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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blt900 commented
I got hit with 10 ads watching 8 minutes worth of a streamer playing Among Us. The whole point of watching is hearing the funny back and forth during the game. Just ruined the whole thing. Ridiculous.
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ricerice_bb commented
Mid-roll ads on mobile seem to be even worse. In the middle of watching relaxing content BAM Travis Scott is screaming in my ears about a hamburger. Instantly close the streamers content every single time it happens, and I plan on abandoning the platform if it keeps up.
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squirt_mcgurt98 commented
Having midroll ads is a ******** idea. We aren't on Twitch to watch ads. If we want to support the streamers, we can sub or buy merch. We already have to sit through 20/30 second ads when entering new streams. Why should we have to be interrupted during a LIVE BROADCAST to see whatever Amazon is shilling us?
The whole point of Twitch is LIVE BROADCASTING. That's what y'all run on as a platform. I know nothing about running a platform like this, but literally nobody is happy about midroll ads.
Midroll ads during a live broadcast. Absolutely ridiculous idea.
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JGrace commented
Looking at this, I think of roleplay streamers. How are you going to interrupt roleplay in order to run an ad so your viewers can see it all? Answer, you don't. This is a major detriment to them as they have even less opportunity to "just pause" their content. I've watched one streamer who was currently affected by this, and I cannot go back until this is resolved. It was horrid was an understatement because I could see how frustrated they were that it was completely out of their control. My heart goes out to any streamer dealing with this.
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Myrph commented
The whole point of a live streaming service is that its live at all times, not just when the platform decides to allow you to be live. When Live TV run mid-roll ads they take a dedicated break from the action to allow the ads to run without the viewers missing anything important, not when a computer algorithm or a random timer thinks they should run ads, because you can guarantee that 9 times out of 10 they're going to get it wrong.
Assuming this is advertiser pressure not a "clever" idea to increase ad revenue for streamers, the solution to getting more ad content views is to better incentivise streamers running ads, or else doing what pretty much the entire rest of the internet does and use banner ads elsewhere on the page. This not only disincentivises viewers from spending time on channels, this also disincentivises the content creators from using the platform, both of which will cause a net reduction in the number of ad views, the complete opposite of what this system is meant to achieve!
Take this idea back to the drawing board and come up with something that actually makes sense for all of your stakeholders!
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Razorninja56 commented
Not a good idea at all. I can accept preroll ads but mid-roll ads during a livestream? Unacceptable! This will heavily damper the experience both for the viewer and for the streamer. It especially affects those who run ASMR streams, speedruns, and tournaments which rely on people to keep viewing so they dont miss out on epic moments. Please do not go forward with this experiment and keep it where it belongs, in the trash.
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FerretBomb commented
Streamers didn't want to run ads because they weren't appealing, and the viewership loss cost wasn't even CLOSE to worth the paper-thin fractions of a penny offered up (well below the industry-standard set by multiple competitor sites).
The solution should not be to break our arms and force ads to run. The solution is to make ads beneficial enough to be worth running as a caster.
But that's Twitch at this point. Embodying the phrase 'penny wise, pound foolish' and torching any scrap of reputation left to the ground to ****** another dollar. Sticks are so much cheaper than carrots after all, and effective RIGHT NOW.
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Nath_davies commented
Bits were enough of a shameless cash grab as they were. Everyone knows that you only made bit emotes because anyone with an IQ greater than their age realised that. You had to try get some way for people to start using them so Bezos could vacuum up more money.
What ever happend to the plan for picture in picture on preroll ads and for ads run by the creator themselves? Where did that go? I'm willing to bet that your advertisers didn't like it and so you idiots chose sponsors over a change that would actually be good for your content creators.
I dare Twitch to release how much they make from ads because the vast majority of people streaming are going to be getting 0.0001 of a dollar per view, not to mention all those that haven't reached affiliate cant even get that hundredth of a cent, so you shouldn't be running ads on them at all.
Twitch needs to remember one crucial thing about themselves, you're a service, we pay for you through various methods. You don't get to try make money off of us on top of that.
