UPDATED: After building its business on YouTube and generating more than 400 million views on the platform, Watcher Entertainment will now offer full series of its original unscripted content — including “Ghost Files,” “Mystery Files” and “Puppet History” — exclusively on its new, subscription-based streaming service.
Watcher was formed by former BuzzFeed creators Steven Lim, Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, who were behind popular BuzzFeed shows “Worth It” and “BuzzFeed Unsolved.” They launched their YouTube channel in January 2020.
Four years and 376 YouTube videos later, the company is launching its own independent streaming service, which goes live Friday (April 19). The Watcher service, which will not have ads, is priced at $5.99/month or $59.99/year. Members who sign up during the beta period from April 19 through May 31 will receive 30% off the first year and will also unlock the opportunity to revive “a previously discontinued cult-favorite series by members-driven vote.” More info is at watchertv.
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On Friday, the trio posted on X that “We’re leaving YouTube” with a link to their “Goodbye YouTube” video. The company originally told PvNew that Watcher would eventually remove all of its videos from YouTube, where it currently has 2.9 million subscribers. However, according to Bergara, Watcher is not fully exiting YouTube: It will still keep its backlog of videos on YouTube, and going forward will put the first episodes of new seasons on YouTube — while the full new seasons will be exclusively available on the Watcher streamer.
The Watcher Entertainment team’s bet is that they can earn more money by charging fans for their content than from YouTube ad revenue.
Lim, who serves as CEO, said the trio have spent more than a decade creating and distributing their content through YouTube, which “has been a wonderful home for us to sharpen our skills as filmmakers, grow as human beings, and connect directly with our fans.”
“I never thought we’d leave YouTube, so this move to [Watcher’s own] streaming [service] is a bittersweet one,” Lim continued. “But with the evolution of our content along with the maturation of our fans’ taste, this feels like the best move — putting the future of our company squarely into a platform that allows us to further our relationship with the people who watch and support us.”
“From the very start of Watcher, our goal was to make television-quality unscripted content, and while YouTube helped us start that journey, the only way we can fully realize that vision is to do it on our own platform,” Bergara said. “So while it’s scary to leave a place that has been an amazing home to us, we know that this is a risk worth taking, just like leaving BuzzFeed was back in 2019.”
Madej added, “In four short years we’ve built a library of shows that we’re incredibly proud of, and we’ve done it by sticking to our creative values. We intend to keep delivering the world’s best unscripted entertainment, and the streamer is our way of cutting out the middleman and giving our viewers the opportunity to directly support the stuff they love.”
To date, L.A.-based Watcher Entertainment has produced 22 original series in the paranormal, food and edutainment spaces.
With the launch of the Watcher subscription service, the company plans to invest in new projects — such as sending “Ghost Files” to an international locale for the first time. Watcher also plans to debut new series, including a reunion of the team behind BuzzFeed’s food show “Worth It”: Andrew Ilnyckyj and Adam Bianchi will join Steven Lim in a new series called “Travel Season,” billed as a “globetrotting food and travel odyssey,” beginning in the food mecca of Seoul, South Korea.
Here’s the Watcher team’s “Goodbye YouTube” video:
Pictured above (l. to r.): Watcher Entertainment’s Steven Lim, Shane Madej, Ryan Bergara
