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

When a streamer runs a block of ads, we select the amount of time we want the ads to run for, and that can be anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. However when we do that, all the viewer sees is the number of ads left, not the total time left. Since ads vary in length, that doesn't actually tell them how long until they're over.

Speaking for myself, it's pretty much a daily occurance to have someone post a message like "8 ads??" in my chat. And sometimes that number can be in the double digits. If viewers were either instead or in addition shown the total time left, like we select as the streamer, I think it'd reduce the shock of how many ads are coming, which should make for a better viewer experience.

Also kind of a side point, but if ad inventory is a problem, you could just display "Up to x:xx of ads left." I don't think anyone is going to complain about the timer being cut short.

This happens multiple times a week: I am ending my show. I am the performer but I want to choose somewhere to raid smoothly, as a gift to my community and to the streamer. I have 20-120 viewers, so I want to make it count.

I click around to my followed channels to check out what each one is doing. Perhaps a music stream is playing games. Perhaps a vintage stream is doing a special event techno set. It's important for me to listen to what 2-8 channels are like as I am simultaneously keeping my audience engaged.

But it's very frustrating when most of the channels I open in tabs play ads. I'm trying to pay attention to my performance. I don't want the loud commercial audible in my stream. The bright flashing animations light up my face. And I have to wait maybe a minute or so while I'm performing, so I can go listen. It takes a lot longer than it should.

Not only am I looking for a suitable vibe, I'm also hoping to find a smaller channel to gift an audience to. It is such a delight to cheer up a streamer with sweet new friends! This is also not very easy to do.

I know there's some kind of cookie where no ads are shown if you just saw one. And in theory, no ads show when raiding. Though I know that's a bit buggy. So it would be great to have the same grace period if you have been streaming successfully, with an audience, and you are still currently streaming as you browse.

Thank you!

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.

It would be AWESOME if you could give streamers the ability to give Streamers the ability to roll a few ads, and at the end of the ads gift out varying size Bit gifts. It would be a great way for streamers to give back and also potentially receive a kick back from bits won. Viewers/followers and subscribers could have different gifts available based on the tier they are in, and I really think it could be a fun way to engage/reward and grow back some of the loss felt from the bits for ads program that ended.
Thank you for your consideration and efforts!

As a streamer, it is incredibly frustrating to be in the dark about when ads are being run. Please add a feature to the stream manager that includes a countdown when the ads are running so that streamers can see both when they are being run and how much time left until they are finished. As it is, I have to rely either on my chat or have an incognito window up (which takes up valuable monitor space) just to be aware of when ads are running because they are not perfectly consistent with the schedule set in the ad manager.

Make it an option to play ads while your stream is static (meaning the streamer is not at the computer) This would be a great way for streamers to remove pre-rolls without sacrificing any content for the viewers watching.

How it would work: Twitch detects a static screen in a channel with the settings enabled. It then sends out a 30 second ad (Configurable by the streamer) The streamer comes back with a happy audience and with pre-rolls disabled for newcomers.

I'm no developer but I'm sure there's a drop in bitrate used whenever the screen is static, there's also no microphone output when the streamer is AFK.

I understand this feature will need a lot of fine-tuning but I think there is a demand for this from creators. I know for a fact streamers care about removing pre-rolls but sometimes it's hard to remember to run them during natural breaks in your stream.

Automating ads is pretty handy but automating non-intrusive ads is a win/win situation for everyone.

This feature request that I'm sharing is that Twitch should make a program for Twitch streamers to promote their channel. Instead of regular ads on the time, you get Twitch streamers. To order to get an ad, the streamer has to pay once a month to order to get their introduction ads out there. This feature should be open for every streamer, affiliate, or partner. Big or small. This Twitch streamer could be used ad banners or a normal 15-30 sec ad. The Twitch streamer has to introduce themselves, what type of content they do, show quick glimpses of their content and their community. I think this will help Twitch streamers to grow more on the platform. They will also have more self-control as well. Let me know what you think.