The Fallout of Watcher's Betrayal

Watcher announced their plans to launch a streaming service much like that of Dropout or The Try Guys. But while Dropout and the Try Guys had positive launches, Watcher's was a disaster. And ultimately, the reasons why come down to loyalty. Watcher forgot a key rule on YouTube, and have since suffered the consequences.

This is a video essay discussing the rise of YouTube Streaming Services and Paid Subscriptions, with focus on Watcher, Dropout, and The Try Guys.

Jimmy Robins (yeah, that's me) makes comedic commentary videos about overanalyzing media. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing or maybe even checking out a membership. Thanks!

[thefrogthatknows]

"Pay me money and I'll tell how you it feels to eat a $20k steak." Sounds more like a joke than an actual marketing tactic.

[blueturtle]

Everyone saw Dropout do it and assumed they could do it too, ignoring the reason Dropout works.

[alexisgonzales]

Saying "everyone can afford" reminded me of when school went completely digital and having the teacher act like im lieing when i said "i dont have a home computer or printer"

[SamKestin]

also it’s worth mentioning - when Sam reich put his own money behind dropout, he’s a nepo baby! He jokes about it often! He’s the son of Robert Reich! He could support dropout through its growing pains stage until it became successful enough to make money. Dropout wasn’t dropout overnight.

[FukaiKokoro]

WATCHER mismanaged money. They had a EXTREMELY successful pateron. They had YouTube memberships. They WERE extremely ad friendly. There was zero need for this.

They could have downsized their office. Found a cheaper place for their office other than LA.
They could have let go of some of those redundant employees.

There's so many other options and the chose the WORST ones.

[originalbk]

One thing Watcher got VERY wrong: we didn't stay for the "television caliber content, " we stayed because of YOU. Watching all of YOU interacting and feeling like we were hanging out with our friends down the street on a Friday night.

[kittikat]

Another reason Dropout has worked so well is Sam was willing to sink a lot of his own personal nepo money into the streamer until it started turning a profit. He's mentioned numerous times that he viewed Dropout as a way to keep his friends employed until either they had other sustainable income or the streamer worked. His trust fund money made a huge difference in how that turned out imo

[StrawbsIsAway]

People also neglect a major concern with Dropout: CollegeHumor went fucking bankrupt as their streaming service was getting off the ground. Everyone lost their jobs, save for 8 people who remained full-time. Sam Reich bailed it out with his own money, which is why he's now the CEO.

[Jhakri_]

The "everyone can afford it" was spot on the same energy as "you all have phones right?"

[crackheadmick]

"everyone can afford!!" brother my country is literally in recession rn

[casarooo]

They basically said they aren’t making enough money while the first couple shots are of the Hollywood sign visible in their office, a reintroduction of a fancy food series, more members of staff, all wrapped up in a simple video somehow produced by 15 people. It just screams mismanaged money.

[MrDoenyon]

Guess people really forgot that before Dropout walked, Collegehumour crawled to the ground and almost died.

[Tobiichi]

Dropout and The Try Guys understood what our immediate kneejerk reaction would be, then helped us climb down to "Eh really? Yeah okay that seems pretty fair"

Watcher walked into the room, flipped us the bird, pissed in the corner and walked out.

[selinesbeau]

They probably would've been fine if they hadn't said they were going to put EVERYTHING behind a paywall. That's just looking at their audience and saying, "Thanks guys! We're gonna go hang out with people that can afford us now. Bye!"

[jajawawa]

One thing that irritates me most about this entire situation is that Watcher has made some of the most immature financial decisions possible, and rather than learn from them, they blame the viewers and tell us to cough up money! If I want to watch people eat food that I could never afford, or travel to places I could only dream of, I'm going to watch Safiya Nygaard and Tyler travel to Las Vegas or Europe! The fact that they produce hour long videos of their travels with the help of no more than 1 staff member on the trip, and pull in millions of views proves that you don't need million dollar budgets! All you need is a likeable personality, a love for your work, and the ability to responsibly manage your finances -- all of which, the members of Watcher now lack entirely.

[moni-wo]

In an episode of Breaking News on Dropout we found out that the day CollegeHumor went under, Grant (who just lost his job) took Sam Reich out for drinks to cheer him up. Like idk, I think it says a lot about you, they way you run your business, and your character when your employees care for you that much.

[nekofrau]

Dropout actually has enough custom content to be worth paying for, while the try guys are fun and free. I don't see how they messed up that bad it's actually laughable

[sillymovie]

Shane “Eat the Rich” Madej would’ve wanted me to pirate the shows on paywall. So I will. Thanks past Shane for the advice

[kkelseym]

The reason Dropout is successful is because it wasn’t made to make a successful company more money but because their corporate owners dropped them and Sam actually was invested in seeing the company continue so he put up his own money, reduced the staff to a core team, and they were all hands in to build it up into what it is today. It’s a story that no other YouTube channel (or very, very few channels) can compare themselves too. Dropout wouldn’t have survived without pivoting like they did.

[jordanlynn]

Also drop out puts out enough free content that even as someone who doesn’t pay for their content, I still love all the bits and shorts