Goodbye YouTube

(traffic bustling) (horns beeping)

(people chattering)

- [Director] Rolling in five.

- [Team Member] Got it. Right on that.

(bright gentle music)

- (groaning) All-righty.

(Steven sighing)

- As sad as it is to say goodbye to YouTube,

it's the right thing to do.

- If this is my last time on YouTube,

then baby, what a life I've lived here on this platform.

- I grew up on YouTube. All of my heroes were on YouTube.

I learned how to be a human on YouTube.

Taking a step away from it,

it's just tough because I've always really loved

and cared about the YouTube community,

so it's hard to leave.

- My name is Ryan Steven Bergara,

and I'm part of Advanced Video Production.

- Hello, I'm Professor Morris Ashley.

Welcome to another exciting episode of Extreme Science.

- I had no idea what to do for my intro.

Please don't stop watching. Please?

My first YouTube video that I ever made was in 2012.

And that, my friends, is how you will become

the most baller, baller in your city.

(laughs) It's so embarrassing,

but I think it really encapsulates early YouTube,

which is this, like, unfettered joy

of just making and creating something

that was in your head and sharing it with the world.

(bright whimsical music)

(Steven grunting)

- I just remember from, like, a young age,

it was a way for me to feel like I had a purpose,

or it was a way for me to find self-esteem.

I guess when I'm making things,

it's when I feel the most alive,

and I think that's carried over into my adult life,

and in a lot of ways, sometimes I look back,

and it feels like I haven't really even grown up.

And I'm sure if you ask people about that,

they probably would would agree with me

that I have not grown up.

- I went to Northern Illinois University for two years

because it felt very selfish and weird

to want to go into film,

and I was like, I gotta do something responsible.

I can't just do something that is fun.

And then after two years of that, I was like,

I'm really sad and I really don't, like, (laughs)

I was like, I guess it's worth maybe pursuing my,

you know, creative ambitions.

So then I went to Columbia College

in Chicago and studied editing.

But even before that, when I was at Northern,

I was still making a bunch of dumb little videos.

Plenty of dumb little videos.

- Myself, Shane, Steven, we all came from Buzzfeed.

It was kind of, like, the formative years

of our creative process.

- [Steven] I didn't really know how to make a video.

I didn't know virality.

I didn't understand the internet that well.

So Buzzfeed for me, was like college.

- I had a great time there.

I was never very good

at sort of chasing, like, viral stuff.

The stuff that I did find success with was stuff

that I was very passionate about,

and that was kind of hit or miss, you know?

- Yeah, we were working crazy hours trying

to get the next cool hit video out,

trying to make the next big thing,

and that was the culture there.

It was fun, but also intense.

- Steven and myself made something called

"Worth It" and "Unsolved," respectively.

- That was when I went from, like, oh,

there's the Asian kid in the busing video,

to like, oh, that's Steven Lim.

That's, like, the guy who hosts "Worth it."

- Luckily, I was, you know, roped into "Unsolved"

and was able to be in that. (laughs)

- There was a fire in all three of us.

We had something to prove.

We had a passion for making content

and making it to a certain level of quality

that would perhaps punch above its weight.

And so we figured, okay, if we could make something

for Buzzfeed that's like that,

why couldn't we not bet on ourselves,

and then perhaps do the same thing at our own little shop?

When the three of us huddled together

around my little kitchen table in my apartment,

we kind of wrote down the mission statement of just,

we want to make a studio or a platform

where we could make unscripted television

caliber content on the internet.

And to that point, nobody had quite done that.

Full blown developed shows had not been kind

of a thing on YouTube to that point,

especially when we first started "Unsolved" and "Worth It,"

and we wanted to continue that trend over here at Watcher.

- I think the philosophy of Watcher is

us very earnestly exploring something without much irony.

Granted, we're, like, when we're doing our ghost hunts,

it's a jokey channel, but I think underneath it all,

there's, like, a genuine interest in stuff

and a passion for exploring, you know,

the stuff that we're interested in.

- [Steven] I'm so proud of what we've built

here at Watcher.

