The newest change from Twitch is creating community outrage among streamers and viewers alike, as the company has implemented a greedy advertising model that sees mid-stream advertisements run automatically. Twitch remains the most popular streaming platform on the internet, but growth from competitors like YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming has been steady enough that the Amazon-owned company has been experimenting with new ways to both improve its services and generate revenue.
Following Twitch over the last year has been a wild ride for everyone interested, as the platform appeared to experience growing pains at a quick clip. Last summer, Ninja departed the platform for Mixer before returning earlier this year after that experiment failed. Ninja's departure kickstarted a discussion on content creator salary and contracts, however, and since then several high-profile names have left Twitch in favor of other platforms - while others, like TimTheTatman, have doubled down on their presence on the purple brand. Between streamer turmoil, whatever happened with Dr. Disrespect, and the myriad controversies regarding the website's content, Twitch has been a constant source of spectacle, often at its expense.
It doesn't help when the company implements extremely greedy practices on its already mega-successful platform, but that's what happened yesterday. Twitch announced on its Twitch Help blog that the company will be instituting "new ad experiences" on Twitch that will trigger automatically mid-stream for some viewers. While content creators will be paid for these advertisements - which they will have no control over - they will happen during content, and only supplemented by a Picture-by-Picture feature that will minimize what the viewer is seeing. Twitch also announced the new advertisments on Twitter, which went predictably poorly.
In essence, it's a greedy move from a company that doesn't need to make it. Twitch is owned by Amazon, after all, and it's unlikely mid-stream advertising is going to benefit a creator enough that it will outweigh the many turned off from the platform because of the abysmal practice. With that said, Twitch has confirmed that this is a test, and that it's correlating feedback from both the Twitter responses and data from the experiment on the platform.
That means there is hope yet for Twitch walking back what has to be one of the most transparently greedy moves the company has made in recent memory. The most egregious part doesn't feel like the announcement itself, either - it's the position that this somehow benefits content creators, since they'll get paid for the ad. Yeah, the ad that mutes their content mid-stream and shrinks it down so it can play second-fiddle to another 15 second reel on The Boys season 2. Somehow, that doesn't add up - and thankfully, the community is calling Twitch out for it.