Rooster Teeth animation pulled from YouTube to maximize ad revenue

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Some of Rooster Teeth’s most popular content (e.g. Red vs. Blue and Camp Camp) is being pulled from YouTube. Kerry Shawcross and Rooster Teeth released this video to explain that the decision stems from the high cost and difficulty of producing animation, and viewers are encouraged to watch the content for free on the Rooster Teeth website going forward.
As is the case for all digital media, Rooster Teeth relies heavily on viewer support to fund projects. Content viewed on the RT website generates 5 to 10 times more revenue per ad compared to YouTube. Signing up for FIRST (RT’s subscription service) is the best way to support RT animators.
Here’s a statement of what Kerry had to say about the move:

Hey everyone, you’ve probably noticed that we’ve taken Red vs. Blue and Camp Camp off of YouTube recently. They’re still available for you to watch for free on the Rooster Teeth website. We wanted to let you all know why we’ve decided to do this. Kerry breaks it down in this video, but we’ll put it here too.

The short version is that animation is expensive and hard to make.

We love making shows like Camp Camp, RVB, and even shows you haven’t heard of yet. Some shows like RWBY come out of partnerships with studios and production/distribution companies. But for the most part, Rooster Teeth completely relies on support from viewers like you to make any of our shows.

We have been working hard to make the site the best it can be and watching on roosterteeth.com makes a huge difference. We make approximately 5 to 10x more money per ad watched there compared to ads watched on YouTube. Simply put, YouTube viewership alone just cannot fund our animation projects. We decided to move beloved shows like Camp Camp and RvB to our website to better fund future animation projects.

The absolute best way to support Rooster Teeth and our animators is to join FIRST. FIRST has an exponentially higher amount of support than watching ads on our site and even more than watching on YouTube.

Thank you as always for supporting Rooster Teeth, and loving our shows as much as you do. We’re so fortunate to have such a passionate community that cares about our content so much. With your continued support and understanding, we will continue to make badass, emotional, and hilarious animated content in the future.

Our Take

What’s interesting is that most major cable TV networks will use YouTube as a way to get younger eyeballs on a new property. Adult Swim does it with every new premiere, FOX just did it with Krapopolis, and somebody like a Glitch Productions does it as a business model.

About John Schwarz

John is the Chief Editor and Founder of Bubbleblabber.com. While at first a part-time project, Bubbleblabber quickly grew into a full-fledged operation and officially became a company in 2014. When John isn't running a business full-time, he likes to go to concerts with your mother.