Remove mid-roll ads
Cancel the testing of mid-roll ads on affiliate and partner channels. Your viewer base doesn't want this and creators don't want ads playing out of their control interrupting their content
As we announced on Twitter earlier, we have concluded the mid-rolls experiment. Thank you all for your comments and the incredible momentum you’ve contributed to this topic.
There have been many great suggestions, both in this thread and in the Ads forum that we have taken back to the team for consideration. It’s important to know that ads are essential to the future of Twitch, however we want to make things as painless as possible. Please still upvote, share, comment, and create new ideas in this forum so that we may continue to benefit from all of your passionate influence.
Announcement: https://twitter.com/TwitchSupport/status/1306709495196852225?s=20
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RobehXD commented
We don’t want mid roll adds for any content. Make your money elsewhere as it’ll ruin use experience and push people away. Maybe silent adds in the corner could work AT BEST. Don’t take the stream and their voice away!
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Magesson commented
I watch DnD streams. Mid stream ads interrupt important parts of the action and the streamers neither know nor do they stop.
I listen to ASMR. You know what is the exact opposite of AMSR? Loud mid roll ads.
If I am getting mid roll ads I may as well wait for the content to go onto YouTube and only deal with beginning of video ads.
Either keep this to beginning of watch ads or give the streamer control.
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queerbunny commented
This is going to drive ASMR off the platform altogether.
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THE_FRE3_MAN247 commented
ads in ASMR streams are ******* horrible, they're extremely loud and scare the **** out of you when you're trying to relax/sleep
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seasaltalchemist commented
Instead of making ads just randomly run, have something on twitch when the streamer is live to let them know "hey, we're going to run an ad in 10 minutes". That way the streamer is reminded to take a break (which just contributes to the overall health of the streamer, a lot of us don't move around very much once we go live), plus they know to find a stopping point in whatever they're streaming so that the viewers don't miss anything pertinent.
This is if you absolutely must play mid-roll ads. Personally as a viewer I do prefer mid-roll ads SO LONG AS I'M NOT MISSING ANYTHING. I don't like joining a stream to immediately see 30 seconds of an ad, I'd rather see what the heck is going on in the stream I'm trying to watch. But randomly running an ad with no warning ruins everybody's twitch experience.
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Feyincarnate commented
Fractions of pennies is not worth the interruptions viewers get when watching their favorite content. Please remove this feature.
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dracoling commented
Give us a way to design and integrate the ads into our stream! I'm happy to show ads to support twitch, but don't torture viewers by destroying and interrupting the content we're trying to provide!
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radioactive_starfish commented
We need better control and options over ads in general. Find a way to gameify add watching for the viewer/community
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ckupf commented
You just gave me 8 mid roll ads in the middle of a game of Among Us I was watching, that was 1/3 of the game that you skipped. Why not do a banner if you have to do an ad? Why not listen to streamers and your community? This is the worst idea. It's like if Game of Thrones threw up an ad in the midst of the Red Wedding and we all just had to guess what happened. Moving the screen to a tiny corner doesn't do anything, you can barely see it and you miss all of the conent.
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Khyddin commented
It's like you *want* to drive people away from the platform.
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QuestForSemiGlory commented
Fractions of pennies in exchange for angering and isolating our viewers is not a "benefit". Twitch as a whole, and its streamers - the content creators that are your core business - do not need ads to survive, or even to flourish.
Do better.
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Professor_S_Huntington commented
As a viewer tuning in to music streams, I suggest that banner ads or anything that pops up over the screen without obscuring the music is prefferable. The visual aspect of a music stream is not always necessary.
As an artist on twitch, I think all ad types are fine and welcomed, however the volume of them can be jarring as these tend to be quieter streams while the ads can be directed towards energetic gaming audiences, so again, banners would work best. -
JHobz296 commented
This should be an option for the creator to toggle and not a mandatory default.