My proudest moments have been being able

to hire incredible people,

and sort of growing our staff from three

to six to 10,

to 20 to 25.

I'm proud of the fans and the community that we've fostered.

- Maybe that's the best part.

The tangible effect of it is, like, you're out in public

and people are like, "Hey, wow, you know,

we watched a lot of your content during a tough time

and it really helped us."

And that's always really nice,

especially when we do our, like, live shows.

You notice that it's very fascinating.

The audience that we've attracted are also weirdos

in the most positive sense.

- [Participant] I'm very happy with the progress

that we've made over here at Watcher

over these past 4 1/2 years.

But it feels like we are just at the point

where we've hit a bit of a ceiling in terms

of what YouTube is able to offer.

- More than 50% of our business is run by advertising.

We are relying on ads to make money, to pay the bills,

to run this office, to make beautiful content

for all of you guys out there.

Unfortunately, over time, the deals that we were getting

in 2019, 2020 are looking a lot different

than they are today.

We're making something for two audiences.

We're making it for the fans, all of you out there,

and we're also making it to please the advertisers.

It's difficult to make the stuff that we want to make

and also then appeal to the advertisers as well.

- It costs a certain amount

to make content in the way that we do it.

We try to put things on the screen that we feel adheres

to a certain level of quality that you would find on say,

a Netflix or something like that.

But in doing so, it does cost a certain amount.

Like, for example, a "Ghost Files" episode.

First we have to travel to the location itself.

We have to pay the location fee.

We have to pay freelance staff

that comes to help us shoot that.

When we're shooting in the studio,

we have to pay for the studio

to shoot the actual episode in.

Then we have to pay for post.

Before that, we also have to do the pre-production

of the episode.

And when you add that all up, we're talking about an end

of a season that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I'm not sitting here complaining.

That is the bed we've made.

Everyone has different missions

they're marching towards on YouTube.

Ours was to make a television show.

And you know, over time you start to realize like,

hey, maybe television shows aren't meant for YouTube.

Perhaps we should find a different place

that's better suited to the content that we're making

and can support the dollar amounts

that we're putting into each of these episodes

so that we're not constantly running around trying

to find sources of revenue to support the model.

- We work from the other direction here, which is, like,

we start first by looking at what we want to say

and think about and talk about.

And that's always informed our content,

which is why I think our content

doesn't necessarily always, like, trend. (laughs)

We've trended quite a few times, okay?

But that's never, you know, that's never our goal.

And I think by that token,

YouTube has never been, like, the perfect fit for us.

- All that being said, we have realized

that it would be great if we could find a way

to rely less on advertising,

not make it such a big part of our business.

And so we've been working over the past few months

and years, like, how can we make this business

more sustainable?

How can we make something where we can make the things

that we want to make for all of you guys

and not be worried about all the other forces that are here?

In terms of where this company is going

and where I believe that we can be the most successful,

YouTube is no longer the place for that.

- For anybody who's watched or supported us to this point,

truly, thank you.

The goal was always to make television

caliber quality content,

and not just for YouTube, but for you guys.

I guess we just hope you guys follow us this one last time.

(bright gentle music)

(bright whimsical music)

To our very own independent streaming service, Watcher.

(bright ambient music)

Watcher is an ad-free independent streaming service

dedicated to providing you guys the television

caliber content that you know and love.

But you're probably wondering how is it going

to be different than the YouTube experience?

- [Shane] The new streamer, I think,

is a place that reflects what our content is.

High quality series in season form,

beautifully organized, ad-free.

It's what we were destined to be.

- First of all, bigger and better content.

- Yeah, I mean, I'm excited to improve "Ghost Files."

I mean, I'm very happy with how the show has been,

you know, produced so far.

But the streamer's gonna give us an opportunity

to really add to it from a format standpoint.

But we'll also be able to take bigger swings

and go international.

Like, we're going to the UK and we're going to Scotland.

Also, the more resources we have,

the more time we could focus on making the show better.

And every season of that show,

I want it to be better than the last.

