Well, from what I've seen/heard is 1. YouTube has always been a pain in the ass to RT and animation has never really been one to hit the front page (slaves to the algorithm and all that) and 2. Apparently, things like the app is them trying to prove their worth to AT&T/Warner Media and hold onto their IPs.
Youtube isn't a pain in the ass -
but they don't own the site and as a result don't make as much on advertising and have a harder time seeing a return on investment. The "App" (which apparently isn't out yet) is supposed increase the return on investment because RT would get 100% of AD profit instead of 55%. They also can't sell you "RoosterTeeth First" on YouTube either.
Additionally, they control the content on the APP - so if you watch an episode of RWBY on the App - you won't get a video called "RWBY sucks and here's why" as a suggested "follow up" video.
Sadly (or hilariously) no one at RT seems to know the "golden rule" of Youtube -
it's really hard to move your YouTube audience off of YouTube. Amazon/Twitch struggle with it massively; Microsoft/Mixer struggled with it massively; every YouTube competitor struggles with it massively; Viacom/CBS/Giantbomb/Gamespot struggle with it massively - and if those platforms couldn't "figure it out" I highly doubt RvB and RWBY are going to get a lot of people over to the RT app and they'll spend more money developing it than it'll ever make.
A smart plan would have been to
finish the fucking app first and then re-upload/amend all of your YouTube content to include ads for your app in order to drive people there and use the "new" shows as app exclusives.
They way they've done it now is to just throw their entire existing YT audience into the trash for no reason - on the
hope that the user
might go to RoosterTeeth.com and
maybe find the article about the new app that's coming
soon and will
hopefully be interested it in and
might remain interested in it to remember it when it releases at an
unspecified date in the future. It's the worst digital media strategy I've ever seen - with the exception of the XBOX ONE launch.
I'm in a pretty celebratory mood right now, so I'm gonna have to ask the question that's likely hanging over people's heads.
What part of "economy crippling pandemic" do these faggots not comprehend about?
Even if the App is free (there by side-stepping the economic angle) - it's still a
horrible idea. Much larger companies have tried and failed with various apps over the years and RoosterTeeth doesn't have a "real" catalogue to compete in the digital media space.