Earlier this week, Twitch roiled the streaming world with new policies that have greatly impacted the way streamers can monetize their channels. The rules stipulated, among other things, how much space logos can take up on the screen and whether these sponsors can be permanently displayed on the screen or not. The outcry was immediate, and Twitch responded by implying that the rules were being misinterpreted because they were vaguely worded. Now, a day later, the live streaming platform is rolling back the changes entirely.
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In a Twitter thread, the live streaming platform said the guidelines are “bad for”. [streamers] and bad for Twitch,” announced intentions to remove them immediately so content creators can start working with sponsors again. The changes, which set new standards for streamers collaborating with different brands, would have boosted content creators’ revenues.
“Yesterday we released new branded content policies that impact your ability to work with sponsors to grow your streaming revenue,” Twitch said. “These policies are bad for you and bad for Twitch and we are removing them immediately. Sponsorships are critical to the growth and ability of streamers to generate revenue. We will not prevent you from entering into direct relationships with sponsors – you retain ownership and control of your sponsorship business. We want to work with our community to create the best experience on Twitch. To do this, we need to be clear about what we are doing and why we are doing it. We appreciate your feedback and help with this change.”
Before the proposed changes were reversed, the current guidelines stipulated that brand logos could only take up three percent of the screen. Meanwhile, burned-in videos, pre-recorded ads, and commercials embedded directly into a live stream via software like OBS and Xsplit were banned. However, everything has now ch anged and streamers are free to do whatever they want, which is important considering that advertising and branded content have been one of the main streamers’ revenue streams ever since Twitch’s disastrous 50/50 revenue split
In Twitter DMs with my cityTwitch reporter Zach Bussey explained that although Twitch is one of the main platforms for content creators to build an active viewership, streamers seem to be increasingly concerned about the sustainability of Twitch due to the frequent and unfavorable changes the platform is making.
“It hurts streamers, including me, when we limit what we can do for our own streams,” Bussey said. “As a live creator, monetization is extraordinarily difficult as fan funding can be unreliable, resulting in a steep 50% dip, and ad revenue doesn’t really matter until you reach four-figure viewership. The best solution for creators of all sizes is to work directly with brands – but that also comes with value, and banners/overlays/custom notifications all play a role in that. That was at odds with how comprehensively this was written.”
Bussey continued that while there is plenty of competition for content creators, including rival live streaming platform Kick, none of them compare to Twitch.
“Kick, Rumble, [TikTok], YouTube and other platforms compete to offer live streaming services, but none of them offer the kind of experience that Twitch streamers are generally looking for,” said Bussey. “Switching to another option requires sacrifices – and that already sounds like accepting a worse option [overall]. The baggage of KIck is obvious and lax moderation is not what Twitch creators want. Rumble feels a little too much like people wondering where you were on January 6th. YouTube doesn’t seem to care about their live streaming experience – the chat isn’t great, there’s no crossover culture between channels, and everything is just more complicated [to work with] in total. Creators are looking for more green [pastures]what all smaller competitors offer, but the internal property damage is obvious from the outside.”
If you are asked for a comment by e-mailsimply a Twitch rep pointed my city to the same statement that the had platform shared on Twitter.
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This fiasco comes after a long list of other failures and bad press for Twitch, including a deepfake porn scandal that affected some of the platform’s biggest stars, an ongoing exodus of top talent, layoffs, and other unpopular platform changes, such as: B. Weak revenue splits that do not benefit the creators.
Still, as of March 2023, said Tom Verrilli, Twitch’s chief product officer “I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to start streaming on Twitch.”
