Right now Partners and Affiliates have the ability to give their subscribers 'ad free viewing'. I think subscribers should be able to opt-in to watching ads on a channel their subscribed to even if the channel has 'ad free viewing' turned on for subscribers.
There's not many ways you can have an ad feature that is a win for everyone involved, but I think this is one of those ways.

For Twitch:
- More ads watched on their site.

For Streamers:
- More ad revenue, while also keeping 'ad free viewing' as a perk for those who want to subscribe.

For Viewers:
- More control/choice over the content they're watching. The would be able to toggle ad free viewing on or off depending on if they want to see ads or not.

Some people may wonder why even have this as a feature?
My reason is because right now the streamer only gets ad revenue for ads that are viewed. If you have 'ad free viewing' turned on for subscribers, then none of those viewers will see the ads. If a channel's viewers are made up of mostly subscribers then no ad revenue is being made from an ad break. If anything that ad break is turning away non-subscribers who are the only one's seeing the ads.
Some subscribers may want the ability to support the channel their watching through viewing an ad so the streamer gets that ad revenue. It would be 100% voluntary by the subscriber to toggle on, and give them another way to support Twitch and it's streamers.

I feel that a few of features that are new, or in testing, on Twitch had a dedicated place on the page to run instead obstructing streams , or flashing up in chat.

Having a small area (maybe the top 1/4 of the chat area on desktop) to host these features wouldn't be that intrusive, and could be used as a place to display small ads for non-subs, and maybe the area could be used for the streamer to host custom apps (like overlays) for subscribers.

I'm a huge fan of consistency, so having an area like that to test new features without disrupting the viewing experience (even if it does show ads most of the time) is a huge.

I formulated the title drastically because it‘s a serious problem lately happening on Twitch and don’t see that getting addressed from them, at least not in the level as it should.

I said it several times on social media and i also say it here: Twitch is ruining their ads business, constantly and -seems like- willingly:
- The sheer amount of ads which you face as a viewer of the platform is simply ridiculous
- You‘ve guys taken the control of the ads out of the hands of the content creators
- You implement changes to the ad system without notifying anybody nor testing it out
- the Ads for bits function is not working

So, let me explain that points one by one:
— Amount of Ads —
If i enter a stream (the so called „pre-roll ads“) the player tells me:
- „Ad 1 of 2“, then ofc „Ad 2 of 2“ and then it starts over again, 8 times in a row.
- Which makes by
- - an average ad length of 10 seconds (lowest value in Twitch advantage and easier to calculate here),
- - 20 seconds per „block“
- - which makes it 160 Seconds or over 2,5 Minutes i watch ads.
I really have to ask you Twitch: Are you guys kidding us?

Not is that just annoying, which leads me (and many others i spoke with) to leave the site. Which means the tab will be closed. And your mid-roll ads have the same issue.

— No Control for Content Creators —
Yeah when we are at the mid-roll ads let‘s come to a good point. You guys implement the mid-roll ads without any control for the content creators.

Okay, the streamers can trigger ads to push the mid-rolls out, but that‘s not the control i‘m talking about. It‘s about the content won‘t be interrupted suddenly by an ads in the worse timing, well how could we prevent that? OH by giving the streamers the fully control about the ad placement for example.

You guys know that streamers suffer from your „fantastic test“ right? They loosing viewers which leave the channel because of the mid-roll ads, they try to come back but the ads keep playing and playing and they won‘t come back. Many Streamers i spoke with recommended their viewers to install adblockers to keep them in the channel! If that is not an indicator to you Twitch that something is completely wrong with your ads then i recommend to not be ad based anymore.

— Implementation Failures and Bugs —
We, as Twitch Viewers, are already used to bugs all over the place: Emotes and Badges don‘t load, Whisper Function does often not working.

But the implementation of the mid-roll ads, takes failure to a whole new level! Not that nobody was informed, not partnered streamers, affiliates, normal streamers or viewers. The mid-rolls have also been served to subscribers of channels which is a complete no-go. Obviously nobody tested that before implementing it into production or the test methods are not working at all.

— Ads for Bits Function —
Okay, let‘s leave that all to the side and imagine: We want to watch ads and get something for it, like bits. Welp that‘s also not working.

For months i can‘t use the „ads for bits“ function, at all. Strange when i see that you guys can serve the ads over 2 minutes, but if i want bits to watch ads there are suddenly no ads?!? Why don‘t you use the amazon ads here, why i don‘t see the other ads here? The only time a user would get a literal benefit from watch the ads you block the function? I have to repeat myself: Are you guys kidding me?

