Dear Twitch,

I think I speak for most of the streaming community when I say we do NOT like your new mid-roll strategy. Ads are among the biggest annoyances on the site and the solution is not to give us more ads. Here are some ideas on making ads on Twitch better for both the creator and the viewer.

1. Give the creators an actual cut of the ad revenue
   Right now, this is absolutely peanuts when you compare it to other video content sites, it’s actually insane. This would make running ads also a bit more attractive for creators and viewers will know that these ads would actually support their favourite creators a lot more than now.




2. Make your ads shorter and skippable
   The ads that are currently running on Twitch are often way too long. Myself and other viewers have often skipped these ads by simply going to a different channel, that is not okay. That should not happen.




3. Consider adding closable lower third ads
   When you first launch a stream you can have a lower third ad hovering over the videoplayer. Be sure to make it so that viewers can click these away.




4. Let creators and viewers (individually) control mid-rolls
   I really like the fact that as a creator you can roll an ad, for instance, when you need to take a snack break or toilet break. What if we add a feature like that for every viewer. Let’s say you have a button somewhere next to the stream that viewers can opt for an ad to support their favourite creators, this way both the creator and the viewer has more control over when they want to see ads.




5. Bits for ads
   Why is this not a thing worldwide? This is such a nice concept and should be implemented all over the world because it gives the chance for viewers that can’t afford a sub or bits to give bits anyway by just saving them up by watching ads here and there. This can go hand in hand with the ad button for viewers.




6. A certain amount of paid subs (gift subs excluded) = Twitch Turbo
   Lastly, make it so that viewers that have a certain amount of paid subscriptions across multiple channels have Twitch Turbo perks. However, they could still opt to see ads to support a streamer with the button and still see mid-rolls from the streamer.

In summary, I think there is a lot to learn from other platforms in regards to ads on Twitch. These are just some loose ideas, I’m sure there are plenty of people that have better ideas than me or that can make these ideas even better. Thank you for reading and hopefully, maybe, something will be done with this.

Special shoutout to @HarrisHeller and @Jasper55RL (both on Twitter) for providing some of the points talked about in this post.

Automatic mid-roll ads would be much better for the streamer and viewers if there's ads that doesn't interrupt the stream audio content totally, instead just taking most of the screen to display the product/service advertised, with the stream visual being shown in the picture-in-picture. Leaving it as an option (if mid-roll ads have sounds or not) to the streamer would be the best so you could know what the creators want to have on their stream. I know silent ads usually doesn't pays as much as full video ads with sounds, but having less intrusive ads would allow you to play more ads before it's too much for the viewers and have them quit/use an ad blocker.

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.

After having read your new feature that allows streamers to disable Pre-Rolls by playing enough ads (30 seconds = 10 minutes), I think you've missed the mark slightly.

I DO think it's a good idea to disable the pre-roll for people discovering new content. As such, I believe a better implementation of the no preroll idea is the following:

• No pre-roll for users the FIRST time they join your stream BUT a forced 30 second 10 minutes into the stream if they stay.

This solves two problems. First, it solves the problem of discouraging people from discovering new content. You have clearly identified an issue with pre-rolls in how it impacts new viewers and presented the current solution. Second, it solves the financial issue by running the ad they would have seen in the pre-roll. It's the best of ALL worlds.

Ads are intrusive, annoying and serve no real value to a viewer or creator in a live streaming platform. But if they must exist, why not make them not so intrusive to the experience?

Currently the PIP solution does nothing good for either party. It still essentially shuts off the stream on a whim and if people don't know where to look, it's all but gone for the time the ad is running. Why not put the Ad window where the stream window goes now, and let the stream keep running as normal, so we continue our engagement with the creators and enjoy our time using the platform.

Would love to get more information on how automated mid-rolls will work -- and specifically instruction for streamers on how to avoid them, if possible.

In short, the idea your stream would be interrupted without your control is a scary concept. Either it's going to be better for streamers to control the mid-roll experience themselves, or the experience is something more experimental that isn't clear (vs. simply interrupting a stream).

In the Twitch Support initial Tweet it says "these [mid-roll ads] won't run if the viewer has an ad break." Can you clarify? FAQ seems to be missing how to control mid-rolls (e.g. randomly served) if the creator manually runs? It only discusses how to "disable pre-roll" in the FAQ.

As possible additional information, it would be great to get a potential range of how many viewers it might effect in what territories.

Regarding this page: https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/ad-experience-experiment?language=en_US