Dear Twitch,

I think I speak for most of the streaming community when I say we do NOT like your new mid-roll strategy. Ads are among the biggest annoyances on the site and the solution is not to give us more ads. Here are some ideas on making ads on Twitch better for both the creator and the viewer.

1. Give the creators an actual cut of the ad revenue
   Right now, this is absolutely peanuts when you compare it to other video content sites, it’s actually insane. This would make running ads also a bit more attractive for creators and viewers will know that these ads would actually support their favourite creators a lot more than now.




2. Make your ads shorter and skippable
   The ads that are currently running on Twitch are often way too long. Myself and other viewers have often skipped these ads by simply going to a different channel, that is not okay. That should not happen.




3. Consider adding closable lower third ads
   When you first launch a stream you can have a lower third ad hovering over the videoplayer. Be sure to make it so that viewers can click these away.




4. Let creators and viewers (individually) control mid-rolls
   I really like the fact that as a creator you can roll an ad, for instance, when you need to take a snack break or toilet break. What if we add a feature like that for every viewer. Let’s say you have a button somewhere next to the stream that viewers can opt for an ad to support their favourite creators, this way both the creator and the viewer has more control over when they want to see ads.




5. Bits for ads
   Why is this not a thing worldwide? This is such a nice concept and should be implemented all over the world because it gives the chance for viewers that can’t afford a sub or bits to give bits anyway by just saving them up by watching ads here and there. This can go hand in hand with the ad button for viewers.




6. A certain amount of paid subs (gift subs excluded) = Twitch Turbo
   Lastly, make it so that viewers that have a certain amount of paid subscriptions across multiple channels have Twitch Turbo perks. However, they could still opt to see ads to support a streamer with the button and still see mid-rolls from the streamer.

In summary, I think there is a lot to learn from other platforms in regards to ads on Twitch. These are just some loose ideas, I’m sure there are plenty of people that have better ideas than me or that can make these ideas even better. Thank you for reading and hopefully, maybe, something will be done with this.

Special shoutout to @HarrisHeller and @Jasper55RL (both on Twitter) for providing some of the points talked about in this post.

If you are going to have midrolls you need to provide us tools to work with the midrolls as best we can as creators. Enough people have given you a reason it is a bad idea. I am offering up ideas to make it at least workable if you continue this route.

• We need a countdown on the streamer dash and the mod view on when the next ad will roll. Like a producer would have.


• We need a limited ability to push back an adroll. Like a one time 2 minute snooze button, or a trigger early button.


• We need an API triggered event when an ad runs so that we can use our bots to let us know, so we can wait on what we are doing.


• The ONLY reason I would want this is to eliminate preroll ads. If you aren't eliminating preroll just don't bother.

Obviously we don't want Twitch to lose money and die out like other streaming platforms. The ads are a necessary evil. Let streamers control when the ads drop during the stream. Give them a requirement for how many ads have to be run per hour, or whatever the terms are, but let them determine when they run. Bathroom & food breaks would be ideal. Some streamers find the beginning of the stream critical, so running pre-roll is a bad idea for them. If the streamer doesn't run the required number of ads, hit them where it hurts - their wallets. That's a guaranteed way to make sure enough ads are run to hit revenue targets, and the streamers can benefit from it.

Also, increase the variety of the ad pool. Nothing drives viewers crazier than seeing the same stupid ad every single time an ad rolls.

Consider a minimum viewer count/average for ad requirements. If a streamer only averages 1 viewer, they shouldn't be required to run those ads. That's unfairly squashing the competition. Wait until they get to a higher number, like 500 viewers on average (for example). Then require the ads for them.

I wish there was a option for affiliates and Partners alike to turn off preroll ads, a lot of us especially the smaller streamers hate that this is a thing and having a option to turn it off would make a lot of our streams a lot better. The reason why I say a toggle feature is because some streamers have a living from this so its not fair for them not to have it but the smaller streamers we dont like it and it drives away a lot from us

Thank you for reading this and taking this into consideration