Twitch announced yesterday some big changes to their commercial policy that will change the streaming experience for both streamers and viewers. They all look pretty positive, most notably it won't display a pre-roll more than once every few minutes so you won't have to sit through them if you're clicking around (or misclick).
TL;DR - Changes coming to our video advertising policy in the coming weeks mean you will get to your content sooner, the ads you do see will fit more naturally into the broadcast flow, and the browsing experience will be a lot smoother. We’re limiting pre-rolls on live content so you will only see one every few minutes instead of every time you load a stream, refresh, change resolutions, etc. We’re also giving all partners the ability to run commercial breaks for up to three minutes at a time in 30-second intervals and limiting the frequency of all commercial breaks to once every eight minutes. Read on for more.
As our Turbo feedback showed, many of our users think critically about revenue for streamers and it’s clear that we should be providing more context to avoid confusion. To that end, we’d like to notify everyone that we’re changing our commercial policy on pre-rolls and mid-rolls in the coming weeks, leading to a better experience for both viewers and broadcasters. For clarity, pre-rolls are video ads that run automatically when you join a live stream, whereas mid-rolls are ads triggered by the broadcaster, usually between games or when there is an extended break in content. This policy change affects both.
Currently, we attempt to show you a pre-roll whenever you join a live stream (you may not see one every time due to geography and/or seasonality). This also occurs when you refresh the stream, change the resolution, pop out the stream, or accidentally navigate away. Even though these actions don’t really occur that often in aggregate, sitting through another ad is a pretty annoying experience, so we’re changing it so you can’t see a pre-roll more than once every few minutes.
Note: The pre-roll must run completely before triggering this exemption. Also, if you are disabling flash cookies, this implementation cannot tell when you have last seen a pre-roll, so they must be enabled to take advantage of this change.
It’s our hope that this change also makes it easier to browse different streams until you find the one you want to watch (take advantage of this and try out the “Random” filter on our new directory page to discover new streams!). We’ve been experimenting with different pre-roll frequencies and we’re still looking for the length that offers an excellent viewer experience while still enabling partners to passively accumulate pre-roll ad revenue from new viewers joining their stream (most users stay and watch the first stream they land on), so please note that the minimum period may change. We expect this to roll out in the coming weeks.
Pre-roll and mid-roll cuing issues are my biggest complaint with twitch, so it's really nice to see them acknowledge the frustration that comes with having action interrupted with some random commercial or having to sit through a bunch of pre-rolls just to find a good stream. Kudos twitch.
Great changes I like it. I'm using adblock so the commercials don't concern me but I remember back in the day how thoose pre-rolls really bugged me since I always had to change the resolution manually and therefore watch it twice.
If the ads do become less intrusive I will disable my adblock for twitch completely instead of only adblocking certain streams. It's good to see that they're taking initiative in this.
The changes with the prerolls are excellent. The limit to ads once every 8 minutes might hurt streamers who chain ads while waiting for match queue since there isn't a game going on thoug . Well, I guess we will have to see how it goes.
Love that they're fixing pre-roll. Can't tell you how many times I missed something cause I accidently got out of the video screen and had to sit through 30 secs of a commercial XD.
One of my two biggest complaints have been fixed. The first is changing resolutions = commercial. The other is that when I'm on a bad net a 30s ad wants to stream in 1080p or w/e and it takes me >2 min to load a 30s ad.
this is a bid offtopic but still twitch related. Everytime i get those ads it says i should get twitch turbo to support xx player. I think this is very missleading to say the least. The players don't get anything (only the normal add fee) from twitch turbo as far as i know.
Yeah, if the volume of commercials would not kill my ears then I would disable adblock for sure.I want to support streamers but its really annoying when they blast a commercial in my ears. And sometimes you can't lower it for an ad.
On February 10 2013 04:59 FeverSC wrote: If the ads do become less intrusive I will disable my adblock for twitch completely instead of only adblocking certain streams. It's good to see that they're taking initiative in this.
Bingo, I will disable my adblock for the entire domain now that I don't have to use it to avoid getting extra commercials on resolution switching and reloading.
