The three founders of Watcher Entertainment apologized to fans for their announcement that they were exiting YouTube and would put their new shows exclusively on a subscription-streaming service. In response to a torrent of negative comments, Watcher’s Steven Lim, Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej said they were revising the plan — and will now make their originals available for free on YouTube on month after subscribers get access to them.
“We messed up,” Watcher CEO Steven Lim said in a YouTube video posted Monday.
Madej said in the video, “We’ve been reading the things you’ve been saying, and we’re sorry for the way we handled this, as well as the way we communicated it. We understand where you’re coming from — and we’re making immediate changes.”
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On Friday, Watcher, formed in 2019 by the three former BuzzFeed hosts, said that going forward, full seasons of new shows like “Ghost Files,” “Mystery Files,” “Road Files” and “Puppet History” will be available only on its new streaming service (watchertv.com) — for $5.99/month or $59.99/year. Fans reacted with a mix of dismay, anger and sarcasm to the announcement, prompting Watcher to change its plans. Previously, Watcher was intending to share only the first episode of new seasons on YouTube, with a paid subscription required to watch full seasons.
In addition to make new episodes available one month for free on YouTube after their subscription-platform debut, Watcher fans who pay for a Patreon subscription will receive a free subscription code to the Watcher streaming platform, Lim said.
In the video Monday, Bergara said that Watcher’s original goodbye message to YouTube “was insensitive. We didn’t properly express how much we appreciate all of you, and we did a really bad job of explaining the reasoning behind this transition.”
Lim added, “We also want to deeply apologize for our ignorance around the impact of the cost [of the Watcher subscription-streaming service]. We regret stating and implying that it’s a price that anybody can afford, and we fully acknowledge that it is not.”
