on YT. They also had a pay model that would give you access to live content that wasn't aired anywhere else, like being able to watch their podcasts in real time. But you would still get to watch the podcast recording on YT a day later.
That doesn't mean it's not comparable? The videos on Watchers website are the same videos that they would of also been put on RUclips.
So both companies moved there videos to another site, only rooster teeth was more audience conscious and didn't nix there YT channel in order to do it.
And yeah Rooster teeth did have that 1 pay wall but what they offered is very much on par with modern day Patreons (something Watcher also already has).
@@drumusic5665 The Watchers content is fully paywalled, and will not be releasing future content on YT. Rooster Teeth released their content on both platforms with minor changes to the website version, and even their pay walled content was released on RUclips after awhile. It isn't comparable at all. The RT model was very much completely free and accessible, released on both platforms, and they still released paid content on YT.
What sucks most is this goes so much against the idealogy that shane and ryan have displayed in the past.
It’s also 6$ US and I’ve heard the conversion rate is not good for international subscribers.
I also read that the payment only accepts credit/debit which (from what I've read in other comments - I'm from the US) basically isolates international fans that WOULD have paid but they don't accept things like paypal which can be used for foreign currency
I bet you Steven lim is behind this paywall and is just too greedy or he hired too many of his family memebers that he can’t let go of and has money issues. This was a shtty decision regardless. They’ve lost 30k+ subs so far
I feel like shane and ryan let steven be ceo cause they felt bad, and now stevens making all these bad decisions and running watcher into the ground
he must be majority investor. all i do know- Steven in skit = CRINGE!
The thing with moving the patreon to their own site, to cut out that middle man. They absolutely could have achieved that. Mythical already did that quite successfully with Mythical Society. They turned one youtube channel into an impressive media production company, but not at the cost of charging fans for the main line video content, or, for the most part, compromising their company morals.
ah but you see the problem is, they were planning on keeping the patreon, not that any of this matters anymore, they got bullied into walking it back and making their service an early access thing
I love the guys but I'm not paying $5.99 a month to watch them. Honestly I only like the true crime and mysteries content
The strangest thing involving anyone's death that I knew was my nephew on my dad's side of the family died of stomach cancer but, my parents swore up and down that was to cover up him dying of AIDS. And I think my parents said that because he was gay.
That's disgusting.
Well Shane's been pro pirating in the past so it shouldn't be a problem if their old audience does that to their content, right?
I was a big fan of the boys ... but not enough of one to pay to watch them. Good luck to them an' all but I won't be there.
Okay, in reference to the I hate it here lyrics, she literally says two or three lines later "nostalgia is a mind's trick, if I'd been there I'd hate it" like I'm not saying that there can't be critiques, but if you're going to critique something, use the context. And that's not so much about Charlie. That's about people who pick at it in general cuz I know he's just covering what people were already picking at.
greetings earthchildren
The stars say hello! 🤗✨
Hey monkeys
Hey human
Did you just assume my species?
Hello skydad
Thanks for being who you are Charlie🫡
this started playing while i was asleep and i woke up to the c4 rip lmao
I fell asleep with RUclips on and woke up too "My dad died from taking an upskirt photo" 😂
I saw a RUclipsr named bigtugg make a parody of this and talk about how stupid the idea was. Forcing your content behind a paywall is so stupid
oh hey! nice to see another tugglet in the wild
Man finally used castle
Did he talk about the guy that set himself ablaze?
Charlie you’re paying for netflix and youtube premium. You are still paying for cable.
This stream just auto played, and all the heavy breathing and smacking before the intro made it sound like some mid missionary lol
That first game was rough.
I just found Watcher not long back myself and this hurts. I like Ryan and Shane a lot. Sometimes I wish it was just a Ryan and Shane channel but they could fix things if they just back track on the decision. They can admit they were wrong and still hold onto their fan base if they just actually hear us out instead of going into defense mode which I am worried about.