Thank god as I've literally been spammed with dozens of ads whenever trying to watch a no-sub Proleague cast, even midgame, and the worst thing is it's always the same 1 or 2 ads over and over again. Hopefully this makes things less spammy.
I dont get how no one is mentioning that their new turbo service is the biggest problem with the site(Pay 8.99 to not see any ads). Very few viewers are going to pay extra to subscribe to a specific stream with this new option available. They are under cutting all of the streamers with this service. Ive read from many streamers that they make a larger portion of their proceeds from monthly subscriptions than they do from ad revenue/CPM.
On February 10 2013 08:46 BlazinHot wrote: I dont get how no one is mentioning that their new turbo service is the biggest problem with the site(Pay 8.99 to not see any ads). Very few viewers are going to pay extra to subscribe to a specific stream with this new option available. They are under cutting all of the streamers with this service. Ive read from many streamers that they make a larger portion of their proceeds from monthly subscriptions than they do from ad revenue/CPM.
main difference: people who subscribe to channels won't count to ads numbers. People who subscribe to turbo will.
Can someone confirm if I am right? that's how I interpreted it.
On February 10 2013 08:46 BlazinHot wrote: I dont get how no one is mentioning that their new turbo service is the biggest problem with the site(Pay 8.99 to not see any ads). Very few viewers are going to pay extra to subscribe to a specific stream with this new option available. They are under cutting all of the streamers with this service. Ive read from many streamers that they make a larger portion of their proceeds from monthly subscriptions than they do from ad revenue/CPM.
This is mentioned all the time. Except because people don't subscribe to skip the damn adds they subscribe to support the streamer. If they are the type that would like to support Twitch as a whole over their favorite streamer then it's their prerogative.
People moan about esports not being as mainstream as they like yet they all have adblock on...dat logic
No matter what the changes are everyone who wants esports to grow should have their adblock off at all times. Good changes either way from Twitch anyway.
On February 10 2013 08:46 BlazinHot wrote: I dont get how no one is mentioning that their new turbo service is the biggest problem with the site(Pay 8.99 to not see any ads). Very few viewers are going to pay extra to subscribe to a specific stream with this new option available. They are under cutting all of the streamers with this service. Ive read from many streamers that they make a larger portion of their proceeds from monthly subscriptions than they do from ad revenue/CPM.
This is mentioned all the time. Except because people don't subscribe to skip the damn adds they subscribe to support the streamer. If they are the type that would like to support Twitch as a whole over their favorite streamer then it's their prerogative.
Or, if you're like me, you can't always tune into your favorite streamer(s) when they normally stream. Shelling out $5 for 1 guy that I may or may not get to watch for 1-2 weeks due to his/her schedule or mine sucks. Instead, I have to hope for an inconsistent streamer to go live, but I don't want to subscribe to 4 different streams for that case.
On February 10 2013 09:26 Finnz wrote: People moan about esports not being as mainstream as they like yet they all have adblock on...dat logic
No matter what the changes are everyone who wants esports to grow should have their adblock off at all times. Good changes either way from Twitch anyway.
except when I have my tv on mute I don't hear commercials blasting through my room, cant say the same for twitch. Not to mention that I don't see the damn same commercial over and over. twitch.tv did this to themselves
On February 10 2013 09:26 Finnz wrote: People moan about esports not being as mainstream as they like yet they all have adblock on...dat logic
No matter what the changes are everyone who wants esports to grow should have their adblock off at all times. Good changes either way from Twitch anyway.
except when I have my tv on mute I don't hear commercials blasting through my room, cant say the same for twitch. Not to mention that I don't see the damn same commercial over and over. twitch.tv did this to themselves
That's not quite true. The ad selection for Twitch is "small" because that's what is offered to them through the contracts they have. It's more of a problem that advertisers don't want to pay Twitch (and other online streaming sites) to run their ads.
On February 10 2013 05:43 StarGalaxy wrote: this is a bid offtopic but still twitch related. Everytime i get those ads it says i should get twitch turbo to support xx player. I think this is very missleading to say the least. The players don't get anything (only the normal add fee) from twitch turbo as far as i know.