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HuginnPlays commented
Of all the bad ideas Twitch has had regarding ads, this is probably the worst. Why would you think anyone wants this? Pre-roll ads drive away viewers already, you think mid-roll ads won't be worse?
Please do not do this. Creators don't want this, viewers don't want this. It is terrible. If you want streamers to run more ads, make ads we run disable pre-roll ads for a longer period of time.
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valdaglarion commented
Please, please listen when we tell you the way you are implementing mid rolls is not the right way. Look at channels like Critical Role, if you have an ad show up and mute the stream for 1 minute, you could miss so much. I know the mid roll ads aren't too bad for streams that rely mostly on visual aspects, like most of the gaming channels. But you have more than that on your platform, you have channels that the sole point of the stream is to hear everything thats going on. And your users aren't going to want to stay on your website if you force this to interrupt their entertainment. Please, please find another way to do this. Make it optional, do something else. Whatever it is. This isn't it.
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GrimmFairy27 commented
This is a lose lose for so many streamers. Streamers lose viewers when ads roll. Now you're forcing them to either roll ads every 30 minutes, which will lose viewers; or have forced ads mute and play over their stream driving even more viewers away. The financial benefit for streamers rolling their own ads is so, so low, it doesn't outweigh the loss of viewers. Not to mention that a lot of streamers go for an hour or 2 before running ads. Also, any live tournament or event is going to be so, so screwed by this. I can't believe this idea made it this far in it's current iteration with so many obvious issues.
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HEFire commented
On mobile I'm getting 5 to 6 ads every 10 minutes. This is insane.
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hatandsandalsguy commented
The uncontrollable ads actively obstruct interaction and engagement with my community. Muting my stream destroys my ability to entertain. Minimizing my stream at the exact time special events happen, wins, goal completions, challenges met, and unique game dialogue instances is the exact opposite of the very purpose of Twitch community engagement. These uncontrollable ads are what people leave cable tv to avoid. Twitch is ruining the very thing that makes it a desirable platform by treating the community as an economic commodity instead of the people who still choose to provide financial support.
Nobody wants these ads except Bezos, and he doesn't need the money. -
Mediumraresteaks commented
Stop reducing the control content creators have over their own content
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RemingtonRyder commented
May I also add that, while a mid-roll ad is playing, it's going to be very difficult if not impossible to make clips unless you're subscribed.
(Because usually, when ads run, clipping is disabled.)
It's a big no from me.
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perduff commented
If you want to get more revinue for steamers, increase the amount of adds we as chat can watch earning bits before hitting the limit.
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ReallyBadTeeth commented
As someone with old, sluggish hardware, I can't handle this at all. My system freezes for 5+ seconds before an ad plays. It's fine if the person hits the ad button during a BRB, but there is no way I could ever tolerate mid-roll ads.
Not only that, but I love watching speedruns, and due to COVID, the speedrunning community is having to rely on broadcasting their Twitch screens to play competitively. We have already had an issue where one runner was hit with ads and it interrupted the run.
This is a terrible idea, please reverse this decision.
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GraftedNormalcy commented
mid-roll ads that are automatically generated on videos - either live or VOD - are horrendous. they always cut in at the wrong moment and usually are nothing similar to what the viewer wants. The whole reason people use twitch is because of no midroll ads. Enabling mid-roll ads will ruin twitch, I guarantee it. If you do keep them - which knowing greedy corporate interference you will - you will lose hundreds of thousands of viewers and creators to other streaming sites.
Do not ruin what good you have.
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Tryptosaurus commented
Forced pre-roll ads are bad enough. I don't need or want ads of any kind on my channel. Especially as a smaller streamer, I want to have uninterrupted conversations with my viewers.
As a viewer I watch a lot of speedrunners, and having ads interrupt gameplay and explanations of tricks just sounds horrible.
If ads are going to be forced, they need to be done in a way that isn't completely intrusive, meaning non-video ads that either take up a small bar on the stream window, or have them above the chat. This change makes me not want to stream or watch on twitch.
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P0cketYeti commented
remove it. no one wants ads let alone ones the streamer cant control it will ruin ASMR streams for those of us who need them.