And I'm very excited for season three,

which you guys will see on the streamer.

- The advent of this streamer has allowed me

to bring the gang back together.

Adam. - That's true, your pals.

- Andrew, the old friends from "Worth It."

And we're going to be launching the spiritual successor,

which is gonna be called "Travel Season."

- Are you excited to work with Steven again?

- Yeah, after 12 seasons of "Worth It," it feels great

to make something that is very similar

and based on a lot of those experiences,

but we get to dispense with all the stuff

that we don't like.

- [Ryan] So if you wanna catch that,

you can watch it on May 31st.

It's gonna be a full six episode season,

and you can watch it all, if you're a member

on the streamer.

- And not only will there be new fresh shows,

we're going to put it up to the members

to resurrect a show from the past.

There are a lot of shows that maybe didn't do

phenomenally on YouTube that would be performing

perfectly fine on a streamer.

- What a weird, wonderful idea.

- What a weird, wonderful idea that would be.

- I'm excited about the prospect

of bringing on some new talent, some new faces,

and making content around them.

And you know, being able to shape some shows

that don't always involve us

is something I'm really excited about.

And you know, we get to maybe bring back

a little, little blue guy.

- When it comes down to it, end of the day, why not?

This should be our slogan. Why not?

- I mean, yeah, I imagine he'll pop in.

- Yeah. - Yeah, whether you

like it or not. - That's fair.

- But you know, all this to say,

you'll still occasionally see us on YouTube.

We're gonna post trailers for our shows there.

We're gonna have the season premieres

of all of our series on there.

But if you wanna watch the full seasons

of all of our content, the streamer will be

the exclusive home for all of that starting May 31st.

- Steven, talk about money. - Yeah, what's this price?

- You can become a member of Watcher for 5.99 a month,

or 59.99 a year.

We wanna keep the price low enough

where anybody and everybody is able to afford it,

but it also has the support the things that we do here.

So that was the number that

just made the most sense for the streamer.

- And look, you can share it,

you know, with your friends.

- That's true. - What are we gonna do?

- Keep your eyes glued on all of our social channels.

We'll be announcing some sweet opportunities

to win merch, a free annual subscription,

and a bunch of other wacky stuff from us.

For those of you that sign up before May 31st,

'cause we are gonna have a little bit of a beta period,

which we'll be launching today actually.

- Right now. - You can sign up.

- Right now. - As of today,

the release of this video, April 19th.

- [Steven] Think of this beta period as a soft launch,

an opportunity for early adopters to sign up,

help us work out the kinks, and provide feedback

to make it a better experience for everybody.

- [Ryan] Yeah, the beta will be a transitional period

where you'll still be able to access content on YouTube,

but beginning May 31st, you'll need to become a member

of our streaming service to access full seasons

and new releases.

- [Shane] And as a thank you to our first members,

those that sign up before May 31st will have the opportunity

to vote to bring back your favorite show.

And not only that, but we're giving members who sign up

before May 31st, a whole 30% off

their annual subscription.

- So if you wanna become a member right now,

you can actually go to our description.

You can click on the link somewhere in the video.

But it's just watchertv.com. Super easy.

- That's right. - Watchertv.com.

- Watchertv.com. ♪ Watchertv.com ♪

- Watch your TV. - Watch your TV.

- Watch your TV. Watch watcher on your TV.

- Watch Watcher, watch watchertv.com.

(group laughing) - In all seriousness,

we really couldn't be more excited

for you guys to join us on this next chapter, hopefully.

We'd love for you guys to come along with us,

but at the same time, this is our final goodbye to YouTube.

And you know, if it's our goodbye to you,

I hope it's not, but if it is,

I do wanna say thank you

for supporting us all along the way.

- Your viewership has allowed us

to do all these wonderful things

that we've done these past four years,

and we hope that you'll come along for the ride.

- And help us continue to build.

Build this thing out even bigger.

That's the hope, at least.

But either way, it's been fun. Thanks, guys.

- Thank you.

(bright gentle music) (static crackling)