Since this change I've been driven further and further away from Twitch.tv as a platform. I find it ridiculous that the only way to not have to see this annoying Ad spam is by using my ONE prime sub or just not watching content on Twitch.tv. There is a major problem with that approach, and until something changes (and I'm certain thousands of others would agree here), I will no longer be using this platform for my viewing pleasure.I hope you guys get this figured out and find a better solution soon, like putting the Ads responsibility back on individual streamers, since that empowers THEM to generate revenue for themselves, as opposed to the obviously fake cop-out of "this ad supports -insert random streamer here- " since that just seems so disingenuous.

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

Most of ads should be skippable. Your site is a live streaming platform, you cannot force people to watch ads while they were watching something else that they will completely miss because of ads. Same concept goes for the first AD you are forced to watch as soon as you open one live stream. If im forced to watch something without any possibility to skip unless i close the whole page, i will 100% start hating on the promoted product just beause it is disturbing my plans.
Also giving people the possibility to spam as many ads as they want, looks like a streamer paradise, right, but it became fkn hell for others not streaming and just watching. There are more ads on twitch now than in tv. At this moment, twitch is comparable to any illegal movie streaming platform where they spam 100 ads per second to earn the most possible income. Legit feels the same.
Also. Why do you think youtube lets people ADBLOCK ads, instead of adopting a different system like you are doing here? (yep, ads are impossible to block on twitch)
Because someone just dont want to watch ads end of the story. Not even 1. By forcing people to watch ads no matter what (unless you pay of course) you are willingly pushing a decent slice of audience away from this site, since they just dont have a chance to navigate ads-free.
It might look like a smart idea in short terms since everyone now is obligated to watch the same amount of ads, still, on a long run, you will scare away a decent slice of people just because of this issue.
Remove your stupid in-stream impossible-to-block abusive unskippable ads.
PS. i had to watch the omen desktop ads at least 500 times in the past 2 weeks. I never meant to buy that crap and i never will, so, exactly, how is it effective in any way to keep spamming that sht to me since im obviously not interested, i wonder.
Also, promoters will soon understand how uneffective it actually is to promote stuff here, because of what i just explained, and you will eventually scare away advertisers too.
Also i basically stopped exploring rooms, because now i have to watch a damn AD everytime i close a stream to open another one. It got so boring that i basically stopped searching for rooms and im always watching the same people just to avoid the system triggering new ads.
Was anyone even thinking to all this issues, when you added this ads-system on twitch?
I honestly dont think so.
This is a gigantic mess.

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.

Currently, when some streamers play ads, their streams will still play in a little box at the top while ads play in the main video player. The problem comes when -- let's say something critical happens on stream, or chatter asks question you'd really like to know the answer to. You can't cash in on the information because the streamer's stream is either muted or gone during ads.

Yeah you can always go back and review the vods (unless streamer has them disabled) but that defeats the feeling you'd get out of experiencing whatever happened in the moment.

I don't mind ads that much but what if it were possible to have streamer audio playing at the same time as ads? Or be able to control the volume of ads vs. stream?

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

I know that twitch has been looking into ways to get around AdBlock and whatnot to ensure that ads get played, but: Consider less intrusive/annoying/irritating advertising. The majority of people are using AdBlock because they find ads annoying. You know, that stereotype CONGRATS YOU'VE WON A FREE PRIZE!!! flashing ad kind of thing?

If you were to make twitch advertising less intrusive, I believe it would help. Twitch ads already aren't that bad, but they could be improved in a number of possible ways:

• Make the advertisement only hijack the video feed, not the audio. With the advertisements jumping into both the audio and the video, there is a disconnect. Viewers come back into the stream after the advertisement is over going "Wait, what happened? What did you say?" and streamers have to repeat themselves or explain what just happened. Like, take Pokémon Shiny Hunting or Wifi Battling: If a streamer finds the shiny or somehow has a great comeback, the audience is going to miss that and say, "Wait, you got it? :/" Maintaining the audio feed allows for some reduced level of connectivity and immersion while at the same time allows for advertisements to come through.

• Text-based pop-ups, like on youtube. You know those little grey rectangles that pop up on youtube that you can just x your way through? Have those, but maybe even disable Xing out of them for thirty seconds or whatnot. A small grey box isn't that bad; maybe it's not worth as much and thus can have a higher frequency of appearing, but I'd definitely be willing to sit through more of those than normal advertisements.

• Select preferred advertisers. An ad isn't very effective (or even worse, counterproductive) when it's thrust in the face of someone who doesn't exactly care for or dislikes what the ad is showing. Like, no, no matter how many times you stick LOL in my face, I'm... Just not interested. But if it's for, say, Pokémon or Nintendo in general, I'm more "Yeah, okay" in regards to the ad. It's just a more positive experience to see what you want: If we have to have ads (and really, they are not that bad, and it keeps people in their homes and fed, so we kind of do), I would be much much less annoyed if I had my choice of what kind of advertising I would want shown to me. Show me what I want, and it makes it a more pleasant experience. Have a checklist or drop-down in a user settings page to allow people to opt into getting certain company ads targetted at them. (Like, Nintendo ads, Sony ads, Microsoft ads, etc.)

Again, ads are not Bad: They keep people paid. It's either ads or total 100% subscription only services. And twitch is great as a platform and as a company. But I just think there's still room to make even ads a more positive experience. (Like, how many places can you say, Even the advertising is okay?) Idk. I want to support my favourite streamers, but sometimes it's like, Come on, I don't want to see this :( There's definitely still room to grow.

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!

I understand that ads are necessary to support twitch and streamers, and while I don't like it, I can deal with it. But one thing is SUPER annoying - when an ad pops up right when something exciting is happening/about to happen and everyone misses the action. At least TV ads have the courtesy to play during breaks - imagine if an ad came on while the super bowl-winning touchdown pass was in the air!

If we can't outright remove or skip ads (understandable), how about having a simple button pop up in a corner of the stream when an ad plays labeled 'delay' that temporarily dismisses the ad or ad series and sets it to come back in 3-5 minutes or so. (The button would not be present the second time, so you can't just keep delaying forever.) This way twitch still gets its ad viewing time, but viewers can at least try to prevent it from hijacking the stream at exactly the wrong moment.

Right now theres not enough control over how a streamer runs an their stream with the new mid-rolling. However, a feature that can be added is to disable for 20 - 30 minutes mid-rolls for the stream per 30 second ad break and mid and pre-roll per 60 second. That way, a streamer can plan their ad breaks and work around them, especially for competitive games like overwatch, LOL, CSGO, etc. Even for non-competitive games, allowing a streamer the ability to control the flow of the stream by implementing an ad break to avoid mid rolls allows them to build better relationships with viewers.

I understand that this would interfere with the dynamism of an algorithm controlled mid-rolling that would mid-roll different viewers at different times, but if the base product is deeply affected the revenue source will also be deeply affected. And the base product of twitch is the relationship between streamers and viewers.