Big discussion about advertising in streams: “Twitch pays streamers to kill their channels”
It’s nothing new for viewers to get upset about ads on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. But streamers are not enthusiastic either and sharply criticize Twitch’s reward program – above all the probably largest MMORPG streamer Zack “Asmongold”.
What is this program? The “Ad Incentive” program for Twitch partners has the somewhat unwieldy name “Be rewards program for advertising” in German and is intended to offer streamers incentives to place more advertising.
The program started in June 2022 and was cited in September to offset losses from a lower share of subscription revenue.
How does the program work? Streamers receive personalized offers (“incentives”) from Twitch on a monthly basis. There are 3 factors in this:
- How many minutes of advertising should be played per hour
- How many hours to stream per month
- How much money is paid for it
Streamers can then choose between 3 offers, whereby there should also be significantly more money for more advertising. How high (or low) the offers are should depend on the number of viewers, the location and the hours streamed.
For ads that run beyond the agreed duration, streamers will receive their usual share from Twitch.
Advertising is only part of streamers’ earnings, another important factor is paid subscriptions (“subs”).
Streamers unhappy with October deals
What is the criticism now? On October 15, some streamers shared the deals they’ve received for the month – and how they compare to previous months. The problem: Twitch suddenly seems to demand significantly more advertising and pays little more or even less for it.
The streamer Sweet Anita compared her offer with her usual advertising revenue and found: “Twitch offers me to pay less than usual for MORE advertising.” That doesn’t make sense, says Anita.
Souls speedrunner Distortion2, with over half a million followers on Twitch, compared the offerings for the month-to-date. He had the choice between 1 and 3 minutes of advertising per hour. But for the option with significantly more advertising, Twitch only wanted to pay $10 more – for the whole month.
Others do not criticize the size of the rewards, but the amount of advertising required. Minecraft streamer Dylan “BoomerNA” started out with a minimum of 5 minutes of advertising per hour – that used to be the maximum.
While censoring the rewards offered, Boomer added that Twitch also offered him less money than in previous months. Now he prefers not to advertise at all.
Asmongold predicts bleak future for Twitch
What consequences could this have? Very negative, fears Twitch star Asmongold. Because while some streamers complain about too few rewards, Twitch on the other hand lures with high sums that not every streamer can easily turn down.
Asmongold speaks of “life-changing sums” for almost everyone and fatal consequences for the platform. Because by incentivizing 8+ minutes of advertising per hour, Twitch streamers would be paying to destroy their channels – and ultimately the site itself.
The streamer predicts that this amount of advertising could soon become the new norm due to the rewards program.
And in fact, streamers report in the comments about offers that would secure their everyday purchases for the month – it’s hard for smaller streamers to turn down that.
Vtuber Mooni “meowmoonified” also talks about how difficult it is for her to turn down the higher offers. However, many of her viewers encouraged her to accept the incentives.
So there are 2 factions: the streamers who feel they are not being paid enough for advertising and those who are tempted with incentives. But no one seems to be really happy with the rewards program.
What is your opinion? Would you encourage your favorite streamers to advertise more to support them? Do you think Twitch is destroying itself with the advertising program? Please leave us a comment with your opinion.
After a personal crisis in July, Asmongold only streams via his second account “zackrawrr”. He’s not a Twitch partner there, but his viewership numbers are similar. He estimates that costs the platform $150,000 a month.
Twitch Star Says He’s Afraid of Returning to Asmongold Persona – Prefer to Stream to Second Account
Reference-mein-mmo.de