Actually Twitch treats it as thought the streamer is getting ad revenue from you, so it actually does support the streamer.
On February 10 2013 05:43 StarGalaxy wrote: this is a bid offtopic but still twitch related. Everytime i get those ads it says i should get twitch turbo to support xx player. I think this is very missleading to say the least. The players don't get anything (only the normal add fee) from twitch turbo as far as i know.
Actually Twitch treats it as thought the streamer is getting ad revenue from you, so it actually does support the streamer.
no it doesn't. They get the same if you watch the add or have twitch turbo. how does that support them then? Think again.
I already disabled adblock long time ago on twitch, so this pre-roll change makes me quite happy. It was really annoying sometimes, when you were just browsing the streams.
The changes sound good overall! I hope as well that Twitch keeps on improving, even when they are nearly alone regarding streaming.
On February 10 2013 16:30 cerb wrote: I already disabled adblock long time ago on twitch, so this pre-roll change makes me quite happy. It was really annoying sometimes, when you were just browsing the streams.
The changes sound good overall! I hope as well that Twitch keeps on improving, even when they are nearly alone regarding streaming.
If they stop improving people with no income from streaming will switch to other services such as daily motion, ustream etc as those services improve. They will also need a massive lead if youtube changes terms so you can show sponsors in their live streams or whatever it is that makes it bad currently.
On February 10 2013 05:43 StarGalaxy wrote: this is a bid offtopic but still twitch related. Everytime i get those ads it says i should get twitch turbo to support xx player. I think this is very missleading to say the least. The players don't get anything (only the normal add fee) from twitch turbo as far as i know.
Actually Twitch treats it as thought the streamer is getting ad revenue from you, so it actually does support the streamer.
no it doesn't. They get the same if you watch the add or have twitch turbo. how does that support them then? Think again.
Yeah...Exactly. The same if you watch the ad or have twitch turbo. Ads support the streamer, and since turbo is the same as if you were watching the ad, the streamer is still supported.
On February 10 2013 17:01 Foblos wrote: Yeah...Exactly. The same if you watch the ad or have twitch turbo. Ads support the streamer, and since turbo is the same as if you were watching the ad, the streamer is still supported.
What i was saying is that twitch's slogan suggest to me that the player benefits from you upgrading to twitch pro. That's not the case. You won't support the players by buying twitch turbo instead of watching ads. Right now there is no incentive for me to buy twitch turbo to support my favourite players. But that's an impression you can get if you read their slogan. If you buy a subscription of a channel you indeed support them because they get a big part of that money. Do you understand my point now?
On February 10 2013 05:06 Billinator wrote: interesting. I wonder if they are going to anything to try to fix the fact that there isn't a pratical reason to subscribe to peoples channels now
Twitch getting their money>content producers getting their money, they've made their choice it seems. Fishstix had some pretty lame answers when trying to defend turbo on twitter. In the end as a streamers I want subs> over all if I do it for a living.
these pre-rolls are the only reason why i dont turn off my adblock on streams.
twitch should give an option to the streamers to turn off the pre-rolls and give them some more control over their stream this way.
as mentionend in the twitch article, they already know that these pre-rolls are not working for livestreams at all, since you miss content at times that the streamer cant control, so you might miss things you really want to see.
commercials need to be viewer-friendly at internet-media or otherwise ppl just block the ads.
the solution that i see: give the streamers 100% free decision on when and how long commercials run. they are in close contact with their viewers and know how to solve problems regarding this. there are many different kinds of streams for different games and 1 ruleset for all of them wont fit. so please dont put rules that may apply for most streams on the other ones who cant work with that.
btw: i will for sure disable my adblock for all streams if they remove the pre-rolls completly. im fine with the mid-rolls.
On February 10 2013 05:43 StarGalaxy wrote: this is a bid offtopic but still twitch related. Everytime i get those ads it says i should get twitch turbo to support xx player. I think this is very missleading to say the least. The players don't get anything (only the normal add fee) from twitch turbo as far as i know.
Actually Twitch treats it as thought the streamer is getting ad revenue from you, so it actually does support the streamer.
