Watcher: Why Prioritizing Profit At All Costs Betrays Fans

at its core no one asked for "higher quality" content from them. Better cameras, more staff, and bigger payday for the boys doesn't cover up that they've been putting out the same content they did on BuzzFeed in higher resolution.

I hate when YouTubers or influencers say “I’m doing this for you” as if they are doing us a favor when we pay for subscriptions, ads, etc…

Look... Shane bought himself a Tesla car. His wedding venue alone was 50.000$ and his bride had 3 wedding gowns. She brags on her instagram that she buys 100$ tote bags. They have more than enough money for any projects they want... but everything came too easy for them and now they're spoiled. They spend money like water so now they're broke and think their loyal and adoring fans won't mind footing their bill. His wife even said on her tumblr that they need more money so they can have livable wages. Let them fall and find themselves a day job for once.

My partner is a videographer and one thing he noticed during the original announcement video is that Watcher's camera man was wearing the MOST EXPENSIVE steadicam model currently available on the market. It cost upwards of $20,000 dollars. He said 'That truly isn't necessary, those are for feature films and would be an utter waste of money even for a TV show'. Meaning they are spending more than what a network TV show would be paying for that model'. I am part of a much smaller production company so although I don't know the extent of the financial operation, I do know how to cut costs on material (But not salary) while still maintaining high quality content. They chose not to do that.

It was this situation that made me realize how parasocial I was with Watcher. Maybe it was best we broke up...

what i also don't understand is how they expected to get new viewers to watch their content. while youtube's algorithm definitely has flaws, they're a big channel that gets decent views so they wouldn't have a problem drawing in new viewers. by removing all videos from youtube, they would've essentially removed any chance of getting a new audience which would just cause their website to die slowly since people would slowly cancel their subscriptions. it just feels like they didn't plan this through at all and needed a quick way to make money because the fact they didn't think of this at all after so many years of producing online content is baffling

This is what happens when fans get a glipse behind the curtain and realize their favorite creators are no longer relatable. 25+ employees for YT?? If you want to make TV, go make TV but don't ask fans to fuel your ego or else they get no more content for free. What an absolute slap in the face for fans, subscribers, patreons, merch buyers, and tour fans.

Graphics are irrelevant to me. Does anyone else hardly watch the actual video and use YouTube mainly as audio?

Puppet History could have been funded with cute merch and behind the scenes exclusives on Patreon. International trips for Ghost Files could have been funded in HOURS through a gofundme, and then they could use those trips to also shoot some of Steven's content. Add extra Patreon content along the way, a few behind the scenes/on location pictures and short videos, come back and post everything to massive profit. None of this was rocket science, they just didn't want to do things that way. Nor did they have any exclusive content READY for the streamer--they essentially asked us to pre-order streaming content. That's a hard pass from be guys.

I hate it when youtubers refer to their viewers as fans instead of subscribers. They're clearly not fanatics that go for anything

Okay, here's the thing. The content isn't free. If it is being paid for by advertisting, and the advertising requires a viewer, then it is the viewer's time spent watching the ad that pays for the content. So when a creator says "you can watch the content for free" you are saying that the viewer's time has no value. Time is any person's most precious commodity. A very limited resource. The absolute gall that content creators have to insinuate that their time has value but ours does not? And actually, because I do value my time, I pay for youtube premium so that I don't have to watch ads. The time I get back from not watching ads can be spent doing things that are productive and enrich my life. I pay for the content I watch, and so does everybody else. You pay with money or you pay with your time. Which has more value to you?

I truly truly think that they saw what Dropout is doing (selling out msg, getting interviewed by the Emmy's, having a thriving independent streaming platform) and wanted some of that WITHOUT realizing why Dropout managed to be successful in the first place

They tried to make it seem like they’re struggling for funds while also posting photos of a 50K wedding venue and a brand new Tesla. Clearly the cash is rolling in, they’re just mismanaging it and vastly overspending.

They failed miserably to hide the fact that it was not about their audience at all, it was all about them. /They/ wanted TV quality. /They/ wanted that quality with absolutely no cuts to their monthly income. If you're independent, want to do grander things and still get the same paycheck, it will NOT work out. They knew it but decided to protect their ambitions and their paychecks anyway under the guise of care for their audience. I was not even a fan and yet I feel insulted on behalf of all the people who got them where they are.

When you want to create a second income stream - make it and make it pay before abandoning the first one assuming everyone will follow you. This is an amateur business move.

The thing that REALLY irked fans (me) (I spent like 3 hours in the comment section of their original announcement) was Steven saying ‘anyone can afford it!’ Comments were FILLED with really sad stories - we’re in a global recession ffs!! Also people don’t actually like the better quality. We want just Ryan and Shane chilling. And everyone hates Steven lmao

I'm surprised you didn't mention that they hired two new staff members right before the announcement and then guilt tripped people that starting the streaming service was the only way to keep watcher from going under

That “free membership” for Patreon subscribers was only for a few months. After it ran out they would have to repurchase a membership. That backlash will hit once subs realize what the deal actually is.

as a fan, the last few months I've actually forced myself to watch their stuff. it's far more scripted and feels off. I'm probably not gonna watch until they post certain series that aren't as bad

I want to point out that this video also misses the point: you say that we don't want to pay for free content, but we are the product. They profit off of our views claiming it's free content sure but that's the only reason they're getting paid from advertisers if our views weren't there, they wouldn't have been able to have a channel. So not only do we become the product but then they want to extort us again by asking us to pay a fee which is higher than many multi-channel syndicated platforms like peacock Plus and Discovery. The worst part was they went to step further and said they would be removing everything off of there YouTube starting in May but they retracted that statement shortly after. They had already given the statement to a magazine and it was specific that they were removing their old content from YouTube. This is a company that has been sponsored by Disney They literally did an entire episode of Ghost files on Disney's dine to promote the haunted Mansion. But they've mismanaged their business so much that they want more from us who have been the product the entire time??? No bro charge businesses and we will offer to be the product........ Two more things One when they launch the website it took 2 hours for them to install a SSL certificate so the website was not even secure when they launched. Bad planning. B. The website does not have subtitles on the videos or did not when we first checked and therefore people with audio processing problems could not even participate so we were purposefully left behind. Ridiculous! I'm still mad! Edited to add love your content keep it up so glad you're here