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posted by Fnord666 on Monday September 21 2020, @12:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it dept.

Kotaku reports disgruntled streamers are complaining about Twitch adding ads to the middle of live streamed videos.

In an ideal world, ads would be kept to a minimum, allowed only on the backs of magazines people keep in their bathrooms, which nobody actually reads. But even in this fallen world, there's a point at which ad proliferation becomes ridiculous. For Twitch streamers, Twitch's new ad experiment just crossed that line.

Yesterday [Sept. 15] afternoon, Twitch announced that it's "testing" new mid-stream ads that streamers have no direct control over.

"Beginning in September, as part of an ad experiment, some viewers may begin to notice that they are receiving ads during streams that others in a channel aren't receiving," the company wrote on its website. "Like pre-rolls, these are ads triggered by Twitch, not by the creator."

Crucially, these ads utilize Twitch's "picture-by-picture" functionality, which basically means that the stream you're watching pops out into a smaller window while the ad rolls in the main window. However, ads will still steal the show from some viewers, with streamers none the wiser as to who can hear what they're saying (picture-by-picture mutes streams) and, therefore, understand what's happening on stream while ads are playing.

[...] "You're not YouTube," said Twitch partner ThatBronzeGirl on Twitter in response to Twitch's announcement. "When ads play in the middle of the stream, viewers actively miss out on content (muted or not). Add this to the fact that viewers are hit with an ad as soon as they enter a stream, so channel surfing is cumbersome. Idk why y'all hate viewer retention."

"This means either one of two things happens: 1) I schedule a break in the stream to have control over ads running that are proven to drive viewers away. 2) Viewers get an ad randomly that is all but guaranteed to drive them away. Which of those is for us though?" said variety streamer Deejay Knight.
--
"If I don't play enough ads, Jeff Bezos literally comes to my stream and pushes the ad button, what do I do," said former Overwatch pro Seagull.

[...] As ever, this stands to disproportionately impact smaller and mid-sized streamers. These streamers don't have large, dedicated audiences, so they're looking to convert viewers into long-term subscribers (who, in turn, do not have to watch ads). Viewers who haven't subscribed to a streamer are less likely to stick around, or even channel surf away from more established names at all, if they're being stopped by ads at every turn.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by jasassin on Monday September 21 2020, @12:43AM (23 children)

    by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Monday September 21 2020, @12:43AM (#1054160) Homepage Journal

    Twitch sounds like a cool thing. Unfortunately it's also one of thousands of cool things advertisements have ruined.

    I'd wish you good luck, Twitch, but I am so sick of ads (even just the ones that slip past my adblockers). I hope you stick with them and go bankrupt.

    On a separate rant, I'd like to thank the U.K
      for their privacy laws that make every website on my mobile phone cover 3/4 of the screen on sites I newly visit with annoying Cookie notifications. Well played Sirs.

    --
    jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
    • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Monday September 21 2020, @01:17AM (17 children)

      by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 21 2020, @01:17AM (#1054169)
      Problem is, unless you want to start funding "cool things" with tax dollars, someone has to actually PAY for that "cool thing". Twitch has a paid membership to get rid of ads if people don't like them. Of course, everyone wants everything for free, so most people don't pay for it.
      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by legont on Monday September 21 2020, @01:49AM (10 children)

        by legont (4179) on Monday September 21 2020, @01:49AM (#1054178)

        Total horseshit. Cable TV promised add free viewing for paying membership and fucked us. New media will do the same.

        --
        "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
        • (Score: 2, Disagree) by EvilSS on Monday September 21 2020, @03:18AM (9 children)

          by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 21 2020, @03:18AM (#1054212)
          Bullshit. Cable never promised that it would be ad free (that's a myth), and it certainly never promised it would be ad free AND COST NOTHING.
          • (Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @04:05AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @04:05AM (#1054226)

            No one is buying your nonsense.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:52PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:52PM (#1054916)
              Fuck off
          • (Score: 5, Informative) by mhajicek on Monday September 21 2020, @06:58AM (3 children)

            by mhajicek (51) on Monday September 21 2020, @06:58AM (#1054273)

            I clearly recall the cable salesman in my parents living room promising that there would be no ads, because you pay for access. And for a few years, that's how it was. It being a myth is a myth.

            --
            The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
            • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:54PM (2 children)

              by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:54PM (#1054918)
              Then you clearly can find some proof from that time that it's true. Pardon me if I don't accept your childhood memories as proof of anything.
              • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday September 23 2020, @06:17AM (1 child)

                by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday September 23 2020, @06:17AM (#1055259)

                Sure, I'll just look it up on the internet. Oh wait, the internet didn't exist then! Pardon me if I think you're an ass.

