Rooster Teeth Pulls Animated Shows From YouTube, Urges Fans to Stream Them on RTs Site So It Can Generate More Ad Revenue

Rooster Teeth has pulled some content off YouTube, claiming the video platform’s ad-supported economics don’t make sense.

Rooster Teeth, Warner Bros. Discovery’s fandom, gaming and comedy entertainment brand, has removed some of its most popular animated shows, including “Red vs. Blue” and “Camp Camp,” from YouTube. In a video posted Thursday on Instagram, Kerry Shawcross, a Rooster Teeth showrunner and writer who has worked on “RWBY,” “Red vs. Blue” and more, said the decision was driven by the high cost of producing animation, and he encouraged viewers to watch the content for free on the Rooster Teeth website going forward.

According to Shawcross, ad-supported content viewed on the Rooster Teeth website generates 5-10 times more revenue per ad compared with YouTube.

“YouTube revenue just is not cutting it for us right now… It just doesn’t make sense to have our whole back catalog on YouTube anymore,” Shawcross says in the video. “Animation’s hard and it’s expensive… Ultimately it’s about making sure that your support is going as far as it can go.”

He added that signing up for FIRST, RT’s subscription service that starts at $5.99/month, is also a great way to show support for Rooster Teeth’s original animation content.

Rooster Teeth turned 20 years old this year, and launched new logos along with a new tagline, “Just Playing.” The Austin, Texas-based company was an internet video pioneer, with its first viral video in 2003 with “Red vs Blue,” an animated comedy series that popularized machinima.

In 2014, RT was bought by Fullscreen, which in turn was bought by Otter Media (a joint venture of AT&T and Chernin Group) before Rooster Teeth became part of WarnerMedia under AT&T’s ownership. Last year, Discovery closed the acquisition WarnerMedia to form Warner Bros. Discovery. 

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