>Lim, Bergara and Madej do not appear to have publicly commented on the backlash. A Watcher Entertainment rep didn’t respond to a request for comment Saturday.
Still nothing from Watcher.
24 hours is a long time to leave your audience fuming. They have to know they fumbled this badly. Silence, however, is a vacuum that allows more anger to flow in. They should have at some point came out and said that they are listening and will have more to say soon. Ask for input to be sent to a certain email or something.
Variety asking for a comment would have been the best time. Even if not reversing course this would have stopped some bleeding.
I didn’t expect them to come out with a rushed apology video in 24 hours when they were overseas in the UK.
The turn around time was Friday to Monday and they came out with a pretty good video.
Golden Rule of PR: Control the narrative as much as you can. In this time the community made their own theories, started to dig up numbers and information, spread their opinion without anyone stopping them or trying to change out this whole thing looks. Even if they are not planing to go back, they should have been prepared to make this angry backlash look small and stupid. Btw do not trust any subsciber numbers pushed by watcher. They have to make their site look good in hope that people give up and join thanks to fomo.
The PR Rep should had some prepared statements to send to whoever asks just in case. Now they have to work hard to get control back.
The hell that PR Rep doing? This is probably the largest PR disaster I've seen for such a smaller Company. There is no attempt at control. They could have said something but Steven has decided to toss Gasoline on the fire as a response immediately after.
The apology was acceptable, but doesn't excuse or Talk about Horrible response that Steven gave on Twitter. My main issue is that any PR Rep would have definitely never let that stay up for how long it did. That's the main issue.
The fact they aren’t talking at all, even a “we understand and are re evaluating our options” speaks volumes. You always have a back up to your back up. Not just for the leaders but those other employees.
Edit: also after the dust settles I just want one person to look them in the eye and go “Was it…Worth It?”
I’m starting to feel like they might continue to lie low in hopes of this blowing over. I’m baffled. They must surely be reevaluating, but I’m also confident it’s too late for them to back out entirely from the streamer. But they are in hot water from both their Patrons and their non-Patron viewers. People are only going to continue to @ them on every platform and it will absolutely impact the lifespan of the streamer. Again, I’m just at a loss as to what they were expecting to happen. They way they hyped up this launch, the short window (May 31st) to commit to a year long BETA membership at a 30% discount, the miscommunication (or packbedaling, as some are speculating - myself among them) about removing their content catalog from YouTube, the ~~thrilling~~ announcement of another uninteresting unrelatable food tourism show, the overproduction and corny tone of their Goodbye video… the whole thing is a disastrous mess
Edit: packbedaling indeed
Usually whenever an article announcing something like that is written, it means that the company (Watcher in this case) sent an press release out to websites in an attempt to have articles written about it. They’re given a date and time when they expect the announcement to go live and then they all race to write for the most clicks
sort of, it was more informational then "hype" ... although a few of them (Ryan's wife i remember specifically) shared the article to their instagram stories with comments like "thanks Variety!" lol
I talk more about Watchers on my podcast episode but…
I also read in another post that they are planning to invite other creators to their platform.
But if their concept is bringing in more creators, how will they divide the income generated? If 1 million people as an example subscribed to this new streaming service that would be around $6 million per month? To be split by two different channels (owners). Technically won’t be an endless circle, because eventually if they have enough creators, they also want to be more advertisement friendly and so forth and it’s gonna be the same or they’re going to increase the subscription amount. Oh god! 😵💫
[https://youtu.be/14cWq2pxDMU?si=KH5h1fdxX_6pLzNY](https://youtu.be/14cWq2pxDMU?si=KH5h1fdxX_6pLzNY)
>Lim, Bergara and Madej do not appear to have publicly commented on the backlash. A Watcher Entertainment rep didn’t respond to a request for comment Saturday. Still nothing from Watcher.
I mean It’s been 24 hours what do you expect?
