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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randers commented
this shows how some teams at Twitch are severely out-of-touch with their creators
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Z0VRIS commented
Put ad space above chat that can be used for such cases. Mid roll ads are not the way this should be handled.
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Syncrosys commented
Super fun, especially when ANY streamers are in the middle of something and you want to hear the next word out of their mouth.
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HighKingTugboat commented
Mid-roll ads are not only extremely annoying for viewers when happening an average of every TEN MINUTES on a stream, but it also makes it extraordinarily difficult for moderators that don't have the ability to subscribe to be able to listen to the streamer and do their job. This is not a good platform for mid-roll ads.
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JustifydWarrior commented
Keep audio out of these ads if they're truly to support the streamer OR allow the user to program manage their ads. Create a playlist of available ads or pick approved brands etc.
Twitch could just cover chat... and where it would be if in theater mode should be movable by the streamer with a plugin or something. you can pause chat for all/nonsub users at the same time. A chat bot could notify the streamer/mods/subs an (which?) ad is running and when it ends (so they know chat is paused).
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RevSven commented
What about the possibility of ads in Panels or just do banner ads like almost every other site? There has got to be a way that does not disrupt chat interaction and storytelling
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floyo32 commented
Everyone who knows gaming, from games like cs to lol to any other competitive game. Imagine this : there’s a situation 1v3, he’s got a chance to clutch, boom 30 second ad in the mid of the round. This would ruin everything for the viewer eg of a big event
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Ultimacaster commented
I'm kind of surprised that there are ads *in* the streams and not on the front page. I'm sure that I'm not alone in using the front page for identifying who is online, so having ads front and center on the front page would get many more impressions than putting a random mid-roll in an affiliate's stream with 20 viewers or less. I'd even support having an ad in front of the highlighted streamers on the front page- only to say that again you'd get more impressions by hiding that content for thirty seconds because the people that wait through that would be interested in seeing what was being promoted, whereas getting an ad on a friend's smaller stream just makes me mute the site until the ad is done, it has the opposite effect intended because it makes me tune out instead of actually watching the ad.
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trod727 commented
+1 on all the other comments about finding more creative ways to introduce ads that aren't as disruptive to content as a random interruption would be. Include your content creators in these discussions so that you have an outcome that works for both sides (especially with a range of stream types - live gaming, music, trivia, etc).
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Novijen commented
The ads are not a problem, but the interruption of content is. Give us a banner at the bottom or advertisements in chat, but interrupting a stream in the middle of content is annoying. Especially for the content that I enjoy such as podcasts and dnd sessions, a sudden interruption could ruin the entire session for me and others like me. It would make me stop watching the stream at all and wait for vods to come out, which would hurt said channel if enough people do that. We as a community would much rather unobtrusive ads to this system.
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ItalianShinobi commented
Adds should go above the chat - see how the nfl and redzone handles adds. That way twitch gets what they want and we get what we want.
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misterfawx commented
Make mid-stream ads optional based on channel sponsorships. If they already have ad programming, let them turn off auto-ads.
Have a specific target for total number of minutes of ads/hour of streaming, let streamers decide where and when to begin ad breaks so they can control the viewing experience. -
InkyBlake commented
I’d happily watch ads for bits to throw at favorite channels. I’d happily watch an initial ad, and then when the -streamer- decided to run them further. Every 15 mins or whatever is simply going to make me look elsewhere. I was already annoyed when me pumping out for prime lost me any real benefit to twitch outside of the free sub. But here we are yet again, pushing back with calls to reverse a dumb decision, while your twitter account backpedals on anything resembling diversity because they’re tone deaf as ****.
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slamb0b commented
Mid-roll ads would actively disrupt content and viewership on Twitch. I want to repeat what many others are saying and request banner ads, a side-bar, have streamers run ads themselves, etc. Some other alternative that still meets the needs of advertising without interrupting the viewing experience that people come to Twitch for!
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shadowkittyhero commented
Allow us to control when ads play, provide warnings in stream about upcoming ad breaks so that the streamer can prepare the stream for an adbreak, allow us to be able to block ads, support ads (ask for the same ad to play again in the future), and types of ads to play, an example would be to play ads for games that fit the RPG genre which would fit a streamer who does mostly RPGs? Or perhaps an ad for tabletop game? OR EVEN BETTER! An ad for the exact game / tabletop that is being played on stream! What!? Incredible. See how communicating with your base is probably a better idea.
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Quite_Dapper commented
Certain types of content (ASMR, Podcasts, Talk-shows) which are all about the audio need to be more heavily considered when it comes to ad-deployment and what is to be considered fair for the viewers and streamers. If the ad-viewing experience must be considerably intrusive then it needs to also be transparent and more controllable. The onus should be on the advertisers to bring advertising content that satisfies these parameters, instead of rolling out a single type of advertisement across the entire platform. If people are willing to put hundreds of hours (potentially working for free or next-to-nothing) into creating content for viewers, advertisers should consider putting more hours in themselves. I've seen Canadian Tire advertisements that are ASMR friendly, which is to say that there is definitely options in terms of the type of advertising that is out there. If mid-rolls are going to be deployed as a permanent fixture, content creators should be able to control what viewers HEAR as well as SEE. Some people listen to streams to fall asleep, some to wake up, some to read, and interruptions by way of ear-shattering and noisy ads for products like Amazon Prime disrupt that flow and force people to make the decision to NOT WATCH AT ALL while continuing to do the things they used to happily watch Twitch and do before then.
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BucketPls commented
Ads aren't the problem, the interrupting is. Please find other ways to use the space around the website for ads, or ways to incentivise people to use ads when they can.
Right now random ads can and will push away new people to the channel. Live streaming requires you to hook in new people before they stay for a break, let alone an ad break.
Please Twitch, I love your website, but this is breaking my heart -
SaruRoku commented
Something that the creators have no control over is not going to help any viewer-base, and can only drive away people.
Allowing the creator to select through a list of currently running ads campaigns as well as ensuring that ads are non-intrusive to the content to the stream is necessary!
This is not pre-recorded videos or television, every mid-roll ad that replaces the screen directly removes viewer interest and retention!Playing ads mid VoD playback, or non-intrusive modes like banner, front page ads, or picture in picture ads Where the ad is the smaller picture and doesn't mute the main stream, are all potential alternatives to mid-rolls as proposed.
Viewer experience is important, don't ruin it with mid-rolls that are entirely beyond the creator's control! -
JustGriff commented
I would accept a premium option [paying blank amount per month for no ads] or an option to watch a longer ad for a longer ad free experience as a viewer. Banner or sidebar ads or even thumbnail ads would be much better than an unplanned ad forced upon the content creator
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askpat13 commented
Other ad options would be preferred, like ads in a side-bar, perhaps optional ads to allow a streamer to not have mid-roll ads, etc.
Also adding a premium option (perhaps prime, perhaps something separate that one pays more for) that removes all ads across Twitch. That way people who are willing to pay to support Twitch don't need to watch all kinds of ads across the service.