For many of Twitch's biggest creators, the massively popular streaming platform has turned a hobby and a passion for live streaming into a career and has helped to create some of the internet's biggest stars. Twitch streamers like xQc, TimTheTatman, and Amouranth have become among the platform's biggest creators, and many have made streaming on the platform their main method of earning money alongside endorsements and sponsorships. Now, proposed new revenue changes would look to significantly alter how the platform's top talents earn their money, and many are expressing their concerns about the change.
Earlier this week, a report from Bloomberg claimed that a panel of anonymous streamers had come forward to speak about massive changes Twitch is reportedly considering for the website. These moves would see Twitch slashing monthly subscription revenues for its top streamers from a 70% cut down to 50%, with the platform shifting gears to push ad revenue as the way for streamers to earn money, encouraging streamers to run multiple ads per hour for higher wages. While ads are a part of Twitch's monetization model now, the new system would push ads even harder, and popular streamer Pokimane recently gave her thoughts on the move.
A recent tweet from Pokimane gives her thoughts on the proposed changes to Twitch, offering criticisms against Twitch's theoretical ad-based model. As an alternative to Twitch's current system of running video ads that take viewers out of the stream for the ad's duration, Pokimane suggested Twitch implement more on-screen ads like sidebars and underlays or even picture-in-picture ads, so viewers don't miss part of the stream. Pokimane was adamant about the intrusiveness of Twitch's video ads feeling that ads should not impede a viewer's experience while also understanding their necessity.
While Twitch has not made an official announcement about the platform's supposed shift to a more ad-based model, the platform would have precedent for implementing ads similar to Pokimane's suggestion. Last summer saw the platform introduce less intrusive ads called "Stream Display Ads" appearing at the bottom of a stream that would still allow creators and the site to run ads while still allowing viewers to continue watching and not miss out on any of the stream. A similar low disruption strategy could help to persuade many streamers who are hesitant about running excessive ads for fear of alienating viewers.
Twitch's potential change to its monetization system comes as the Amazon-run platform has looked to make several changes over recent months to become a more appealing option for both advertisers and creators. Twitch's newly introduced reporting tools promise to provide more transparency for its controversial ban system, and the platform recently introduced hundreds of new stream tags focused around diversity and inclusion. While many are skeptical of the new ad-focused model, it remains to be seen how exactly Twitch will implement such a major overhaul.