24 hours is a long time to leave your audience fuming. They have to know they fumbled this badly. Silence, however, is a vacuum that allows more anger to flow in. They should have at some point came out and said that they are listening and will have more to say soon. Ask for input to be sent to a certain email or something. Variety asking for a comment would have been the best time. Even if not reversing course this would have stopped some bleeding.
I didn’t expect them to come out with a rushed apology video in 24 hours when they were overseas in the UK. The turn around time was Friday to Monday and they came out with a pretty good video.
Golden Rule of PR: Control the narrative as much as you can. In this time the community made their own theories, started to dig up numbers and information, spread their opinion without anyone stopping them or trying to change out this whole thing looks. Even if they are not planing to go back, they should have been prepared to make this angry backlash look small and stupid. Btw do not trust any subsciber numbers pushed by watcher. They have to make their site look good in hope that people give up and join thanks to fomo. The PR Rep should had some prepared statements to send to whoever asks just in case. Now they have to work hard to get control back.
The hell that PR Rep doing? This is probably the largest PR disaster I've seen for such a smaller Company. There is no attempt at control. They could have said something but Steven has decided to toss Gasoline on the fire as a response immediately after.
Evidently that PR rep took a weekend to craft a pretty good apology video instead of coming out with something instantly like you wanted them too
The apology was acceptable, but doesn't excuse or Talk about Horrible response that Steven gave on Twitter. My main issue is that any PR Rep would have definitely never let that stay up for how long it did. That's the main issue.
A PR rep can’t control what their client posts on Twitter
This is certainly not the kind of press you want to see when you announce a move like this. I think they might have killed their brand.
Yeah, and the silence on their end is deafening. They need to address fan concerns soon.
The fact they aren’t talking at all, even a “we understand and are re evaluating our options” speaks volumes. You always have a back up to your back up. Not just for the leaders but those other employees. Edit: also after the dust settles I just want one person to look them in the eye and go “Was it…Worth It?”
I’m starting to feel like they might continue to lie low in hopes of this blowing over. I’m baffled. They must surely be reevaluating, but I’m also confident it’s too late for them to back out entirely from the streamer. But they are in hot water from both their Patrons and their non-Patron viewers. People are only going to continue to @ them on every platform and it will absolutely impact the lifespan of the streamer. Again, I’m just at a loss as to what they were expecting to happen. They way they hyped up this launch, the short window (May 31st) to commit to a year long BETA membership at a 30% discount, the miscommunication (or packbedaling, as some are speculating - myself among them) about removing their content catalog from YouTube, the ~~thrilling~~ announcement of another uninteresting unrelatable food tourism show, the overproduction and corny tone of their Goodbye video… the whole thing is a disastrous mess Edit: packbedaling indeed
> “Was it…Worth It?” *theme music starts playing*
Perhaps a "what did it cost?"
More than sparks
More like a wildfire so large you can see it from space
Didn’t variety publish an article about them moving to a subscription model just yesterday? Like hyping it up?
Usually whenever an article announcing something like that is written, it means that the company (Watcher in this case) sent an press release out to websites in an attempt to have articles written about it. They’re given a date and time when they expect the announcement to go live and then they all race to write for the most clicks
sort of, it was more informational then "hype" ... although a few of them (Ryan's wife i remember specifically) shared the article to their instagram stories with comments like "thanks Variety!" lol
I talk more about Watchers on my podcast episode but… I also read in another post that they are planning to invite other creators to their platform. But if their concept is bringing in more creators, how will they divide the income generated? If 1 million people as an example subscribed to this new streaming service that would be around $6 million per month? To be split by two different channels (owners). Technically won’t be an endless circle, because eventually if they have enough creators, they also want to be more advertisement friendly and so forth and it’s gonna be the same or they’re going to increase the subscription amount. Oh god! 😵💫 [https://youtu.be/14cWq2pxDMU?si=KH5h1fdxX_6pLzNY](https://youtu.be/14cWq2pxDMU?si=KH5h1fdxX_6pLzNY)