On February 10 2013 18:31 StarGalaxy wrote: What i was saying is that twitch's slogan suggest to me that the player benefits from you upgrading to twitch pro. That's not the case. You won't support the players by buying twitch turbo instead of watching ads. Right now there is no incentive for me to buy twitch turbo to support my favourite players. But that's an impression you can get if you read their slogan. If you buy a subscription of a channel you indeed support them because they get a big part of that money. Do you understand my point now?
iirc it only says something like "you won't see adds, whilst still supporting the player". It doesn't say "get twitch turbo in order to support your player" That's a pretty big difference.
On February 10 2013 19:49 imPermanenCe wrote: iirc it only says something like "you won't see adds, whilst still supporting the player". It doesn't say "get twitch turbo in order to support your player" That's a pretty big difference.
That's my whole point it DOESN'T say "you won't see adds, whilst still supporting the player" it says "support player x and level up your twitch experience, go turbo". I am not saying it's a lie or its wrong how it is stated there. I say it can be easily misunderstood. But maybe that's just me as a non native speaker.
I once turned ad-block off to support TL.net, but had to turn it back on, because of the pre-rolls. Skipping through some streams before deciding which one to watch was impossible. I will try to disable adblock again.
On February 10 2013 20:03 nakam wrote: Wow, the pre-roll thing was the reason I used adblock before. I'm surprised how many of you also felt that way.
Yeah that was definitely one of the more annoying things. A very welcome change. It's like if each time you changed channel on your tv you'd go straight to commercials.
On February 10 2013 20:24 zul wrote: I once turned ad-block off to support TL.net, but had to turn it back on, because of the pre-rolls. Skipping through some streams before deciding which one to watch was impossible. I will try to disable adblock again.
This is so true. At first I got adblock because just checking a stream was just very frustrating but later I decided to just take the bullet and disable adblock because I really want to support TL + streamers I enjoy but the pre-rolls have me really doubting that decision so feels good that they acknowledge the issue. I really don't mind ads, but pre-rolling is just insane, just think if the same was true for TV browsing.
As a few people have already said, I only use adblock for twitch because of the pre-rolls as I like to often browse through 3-4 streams before staying at one and do this possibly several times an hour, and pre-rolls disable this kind of usage. I like the change, though if I understand correctly, it says you will be exempt from pre-rolls after watching one pre-roll in its entirety first. If this is true, I'll enable adblock again because it pretty much still disables the described behavior. I honestly don't understand why these pre-rolls are so important when they are the core reason many people are using adblock, and this has been discussed many times already.
On February 10 2013 19:49 imPermanenCe wrote: iirc it only says something like "you won't see adds, whilst still supporting the player". It doesn't say "get twitch turbo in order to support your player" That's a pretty big difference.
That's my whole point it DOESN'T say "you won't see adds, whilst still supporting the player" it says "support player x and level up your twitch experience, go turbo". I am not saying it's a lie or its wrong how it is stated there. I say it can be easily misunderstood. But maybe that's just me as a non native speaker.
My bad, When I glanced through the text below the ad real quickly (a while ago) I thought the text was pretty clear, but you're right (just looked at it again). For people who don't know how it works, it is misleading indeed.
Nice, pre-roll ads are my biggest complaint. I would often go to random streams on TL or browsing games on twitch and hated having to sit through an ad when trying to find something to watch. It'd be like flipping channels on a TV and everything was a commercial.
Something to note, guys, is that you probably have to allow cookies if you want to take advantage of this. If you don't allow cookies, Twitch probably isn't going to be able to track your computer and you'll probably get the ad every time you refresh/misclick because their website isn't capable of recognizing your computer. I believe AdBlock is the same. Haven't looked into it much so I can't say for sure, but I believe the AdBlock filters block cookies too.
On February 10 2013 19:49 imPermanenCe wrote: iirc it only says something like "you won't see adds, whilst still supporting the player". It doesn't say "get twitch turbo in order to support your player" That's a pretty big difference.
