Twitch Prime has existed for about 2 years now, and one of the integral benefits of the subscription-based service has been an ad-free experience. Today, however, an official Twitch communication has stated that the ad-free portion of Prime will be shuttered within the next 2 months. Users who obtain a Twitch Prime subscription after September 14, 2018 will receive ads, while existing monthly subscriptions will only be ad-free until October 15. Annual Twitch Prime subscriptions will be ad-free until they renew, at which point commercials will once again be part of streams.

In order for gamers to get back to ad-free stream viewing, they will have to subscribe to Twitch Turbo, a monthly subscription option that doesn't come bundled in with an Amazon Prime subscription. Turbo subscribers will also get 2 more emoji sets, custom chat colors, a badge, and will be able to save broadcasts for 60 days instead of 14. Twitch Prime remains the same, aside of the fact that gamers will no longer be exempt from advertisements.

The community reaction to these changes has been decidedly negative, especially with the rational given by Twitch. The company explains that advertising is an important source of support for content creators who make Twitch possible. Users pointed out that the Twitch Prime description indicated that content creators still got credit for ad impressions from ad-free Prime users, a description that has now been copy-and-pasted to the Twitch Turbo subscription FAQ. From the responses rapidly piling up, it looks like most Prime members were using it mostly for the ad-free browsing it allowed, with many users not wanting to pay more money for the same ad-free experience they've become accustomed to.

The company was also quick to mention the ample Twitch Prime perks that have come in recent times, like a variety of Fortnite, PUBG, and Hearthstone unlocks along with some free game releases. Still, Twitch Prime users don't seem satisfied with the alternative offerings. The official tweet states that users can still get ad-free viewing on a sole channel by using their Twitch Prime sub, though this isn't mentioned in the official Twitch Prime FAQ. It will be interesting to see how Twitch responds to concerned consumers, if at all.

Source: Twitch