Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down Rooster Teeth

It’s the end of an era. Rooster Teeth is officially being shut down by Warner Bros. Discovery, and the process is expected to take several months. 

Deadline reports that Rooster Teeth general manager Jordan Levin made the announcement at a company wide meeting and in an internal memo.

“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,” Levin wrote. 

Even though media companies are currently experiencing some extreme volatility, Rooster Teeth’s closure still comes as a shock. In his memo, Levin noted that the shutdown is going to be an ongoing process, and we won’t be seeing Rooster Teeth vanish immediately. The Rooster Network Podcast will continue for the time being, and it may even be acquired by another company. Also, the Rooster Teeth content that Warner Bros. currently has in production will still get released, which means we’ll be getting one final season of Red vs. Blue.

Rooster Teeth began its pioneering foray into online content in 2003 – that’s before YouTube, for anyone who can’t remember – and it helped to absolutely transform the industry. It became a part of Warner Bros. Discover when AT&T acquired Time  Warner in 2018, but, as Levin wrote in his memo, “Despite passing through many corporate owners, Rooster Teeth transcended a media business and was a dynamic movement that shaped the bond between communities, creators, and storytelling.” 

Levin also aptly notes, “Rooster Teeth’s closure isn’t merely an end; it reflects broader business dynamics.” Rooster Teeth’s shutdown comes at a time when Warner Bros. as a whole is undergoing big changes, with the company announcing just days ago that it’s changing its game development strategy.

For a while now, Warner Bros. has been pursuing aggressive cost-cutting measures. In August 2022 it shelved a finished Batgirl movie, opting to use the film as a tax write-off instead, and it repeated the move with Coyote vs ACME in 2023. That’s not even getting into all the HBO Max projects that disappeared in the wake of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger just a couple of years ago. Everyone across the entertainment industry is feeling the strain of monetization demands, advertiser flights, and increasingly corporatized spaces.