I wish Twitch would think more about the user and the content creators and simply not backstabbing on both of them by spamming the user with ads and barely severing and of the revenue to the streamer

User controlled ad experience:

-Users run their own ads to build up an "ad immunity" duration for their current account.
-This ad immunity duration will allow the user to view streams without encountering preroll/midroll/other ads for this period.
-Longer the ads watched the longer the ad free duration.
-Can have an upper limit of ad free viewing time, requiring additional ad viewing to top off the duration.
-Users can choose who gets the ad revenue share, depending on where they trigger the ads to view. Either with a channel they want to support, or give the share to Twitch. Use button prompt to choose revenue split and keep user engaged with the ads.

Ad Gamification:
Give users more incentive to run ads themselves via daily/weekly/monthly goals to work towards.
+Rewards can include but not limited to:
-bits
-exclusive emotes
-exclusive temporary emote edit options
-exclusive badges

Example,
Ads season pass goal can include:
-Watch ten 30 seconds ads: rewards X bits
-Shared ad revenue with X amount of channels: thumbs up emote edit option for 24 hours
-Viewed one hundred 30 seconds ads: 1 random ad emote
-Viewed one thousand 30 seconds or longer ads: tier 1 ads badge

The main idea is to allow users to run ads on their own time, and give themselves an uninterrupted time to visit Twitch and view familiar or new content creators. Users understand the importance of advertising, but they do not have any control over how that is presented to them (currently being slammed with ads with every visit/refresh).
Give users the control for ads, allow them to customize their ad experience, and even personalized ad preferences so they're more open to the idea of the product/services being shown.

Let the ads be a positive experience for everyone, Twitch users understand games, let this be fun and profitable at the same time.

Instead of having only pre-rolls and mid-rolls, I suggest including an ad credit system. Whenever people watch ads, they'll earn credits (similar to how bits used to work) and will be able to spend these credits to "skip" ads on channels they watch. This can be done in a few ways. I suggest having an ad stream where people can accumulate credits or some type of ad viewer of equivalence. This way, people would be able to accumulate as many credits as they want, to afford the price of a skip button on ads. This has absolutely no down side for viewers as there is a way to abuse the system. Should the ads be similar to a stream or video feed system, viewers could potentially afk and farm ads while doing other things or while their favorite streamer is offline. This "abuse" of the system doesn't have any downside for twitch either. In fact, the downside is towards advertisers. There's no reason to pay for ads if no one will actively watch it. People would just open a tab and switch tabs accumulating as many ad skipping points as possible. However, to avoid this, it could be coded in a way where if the tab is not open, it does not count. I know this is possible. Then what's the point? Viewers would have to watch ads regardless. No, this can be done by just leaving the window open while you do other things. Of course, those with multiple monitors would be able to abuse this but it's unavoidable. This can also be abused on the phone by leaving the ads on the phone constantly on. Any advertisers who complain about this abuse system clearly doesn't realize that they would not know in the current state whether people just walk away when ads play anyway. So their claims that this is the case would not be valid.

All in all, a system where viewers are able to watch ads whenever they want to earn credits to use to skip ads on streams would be something to give thought. This also benefits streamers and lets them earn money through ads by just counting how many skip ads are used on their channel. This would register as a viewer watched an ad from them and they'll earn their portion. Of course, those people who do not have enough points will have to sit through the entire ad.

I hope something like this can be implemented. I enjoy watching twitch and I must admit the amount of ads are insane. I understand their importance but there is a difference between twitch and tv. While tv specifically choose segments to cut and showcase an ad, the content is paused. On the other hand, twitch is live. Therefore, no content can be paused at all. Ads make people miss a lot and although the top right viewer feature was greatly appreciated, it definitely still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

What I would like to see is people who hold multiple concurrent subscriptions, say 4 or 5 and up, to be allowed to have a site-wide advertisement-free experience.

Currently Turbo is the only option for an ad-free experience site-wide. Prime used to have it, but it was removed as a benefit for Prime (even though Prime costs more). Personally I find Turbo to be very unappealing for its cost, especially when I already have Prime which comes with most of its other perks.

I'd rather spend that money unlocking emotes in other streamer's channels as I feel it makes me more connected to the community of those streamers. I'm sure others may have similar reasons for getting individual subscriptions over Turbo.

I don't see why people with this many, or even a dozen or more subs, have to endure ads on the site when they provide enough money to Twitch as it is. They shouldn't have to make a choice between subscribing to more channels or getting Turbo, in my opinion. Especially with how little the ad revenue helps channels in comparison.

This would also help with subscription numbers for smaller channels, as people will be more willing to subscribe to multiple channels to unlock an ad-free experience, or be putting the money they would otherwise spend on Turbo towards more subscriptions.

