Reduce the greed on Ads
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
-
Tatsumasa86 commented
It is really obnoxious to have to watch an ad when you first load into a stream... many times I join a stream playing a game I want to watch, but they are not playing a mode I want to see. So I am forced to sit and watch an ad just to have to go load another stream and then watch another ad. This makes for a horrible user experience. Either don't show these ads at the beginning or at the very least if you must prey on users, then wait a few minutes and show one. I think it should be up the streamer anyway when they want to run ads.
-
2mcdoubles commented
I don't want to watch your ads. If you continue to try and spam ads on me I will probably stop using twitch for good. Yall telling me my adblocker is "Impacting site performance" GTFO with that garbage. Ask Jeff Bezos for some money if you need it so bad
-
Nayru_The_Wise commented
I have said this before, but because whoever looks at these responses is clearly not noticing:
These back-to-back midroll ads every 10 minutes are pushing users away from small streams. When someone gets an ad popping up with blatant volume, obnoxious colors and forcing them out of the action, they either refresh or leave.
Continuing this infuriatingly tone-deaf mandatory advertising will strangle small channels. If you actually cared about your creators or users, you'd understand that this is a horrible idea, especially since Youtube is trying to get into the streaming industry.If you HAVE to run ads, just run silent ones above the chatbar, such as right where you shove the actual stream so that you can ruin the viewer's experience as best you can.
-
KayBe87 commented
I dont want to see ads. I will leave your site forever before watching ads. I sub to some streamers. I donate to some streamers. You don't need to greedily triple dip.
I have had a twitch account for 7 years. Ive spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars here. I havent watched very much in the last month because I am bombarded with ads if my main streamers arent streaming.
-
Sairriolth commented
So, I've spent the last 2.5 hours of my day watching Twitch, or trying to.
I've had 45-60 seconds of identical adverts EVERY 10 MINUTES, the streamer was unaware it was happening until I asked if he was manually triggering them and even agree'd that it was a riduculous amount of adverts.
Picture in picture isn't a bad solution, when it works, except the stream is muted so I still miss what the content creator said and unlike YouTube livestreams I can't just smack 'J' to skip back 30 seconds to see/hear what I missed. I could make a clip and rewatch the clip without publishing it... In streams that haven't disabled clips due to DMCA, but even that's a stupid necessity to force on your users.
Television adverts are every 15 or 30 minutes, typically, and people cut the cable because of the less intrusive advertising in online media such as Twitch and YouTube why are we going backwards?
-
TacticulBacon commented
You are driving your userbase away by forcing unskippable 30 second ads every time we click on a stream to see if it's interesting. Instead of branching out to other streamers I would rather stay in the channels I sub to so I don't have to deal with ads, or just stop watching twitch entirely.
-
felipepedrosa commented
Stop making ads live, it’s horrible idea. I hate each product that entry in the entertainment. The worst idea that the creators did. I, such as consumer, unlike twitch while ads still lives.
-
marty1234 commented
Not an idea, more a complaint, the last week ads have gone from nearly none, to ads every five minutes whilst watching streams, and every new stream I click on I have to watch new ads. I probably watch more ads than I do stream. It's not enough that I support streamers with my money that I have sit here and watch continuous ads so Twitch can rake in the cash during this pandemic. Kinda takes the fun out of watching. If I wanted ads I would watch normal TV. Sort it out.
-
PrimeErebus commented
Why in the 9 hells are LILY PICHU ads running on small channels? There is literally 0 point for a channel with 20 or fewer concurrent viewers to ever have ADS, especially ADS that promotes larger streamers.
-
SnowOverwatch commented
I see it way too often when watching anyone and its annoying.
-
Dagoth_Uthol commented
-Adblockers were created because of ads with sounds and ads over content
-Streamers gains almost nothing with ads
-Bits, subs, and prime already support both streamers and twitch
-You are part of the richest company on earth
-Your boss makes more money in a day than some countries in a yearSo why do you really want ads, it only push people away
-
Neru_0 commented
If you want streamers to run more ads then give them an incentive by paying them more for ad revenue. Also, give them the option to choose when these ads run. Atm, there is no point in running ads since most streamers make almost no money from ad revenue. Also forcing a **** ton ads to viewers is only going
to make them use Adblock please fix this. -
yummmybear commented
find myself always watching ads when trying to watch a stream i missed. idk if this is intentional
-
lexifreez commented
8 ads is extreme.
