After 21 years, Rooster Teeth is shutting down.
“Since inheriting ownership and control of Rooster Teeth from AT&T following its acquisition of TimeWarner, Warner Bros. Discovery continued its investment in our company, content and community,” Rooster Teeth General Manager Jordan Levin said in a company memo. “Now however, it’s with a heavy heart I announce that Rooster Teeth is shutting down due to challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage.”
Around 150 staff are being affected, plus dozens of contractors and freelancers. A post from Rooster Teeth Community Manager Chelsea Atkinson asked that fans remember everyone at Rooster Teeth is “processing this in real time just like you,” and announced there will be a livestream about the closure March 7 on the Rooster Teeth website.
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The Austin-based media company was founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Joel Heyman, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, and Gus Sorola. It produced well-known series like Red vs. Blue, RWBY, and gen:LOCK, as well as thousands of videos from digital content divisions like its gaming arm Achievement Hunter. It also grew to host an annual fan convention, RTX, and launched its own streaming service, FIRST.
Rooster Teeth was acquired by multichannel network Fullscreen in 2014. Fullscreen was then acquired by Otter Media–a joint venture between AT&T and The Chernin Group–in 2018. Later that year, AT&T bought out Chernin’s stake in Otter and folded Rooster Teeth into WarnerMedia, which was spun off into its own entity in 2021 and then merged with Discovery in 2022, resulting in the creation of Rooster Teeth’s current corporate owner, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.
Also in 2022, Rooster Teeth faced allegations of fostering a toxic work environment with low pay.
According to Levin’s memo, Rooster Teeth’s podcast division The Roost is the sole part of the company that will continue operations, because Warner Bros. Discovery is interested in selling it. The Roost hosts more than 20 podcasts from creators like Smosh, Anthony Padilla, The Try Guys, Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart, and Theo Vonn, as well as its own flagship The Rooster Teeth Podcast.
“We have many questions to answer in the coming days and weeks, and the opportunity to work together to implement the best way to wind things down for us and our community,” Levin said. “We’re working through what comes next in real time, and we will be as open, direct, and accessible as possible. Thank you all in advance for your patience and support of one another.”
Per Deadline, Rooster Teeth’s shutdown process will take several months. Levin confirmed there are plans to release the final season of Red vs. Blue during that time.