If you guys are going to completely FORCE ads down our throats, you need to do one of three things:
1) By far the easiest solution - Make Ads Skippable after X seconds.
2) Make ads something that pops up as a Picture in Picture in the corner or something when a stream is running. I honestly like this one the best because I honestly wouldn't have an issue checking out whatever is being advertisted as well as (and I cant stress this enough) NOT MISSING STREAM CONTENT because someone wants to run 7-10 15-30 second ads in a row. That's beyond insane.
3) Make Prime Subs ad free.

Ads are ENTIRELY too intrusive now and I've found a workaround for Ads now, fortunately, but this needs to be fixed. I don't mind ads if they support the streamer but NOT at the expense of my viewing experience. Joining a stream to check out what's happening and then being forced to wait 30 seconds to actually see something is by far one of the worst things about the ad viewing experience. STOP.

If interaction breaks, momentum dies. There are dozens of ways to keep the momentum flowing while an ad is playing-- just look at all of the YouTubers who get sponsored and do skits/product placement during their videos.

Example: If the streamer has the ability to temporarily defer ads and play them back to back, ("collecting" an ad every 15 mins or so, to play 6 at the end of 1.5 hours,) this gives the streamer more control on when their intended content is interrupted-- or, even better, an option to play the ads FIRST in order to unlock SUBSTANTIAL ad-free time, with a timer to your next unlock.

How to not break momentum during those collected ads? Don't mute the stream! The streamer hits "play" on the ads when they are ready, and the streamer can INTERACT with the viewers during the ads. This could mean picture-in-picture, or it could be a visual ad while the streamer is sound-only for commentary on that ad.

Above all else, do not allow ads to be punishing. Make them part of the experience, and the STREAMER controls that experience.

As a streamer myself I understand that people like their own Twitch page to be theirs to control. A lot of people disable ads on their own channel and a lot will also run them willingly while streaming. Try giving more options we can opt into on our own channels. Without blocking our content at the same time, unless we choose to do so. Here's an idea or so:

• Brb ads
  (We already have, and do get used. Nice example to start)

• Lower thirds
  (Could allow us to set them to pop up as often as we like. Minimum of every X minutes that you (Twitch) can make a pre requisite for signing up.)

• Chatbox ads
  (For me personally, my average chatbox can show roughly 20 messages. Will be different for everyone with resolutions and zoom. We don't NEED to see those messages all the time. We've already read the ones at the top. Add an option where occasionally the top half of the box contains an ad.)

• Ads for channel points
  (I understand that the bit ads actually cost you too. With bits being a real currency. However, channel points are just data. Totally free on your end (I assume). Why not offer people an option to boost channel points with an ad? In fact I'll take this one slightly further. EVERYONE loves emotes. We all strive to unlock as many as we can! If we could make community pools where the viewers work together to hit a goal that could unlock emote slots! This way it costs nobody anything. And we all win. Granted, there are viewers who already have a ton of channel points. This may ruin it. If that's a big issue then make a second set of points. Name them ad points and only allow those to be used.)

• Panel Ads
  (We all have panels below our streams, and yes they don't get seen all too often. But they are there. use them, offer us to have an ad space down there with our other tabs. These are probably my weakest idea but it's worth a shot.)

• Ad timer
  (If you do keep the mid-roll ads, stick a timer on screen a minute in advance. Inform us "Ad running in 0:59", This allows us to prepare for it an advance. Pause our games, move to a intermission screen, whatever it may be. At least this way they don't pop out of nowhere and people miss you getting the final blow on the hard mode boss you've been grinding for over 3 days)

Hope even just 1 of these ideas helps somehow. Good luck!

So mid-roll ads are going to happen, if we like it or not

How about telling the creator before they happen so that they still have time to do an ad break on their terms?

What if 10min before a mid-roll ad would take place the ad button in the stream manager turns red and displays a 10min countdown. The creator will have 10min to do an ad break on his/her terms - if he/she does, no (additional) mid-roll ad; if he/she doesn’t, play the mid-roll ad after the countdown is over

That way you get what you want which is people watching ads, while creators still get some sort of control over it

If you guys used the same logic for bounty board on ads you could have a much easier time getting us to run them. I used to make hundreds a month in 2011 from ads and now despite growing etc etc I only push viewers away spamming them for MAYBE a few bucks if I'm lucky.

Myself and many others would likely be more happy to run ads if we had a target goal of "ad hours per month" that based on our viewership could fluctuate but would generally give us a target.

Example: Currently I stream 5ish hours a day, if you wanted 10 minutes of ads every hour and could guarentee I make even 20 bucks from the stream I would happily do it (as this would turn into 250+ revenue for the month minimum for me). As is, you will never get me to push my viewers away so I can make 5 extra dollars for the whole month.

Give better CPM rates or make deals with us, this is the only good solution.