Day 6 of thanking Charlie for providing us with important news and hilarious comedy multiple times a day
Charlie is the most likeable fucking drama queen there is. He loves it 😅
The tea is HAWT
My farts are mediocre, and lack the pizazz Charlie's farts have. At least I'm facing the truth. Bot actualized.
Watcher? I can't even afford her.
Did the watcher not learn from rooster teeth?!
The AI Pan pics - I think the last one, where she is sticking out her tongue, was the real photo. The background is very clearly edited, but the rest looks much less suspect. That may have been what the producer was referring to. But I think they may have used that one to try to make “more”, because the others are clearly AI
People severely underestimate the impact youtube has on their success.
the watcher one is probably so they can put more stuff that isnt allowed on youtube or just to make more money😂
So tired I’m 5:52 in and Charlie sneezed so I said bless you???
I'm always having fun with his streams
I genuinely cannot comprehend by what metric they thought this was going to be a good idea.
They walked up to their community of broke college students in the middle of a recession filled with too many streaming services, pissed on them, and then locked all of their content behind a paywall.
1:08:05 I dont know why Charlie used the word "De-aggro'ed" but why does it feel so natural in this scenario. 😂😂😂
Charlie: No im definitely not being carried.
*Countinues being carried and dying the dumbest ways*
OMG HERE IS NOT TALKEN TO ME .
I just got off work guys it’s 2am where I’m from 😅
You play without communication
Good job brother ❤
gears 3 tomorrow feels right
PEEPERS BY THE POKEMON CARDS?! OH GOD!
Trail mix or dried fruit tier list…😅slaps
What do they mean the photos arent AI generated. It looks like the top was made in MS paint.
I think they will still move forward because their success on RUclips has given them an inflated ego. It's like they thought eh so what we will lose some people it will be worth it!
Fun streams lately👍
My name is Sharon
Is anyone getting constant message "out of ram" with this stream specifically?
why is this comment section empty
He does not allow comments - mostly because of people like me . And you .
Because the stream just ended
They were stupid to break off where they were. They will never reach those heights on this venture. Puppet History was great, but cooking shows? c'mon man, that's Kay's turf.
You might have heard this a bunch but have you heard about the Lexi Bonner situation it’s scary you might have addressed it in this stream it’s just I don’t have the time to watch it at the moment
such a banger stream🙏😂
I miss vids with Tetra. Hope you're doing well tho
Quiet 🗿
No one know what day it is?
Fine Bros. anyone?
Man, rip rooster teeth
Great stream caught it late though
fun fact: 1000 Ways To Die is NOT real
very few cases are "loosely based" on claims from old internet stories from the 90's
1:05:09 they found even more photos in his phone!
You won’t beat the “best RUclipsr” allegations bro
I just forgot lol 😂
Are you from the Tampa Bay Area?
Just 24 comments?
Chu papi munyano
What part of Florida are you based out of?
How do yo have comments from 5 months ago lol
yo
Where was this stream? :(
RUclips
small comment section
Cause the stream its done
who keeps making these bruh
How’s it going Charlie
Did he talk about the new drake diss on his Instagram that has AI 2pac snd snoop
Hi
play gears 3
32:10
16 million subscribers and only 7 k likes? Oy vey, how antisemetic
Commenting on every critikal video until he responds day 1270
1:04:44 this guy is so nasty!!!
I was here
funny how the bible thumpers always have to have someone to hate.
😊
e
👁️👄👁️
Wow.
1:10:50
Target tried selling TUCKING outfits for CHILDREN.
They won't get any respect from me, funny joke though.
Wassat
Even if that were true, who cares? It’s a piece of clothing, it doesn’t cause irreversible change and if it makes them feel more confident in their bodies, that’s all that should be important.
My favorite Pop-Tart is s'mores!
11:03 Somebody wants to leave RUclips to go to a subscription-based something or other... I sense a scandal coming and they're trying to head the news off at the pass.🤘🫵🐎🤔