Watcher, the youtube channel known for the duo Ryan Bergara & Shane Madej’s most successful shows, Ghost Files and Mystery Files, are moving away from Youtube.
With news seemingly coming from left field, Watcher will be moved to a streaming service for $5.99/mo. The service will include the shows that are most popular to them and loved by fans, along side bringing in new and improved “Worth It” (the food channel show by Steven Lim and Andrew Ilnyckyj) now being coined as Travel Season, and other shows in the mix.
With the news, fans are vocally upset, comments flooding with this move being extremely “greedy” of them, for having something that was free, now behind a paywall. Even Patreon supporters are chiming in saying how it’s unfair.
Some comments have compared it to Good Mythical Morning, how they’re able to provide a ton of free content for their audience.
The move was essentially done due to the lack of monetary growth to provide the content and production they wanted to bring to fans, while also paying their workers and making a living.
What are your thoughts on this move? It is unfortunate, being a fan myself, to possibly see their fall from grace because of this switch. But who knows, with over 2m followers, i’m sure there are some supporters in there.
Discussion (7)
It's their choice, who are we to judge what model make sense for their business? People assume content needs to be free and that's the only fair way to show stuff, but that's a totally trash take, and only a standard set for people who start on youtube. No one is complaining that they have to pay to watch 'Love is Blind' or 'Fallout'.
The fans are mad because they had it for free this entire time, and once something that was free gets put behind a paywall then the pitchforks come out. But getting mad at the creators and saying they are getting "greedy" is not the move. These are small time creators trying to level up their game, and they think this is the right way to do it. I wish them luck.
I think what pissed people off is they said "Anyone can afford this", that might of been the biggest blunder.
Also don't they have a patreon?
Exactly this.
They more so insulted the fans and the business model made absolutely no sense. It's one thing to support a creator, fine.. but to have a patreon AND then make a streaming platform that has only your content, and charge 5.99 for it? Like dudes, it's just your content on there, its not competitive streaming platform with variety.
The comments section of the original video is insane, lmao.
Obviously none of these people are actually creators, thus have no sympathy for what Watcher is trying to achieve. But hey, I don't know the entirety of their internal finances, maybe they are right to some extent.
Well, looks like they walked in WAY back now, lmfao. Honestly though this whole thing could of been avoided.
They really hit the apology button on that one. Update: Watcher Apology Video