-
RainbowDragon_1337 commented
The same two ads are repeated over and over for months, multiple times a day. Could there be a limit on how many times an ad can be watched? I don't care if it's 10 or 100. At least I know it will disappear eventually. It honestly pisses me off and sometimes makes me leave the site completely. Isn't it enough that I've seen it 500+ times? I am not going to get interested. In fact, I will get less interested in it as it goes on. In my situation it's about prime exclusive series trailers.
-
zartren commented
Over a year later and I can confirm that on some occasions, Twitch will play ads every 10 minutes. On very slow-paced games, this is actually a deal breaker.
-
Yu Lu commented
I understand Twitch makes money through ads, but could you PLEASE use NEW ADS? I'm getting tired of hearing the same 3-4 ads ad nauseum. It's gotten to the point where the ads are making me NOT want to use the product because of how repetive they are.
-
Sinfire commented
Why are there so many intrusive ads? It is bad enough that we have to watch an ad when we first enter a streamers channel. But some streamers are abusing the ad network and showing ads every 20 mins. Isn’t there a way to make the ads less intrusive? We don’t need to watch the same 30 sec ad over and over again, a skip feature should be added. As well, the ad should be off to the side or something. Having it interfere with the streamers stream makes us lose important details that are going on in the stream when the ad starts playing.
There are other streaming services out there that do not force ads on their users. It is only a matter of time when viewers will leave Twitch and move over to those.
-
David commented
I usually do not post in threads or forums, but the recent mandate to force you to watch ads have pissed me off so much that here I am. I am writing this because these ads are just ridiculous. There used to be a time when twitch prime users were not forced to suffer this cruel and indecent punishment. I have twitch prime and I'm currently subscribed to TSM_Viss. Now my experience is all fine and dandy when I watch his channel ,AD FREE, the way watching video games should be. I mean think about it, we are watching people play video games. Depending on the type of game that you're watching, an ad that interrupts the stream for 30-60 seconds can cause you to miss the most important part of the game. For example, when streamers get together for tournaments I like to bounce around from stream to stream getting the different perspectives. But now since twitch forces you to watch an ad every time you switch streams, you best believe I'm not bouncing around from stream to stream watching endless ads. I was watching the code red tourney on Docs channel, and the dude was killing slaying bop bop bop clean em up. Only about six ppl left on the map and this point I'm on the edge of my seat with my popcorn waiting to see how this is going to end. Then BOOM an ad hits. Im like okay, no big deal one ad and I'm back in it. The ad finishes and to my dismay it was followed by another, then another then another then another then another then another. At this point I want to slam my laptop on the ground. Needless to say, when it finally got back to the game play the match was over. So frustrating. If you people at twitch are gonna force us to watch ads, the least you can do is come up with an algorithm that only plays ads when the streamer has some downtime (i.e. talking to chat, eating some food, going to the bathroom, or waiting in a lobby). I mean I GET IT, twitch is streaming thursday night football games, cool. Now do I got to see that add over a 100 times or can I watch some video game content now. I GET IT, samsung got a new game phone with a huge beautiful screen (sigh), can I get back to watching the final circle in blackout now. As am typing this, Ive watched the same nurf gun ad like three times already, and still dont plan on buying a nurf gun in the future (unless of course it gives me the ability to do somersaults like the asian guy in the ad). Anyways, before I get too carried away. I am writing this to say the ads are too much and are destroying my viewing experience on twitch. I will stop watching streams altogether if you guys don't fix this issue. I know you guys are probably like so what if you stop watching we got millions of other people who will continue to watch. That's fine, but I doubt I'm the only one feeling this way about this issue. Youtube has ads, and certain ads you can even skip. But one of the major differences with youtube and twitch is that twitch is LIVE (for the most part) and youtube is not (for the most part... I know they got live streams on that platform too but c'mon guys who are we kiddin we are watching already made videos on youtube. So when youtube interrupts your video AT LEAST YOUR NOT MISSING CONTENT!!! And I hate to say youtube so much on a twitch.tv forum but hey it is what it is. Free advertisement for YouTube I guess. So let me end it with this, stop the money grabbing TWITCH! Fix this issue or you will notice a decline in viewership.
-
Charlie Rolfe commented
i completely agree with people complaining about the over frequent adverts. i get that "this ad directly supports (insert streamer name).
i wouldn't mind one every hour or so or even at the beginning and end of the stream.
i now will aim to not watch twitch channels until i found a solution to stopping the ad spam.
unless i am subscribed to the channel.
what a shame, youtube will certainly monopolise on this.