That's my whole point it DOESN'T say "you won't see adds, whilst still supporting the player" it says "support player x and level up your twitch experience, go turbo". I am not saying it's a lie or its wrong how it is stated there. I say it can be easily misunderstood. But maybe that's just me as a non native speaker.
Eh, if you get mad for every ad that's misleading you'd drive yourself insane in half a day.
That is great stuff, glad that there will be more order to the ads and how they appear. I really wish there was some monitoring on the sound levels of some of the ads, they've almost blown my audio monitors a few times due to the huge jumps sometimes in volumes. There's been a lot of attention for this problem in common media mediums and a lot of countries have regulated the decibel ratios of programming to ads. Here's what the CRTC and FCC (Regulators in Canada and USA) has to say:
Every single stream is guilty of overly loud commercials, and sometimes the intermission music even clips out- but that's just bad mixing on the productions end.
Point being, loud commercials suck just as much as intrusive amounts of ads.
Smart move, it just should have been implemented months ago. I feel that the high annoyance factor of pre-roll ads was one of the biggest contributors to people adopting AdBlock on twitch, along with loud/auto-unmuting ads. Pre-rolls just don't make sense for a streaming platform which promotes cross-pollination, because as twitch themselves state "Live content is immediate, and you want to get to the content as soon as possible."
I personally got into the habit of starting streams with AdBlock enabled and disabling it when I had the stream running in the right resolution. Most streamers are pretty smart nowadays about not doing anything interesting while their mid-rolls are running, so I don't have a problem sitting through a couple of ads during downtime to support them. There are exceptions of course, Proleague being a recent and prominent example. Somebody from twitch should tell them that it isn't very smart to spam ads while you are showing interviews.
This seems like a nice change. I always seem to cycle through using adblock and not using it on twitch. My biggest problem is just the extremely loud ads that run through your muted stream. The last time I put adblock back on was when I was constantly getting these kinds of ads, so I emailed them about which ad was doing this (they encourage this type of feedback so they can remove it, apparently), and after a whole week there was no reply and the ad was still popping up all the time. I suppose now is a good time to give them another chance. It's nice to see them actually showing some care for the ad experience.
On February 11 2013 18:39 ryzorzen wrote: That is great stuff, glad that there will be more order to the ads and how they appear. I really wish there was some monitoring on the sound levels of some of the ads, they've almost blown my audio monitors a few times due to the huge jumps sometimes in volumes. There's been a lot of attention for this problem in common media mediums and a lot of countries have regulated the decibel ratios of programming to ads. Here's what the CRTC and FCC (Regulators in Canada and USA) has to say:
Every single stream is guilty of overly loud commercials, and sometimes the intermission music even clips out- but that's just bad mixing on the productions end.
Point being, loud commercials suck just as much as intrusive amounts of ads.
I know that there is an option on the wrench symbol thingy that you can report ads that are too loud. Of course, you have to somehow overcome having your ear balls being broken in able to click it in time, but the option is there.
I've also noticed that in general these type of ads have gotten less numerous in the past few weeks. Hopefully it's a true sign of things and not just my terrible memory :3
I really don't get why when a stream is put on mute, the commercial still plays with sound on. When I mute my TV, the sound doesn't switch itself back on when commercials are running. Anyway, the current changes seem very good, but there's still a lot to work on.
I dont understand why they dont limit pre-rolls to just one time in a session. It's so annoying when twitch lags and you want to quickly switch to a different resolution, to see if it helps with the lag, but you get a ad for switching and for example the game has ended or something big happened but you have no idea what happened. And the 30 seconds interval sucks.
oh and all these people that are saying their gonna disabled adblock now.... lol right, if it was to much to view one or 2 ad's more your not going to disable it now.
On February 13 2013 08:53 1a2a3a[MB] wrote: and they expect this to work... everyone has adblock no one cares
Not really. It's about 50/50 for adblock vs. no adblock (source - my vague memory of an announcement of this statistic made in the past). A fair number of people turn off adblock because the ad revenue benefits somebody they like, others just don't use it in the first place. For those of us who don't turn it off because we are willing to support our streamers, it's a welcome change.
EPT
I hope more people do the same! Let's support the SC2 community guys! Give the streamers what they deserve 
