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

With the testing of Stream Display Ads, many creators are excited to begin using them as an alternative to disruptive full video advertisements. However, because preroll ads are still displaying, the main problem being voiced in my community still isn't being addressed: the disruptive nature of preroll ads.

To quote my friend Kit, a fellow streamer:
"Those [preroll ads] are so frustrating, especially hopping into a stream from a raid. Missing all the hi's and thank you's and welcomes because I gotta see a 90sec ad about totino's"

Stream Display Ads are a great alternative to full video ads, but only when they CAN be used as an alternative. Please give us the option to fully utilize these instead of forcing disruptions to our content.

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.

Simple put, this system is poorly designed and problematic. What it creates is a system where only the larger creators will see any amount of money, due to how low of value a single bit is. The creator you show on the help page only gets 5 bucks. My problem with this feature is that it doesn't address any of the problems with regular bits, and allows for even easier abuse of the system, unless you have extra stuff in place to decide who's vote counts for bits, will mean that people could bot their stream and get a ton of extra bits from a vote. This will mean streamers who usually have only a few viewers will never see any income from bits that people get from free. I'll admit, I use my ad bits to give them to streamers who I like who usually don't get a whole lot of viewers on average. Bits are already a flawed system that people don't really use because only a portion of the money is given to a streamer, as you take a cut of it, using a donation link in someone's subscription is better than buying bits, and that's the underlying problem with this system. Please revert back to the old system of ads, and fix its problems, instead of implementing a system that will only benefit large creators.

Preroll-disable functionality already exists, just have hypetrains add 5 minutes to that when they start, if the counter is at zero. Add more time if level-ups extend the hypetrain duration.

If a hypetrain is going, something hype is happening, right? Who wants to come into a channel during a HYPE moment, only to get slapped in the face with a preroll instead of joining in with everyone immediately?

The preroll revenue loss would be minimal, would encourage hypetrains (so a potential positive ROI), and be a win for everyone involved; adds functionality to the hypetrain product, and shows that Twitch cares about keeping the hype rolling full speed.

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.