In an attempt to earn more money, Twitch has gone way too far.
In an update to Twitch's guidelines, the popular video live streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions, wants to restrict many kinds of overlaid ads that streamers can sell and insert on top of their own content.
In a June 6 update to its Branded Content Policy guidelines, Twitch said that starting July 1, the platform said that so-called "burned in" videos, display banners, or audio ads are no longer permitted on the platform.
The rules also limit the size of any logos to just 3% of the screen size.
Streamers at Twitch typically embed ads so they are visible at all times.
In return, Twitch usually pays them 50% of the money it collects from their subscribers, though some of the biggest streamers receive a 70-30 "revenue split". But the platform receives none of the revenue streamers make from ads or donations.
In comparison, YouTubers receive 70% of the revenue from their subscriptions, known as memberships. What's more, YouTube also takes a 30% cut of donations from fans.
But Twitch is Twitch, and YouTube is YouTube. They're totally different.
Hey @Twitch how about instead of handicapping what creators make, you help them make more? Seems more logical.
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) June 6, 2023
In an attempt to increase its revenue, Twitch is blamed to sacrifice its own creators by capping their income to benefit itself.
The revised rules created major backlash, because the move would severely affect streamers' ability to make money from content they upload to Twitch.
Even one of YouTube's biggest stars, MrBeast, has expressed his disappointment.
The man whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, boasts more than 150 million followers on YouTube alone, and for more than often, he calls his army of fans for help.
He hopes that he can sway the people at Twitch to reconsider its latest branded and sponsored content policy changes.
"Hey Twitch, how about instead of handicapping what creators make, you help them make more? Seems more logical," he said on Twitter, a moment after the streaming platform announced it's plan to impose significant limitations on sponsored streams.
Fortunately, Twitch listens.
It even apologized.
We do not intend to limit streamers’ ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors, and we understand that this is an important part of how streamers earn revenue.
— Twitch (@Twitch) June 6, 2023
We missed the mark with the policy language and will rewrite the guidelines to be clearer. Thank you for sharing your concerns, and we appreciate the feedback. We’ll notify the community once we have updated the language.
— Twitch (@Twitch) June 6, 2023
Following the backlash over its revised advertising rules, the Amazon-owned livestreaming service said that it's rewriting the rewritten policy.
The company realized how severe it was after several prominent creators threatened to boycott the platform. Some even promised to move elsewhere.
"Today's branded-content policy update was overly broad," it said in a tweet.
"This created confusion and frustration - and we apologise for that."
"We do not intend to limit streamers' ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors - and we understand that this is an important part of how streamers earn revenue."
Twitch said that "missed the mark with... policy language" that was "overly broad."
Yesterday, we released new Branded Content Guidelines that impacted your ability to work with sponsors to increase your income from streaming. These guidelines are bad for you and bad for Twitch, and we are removing them immediately.
— Twitch (@Twitch) June 7, 2023