I'd take it a step further:

Since the average view time is usually around 45min (unless it's changed in the last year), allow ad free on raid or new viewer for 30min across the board. This would allow browsing of new streams to promote discoverability and enhance the overall viewing experience while keeping people on platform.

Raiders getting ads instantly, succumbs the goal of a raid: getting to know another streamer. You're losing a lot of them instantly, all because they think the streamer is greedy, while it's actually the platform pushing these in their face without the streamers knowledge (even if they unticked any relevant setting).

if i get pre roll ads i immediately close the streams.

well, now i dont get any ads bc of using an adblocker. the preroll and other intrusive ads as well as the massive volume discrepancy between content and ads forced me to use an adblocker.

also i personally am way more likely to pay for a service if i dont get completely shafted from all sides while not paying at first.

I think this is a great compromise. Discovering new channels is difficult when you have to sit through ads just to find out of you care about what's being shown at all. With discover-ability being as bad as it is I think forced pre rolls for first time viewers only makes things worse. This makes viewers that, if they don't have a go to streamer streaming, may just not watch twitch streams.If someone is familiar with the content however, they'll sit through the ada in their next time around.

I've not watched a single new streamer for months because I have to sit through a huge block of ads to see if I'm interested. I watch one single streamer I'm subbed to now.

If you're viewing a stream for the first time, you should get AT LEAST 5 minutes before seeing an ad.

Y'all are just crippling your actual money makers, the content creators. We aren't here for the ads, we're here to support the streamers.

If y'all got rid of all the ads, you'd still make money through content creators.

If y'all got rid of all the content creators, you'd have absolutely nothing.

So which is actually more important to your company? The fact this post is 4 years old kinda answers that.

getting a 30 sec preroll when opening a channel to just have a look how they are, makes me immediately close that channel before even 1 sec of ad did run, not investigating 30 sec to wait until i can descide in 3 sec if i wanna stay or not.

also often after an preroll ad was run, the stream is delayed by the time of the ad, when pressing pause and play in the twitch player or press F5 to reload the stream, another preroll comes up. thats part of the reason why i immediately quit when prerolls come up.

i'd rather spend an hour each week to find out which ad blocker currently works best, than letting ads run

i think a better way would be to delay prerolls for e.g. 30sec after joining a channel, so people have the chance to descide it they wanna stay or not, instead of just being annoyed and frustrated after opening and closing a few channels all having prerolls and quit twitch entirely

Simply put - this is a platform for content creators. You're cutting them off at the knees by making people who aren't subscribed and just clicked on them out of curiosity suffer through ads. For me, if I see an ad, I simply close the tab. There is no content worth suffering through an ad. At least YouTube has a place to click to close the ad after 5 or 10 seconds. Your revenue comes from our subscriptions. THAT is your revenue, and all the revenue you need for what you provide. If you can't make it work, someone else will.

Why should I try out new streamer when i get advertisements within 0 second watchtime. I just stop the stream, cause u annyoing me. STOP THE ADS WITHIN 0 SECONDS/BEFORE I WATCH A STREAM. I don't know if the stream is even worth the advertisement so i just close the window and move on .....

trying to see what a new streamer I've never seen before is offering and I'm bombarded with seven 30 second ads before even seeing their stream. Lmao I'm clicking off

This would be great!

Agree.

I got annoyed by these ads many times when joining some streams out of curiosity. You know what? I quit their stream straight, without them having a chance to show themselves to me, because I'm already annoyed!

It’s f'in ridiculous to get an Ad right after clicking a stream holy S, how is people supposed to see if they are interested in the stream if they can’t see. Who’s the genius that made that decision.

I have the same issue as kefetor, I load up a random stream -> see a pre-roll, I instantly click to another stream that I follow as I cannot be bothered to sit there and first watch 2-3 minutes of some ****** ad, but then that next stream also loads up a pre-roll, at which point I click the little X in the top corner and I open up youtube which has also pre-roll ads but atleast those are a bit more managable.

All you have done twitch, with these pre-roll **** is fend people away from your platform, people that have donated and bought multiple subs in the past. People that cannot be bothered anymore in spending another dime until you fix your atrocious pre-roll ads system.

ps. to anybody reading this, if you use a vpn you won't get any ads, also if you load up a VOD from a streamer, no ads.

pps. there are addons that allow you to watch VODS without a subcription, even if they are some money grabbing joke of a streamer, you can bypass this with a simple extension (google it).

I stopped watching new streamers on my small free times. Just because of pre-rolls

I have no issues with ads, I support them. However there should never been an ad as soon as you get into a stream, you should always be able to see what the streamer is up to, especially if you're a new viewer.

How is this idea already 3 years old with no implementation?

Because of my day job I have a lot of idle time where having a video open allows me to fill the dead space. I used to watch streams to fill this gap, but during a transition between companies I fell off. I am more solidified in my new roll and wanted to regain my old viewing habits.

Unfortunately the streamers I used to watch are no longer playing games that I am interested in. This leads me to want to discover new communities. However every time I've opened twitch over the last few weeks I've found myself just slammed with ads! I will watch a few minutes of a new streamer to see if I'm interested, then go to hop to a different stream and get hit with a 30 second ad. This just happens in a vicious cycle.

It is near impossible to find new streamers to watch, I find myself just defaulting to watching more long form content like netflix or youtube. Until something changes on this front I'm going to stop wasting my time trying to find new streamers on this platform, its ridiculous.

Pre-rolls are really just a waste of bandwidth for all parties involved at this stage.

At this point the only way to discover new streams without disruption is to open every mildly interesting one on a separate tabs muting each pre-roll as you go along. Then go back over them to assess the streamers content afterwards.

Your ad rolls are not viewed for longer then it takes one to mute them and move on.

If I like the streamer I'm MORE then happy to sit through a mid-roll after mid-roll. If I don't like the mid-roll and I like them enough I sub to them. Subs are the best scenario for all first-party parties. You should be driving content TOWARDS this.

I used to watch 4+ hours of streams a day minimum (I work in software engineering). However as I stopped being interested in specific streamers I've stopped watching streams as much. I keep finding myself desiring streams but it is actually exhausting trying to find a new streamer to invest in when I get hit with a 30 seconds pre-roll every time I hop streams. It's absolutely killed my desire to find new streamers.

I know my opinion doesn't matter, but a pre-roll ad is the same is closing the tab for me. I will -never- sit through an ad before deciding if I want to spend my time there.

Remove or delay ads for first time users.
It is horrible for the user to have to watch ads when they change the channel.
It is horrible for the streamer to have to hope each user sits through the ads and makes it to the content.