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Dark1egacy commented
I understand this is a business and that ads are essential to making a profit to keep this all going. But mid rolling ads is 100% NOT the way to do it! I’m a growing creator and when people are new to my stream I do my best to entertain and retain. I play mostly FPS, I’m not that great at them but I’m not Terrible and there are a few moments in the stream I actually do well. Now should a mid roll happen during that time frame I’m winning a fight, that’s a moment that the viewer missed out on and immediately move on to the next channel. It takes that possible emotional connection through success on stream. Again not opposed to ads, just need to be more constructive and progressive about it. This feels like a move towards cable tv forcing ads in the way that they do
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evancast commented
Ruby True brought up a great point on twitter as a viewer, an AD during a meditation or ASMR would be VERY distracting and unappealing to audiences of streamers who provide that moment of calm and mental clarity. It would be an intrusion into interactive experiences and an overall disservice to the platform. Many dedicated viewers are generous enough with bits and subscriptions, keep the ads as they are. -J2J
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mommafoxfire commented
As a mental health advocate and streamer who focuses multiple streams per week on peer support, the mid-roll ads are absolutely awful. What if someone has asked to share their story, and we are in the middle of empathizing with them and sharing our own similar experiences with them and then they get an ad and miss half of what is said on stream because of something that's out of their and my control? There are better ways!
The ideas here as alternatives are solid: https://twitter.com/TheMilliebug/status/1306168686299013121
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Tullidd commented
I am all for having ads and helping to support the twitch system. But decision to run ads AUTOMATED and MID STREAM without the input or control of the streamer is a bad option. Give us other avenues!
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kevin_spicy commented
This model of advertising is not forward thinking. It is rehashing existing models from the outdated days of broadcast television and radio. To survive as a media company and service it is necessary to embrace progress and change, and champion the key differentiators of the medium. Mid-roll ads do the opposite of this. It is a sign that the leadership at Twitch is taking steps to become like their predecessors, rather than showcasing the differences that make Twitch the more appealing options for viewers and streamers. Continuing this trend will ultimately kill Twitch
Mid-roll ads destroy growth for small and medium sized streamers
Not everyone is aware these are automated and people can assume the streamer is responsible for them.
Streamers can not choose the ads, and will inevitably be associated with a product/service that they themselves do not endorse
It is disruptive to conversation, instruction, and key moments of gameplay
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Mothergamer commented
The midroll ads seem very intrusive. My concern is that my community talks about mental health, and we do our best to offer encouragement and support. If someone is having a tough time and they need that support, it feels really disruptive if an ad plays right in the middle of this because it mutes our stream and feels as if it's telling the person in our community they don't matter. Having a banner ad like what Loots did is far less intrusive and it doesn't interrupt our stream or the flow of our chat. At least give us a choice and give us a choice about what ads we run because frankly I do not want ads that conflict with my values. Update: The concern I'm mentioning here, happened. Someone in our community was having a hard time with their mental health, talking about their anxiety. We were having a conversation about it and offering encouragement and support and then there was a mid-roll ad during this. It not only interrupted the stream, it interrupted a moment with a person in our community that needed a bit of kindness that day. I absolutely apologized to them for that happening, making sure they knew that we cared about them and we weren't ignoring them once the ad was finished. This is exactly why this is an issue. I don't have a problem with running the ads, I have a problem with the way they are being run and not having that autonomy. You say to hold you accountable, well we are. Please address this and show that you are actually hearing us.
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Subversive_Citizen commented
You want ads? Include them in the personalized contracts you offer the bigger Partners (like Ninja, etc) and leave smaller channels, (such as Affiliates) out of this.
It would be simple to include a clause requiring midroll ads on larger Partners contracts, which are already customized for many of them. Affiliates have a hard enough time garnering viewership without you alienating their audience, mid-stream. >:(
Partners, conversely, already have an established community and so are much less likely to lose fans based purely on inconvenience, like smaller streamers may.
So... Learn to write better contracts or do without, Twitch. You can be better than this.