                --
                The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
                • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Wednesday September 23 2020, @01:39PM

                  by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 23 2020, @01:39PM (#1055478)
                  A), no, it didn't, and B) you know things that existed before the internet can still be found on the internet, right?
          • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday September 21 2020, @12:37PM (2 children)

            by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 21 2020, @12:37PM (#1054367) Journal

            No, it never promised that it would be free. But it did originally promise that it would be ad free.

            --
            Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
            • (Score: 2) by legont on Monday September 21 2020, @12:56PM

              by legont (4179) on Monday September 21 2020, @12:56PM (#1054373)

              There are always two stages in the life of any company - build your customer base and screw your customer base.

              In this media case, be it new or old, it works simple. To really screw us they need to build a serious footprint so their services can't be easily refused. For this they need people and money. They get first by offering totally free service then they get second by offering subscription and promising add free. If we give them both, they will screw us.

              In our best interest is to deny them money for as long as possible so they can't get too big. Let them screw their investors. When they die because of bills, we will simply switch to other suckers.
              So, boys and girls who are young, never pay to them for as long as you can. Donate to soylent news and similar instead.

              --
              "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
            • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:48PM

              by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:48PM (#1054913)
              So again, what does that have to do with this? Because some completely different industry supposedly (Notice no one every provides any proof of that claim?) then every company will? That's the argument of a idiot.
      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday September 21 2020, @02:04AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 21 2020, @02:04AM (#1054183) Journal
        Indeed. I'm a "cool thing" that isn't getting enough trillions of dollars in public funds. Plzfixkthxbye.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @04:02AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @04:02AM (#1054224)

        Problem is, unless you want to start funding "cool things" with tax dollars, someone has to actually PAY for that "cool thing". [...]

        Twitch is funded by tax dollars. It's a LEA honeypot.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @04:16AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @04:16AM (#1054232)

        Problem is that they don't need so many ads and Cable TV can still provide content without ads (they've done it before) it's just that eventually what happens is a few big companies start to monopolize various communication channels through government regulations. Take, for example, cableco/telco monopolies. Now they want to charge websites for access to their ISP customers (for instance) while ensuring regional monopolies from various governments and when all these government established monopolists demand payment to get traffic through their networks everyone has to start being more aggressive with ads to pay for everything and it also makes it more difficult for newcomers to enter the market.

        Broadcasting monopolies should have never just been granted to the highest bidder. If such monopolies are to exist at all they should absolutely be ad free and they should be allocated only in the public interest. No ads should ever exist across spectrum that the government establishes a monopoly on. EVER.

        Regional cableco/telco monopolies should not exist. Cable companies have incentive to restrict traffic from competing content providers in favor of their own.

        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @10:06AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @10:06AM (#1054319)

          Also Americans pay more for Cable/Internet, Cell phone service, pharmaceuticals/healthcare than other countries (and this nonsense that we allegedly fund their R&D is a lie).

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @01:56PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @01:56PM (#1054406)

            and one of the reasons that it's a lie is because those countries have their own FDA agencies and they conduct their own clinical trials and R&D to get approval for their medications. Governments generally only look at R&D done within their own countries before determining if something should be approved or not.

        • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:50PM

          by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:50PM (#1054915)
          What the fuck does that have to do with my original comment? Are you lost? Did you have a stroke? Twitch is not a cableco, telco, broadcaster. It is not a government monopoly.
    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @01:45AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @01:45AM (#1054175)

      True, luckily if you are subbed to the channel (a price fo a latte a month) you should continue not seeing any ads. Great way to support your favorite streamer, most get 50$ of the $5 you spend to sub (More if the streamer is BIG and cut a special deal with Twitch).

      Also if you have proper adblock,t hat too should negate the ads.

      You can get one free subscription to a channel a month if you are an Amazon Prime customer also.

      As someone who averages 40 hours a week watching streams, it really is cheaper entertainment that Cable.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @03:10PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @03:10PM (#1054446)

        Great way to support your favorite streamer, most get 50$ of the $5 you spend to sub (More if the streamer is BIG and cut a special deal with Twitch).

        I know there's a typo in those numbers, but I feel just correcting the "$" to a "¢" would be such an astoundingly bad deal for the streamer that I hope the symbol was not the only mistake?

        I think I'll just stick to supporting content creators through Patreon and the like. At least that way I'm not directly feeding the Amazon beast.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @02:44AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @02:44AM (#1054196)

      Surely this is where the "consumer rules"? If enough people simply uninstall Twitch and close their account, the bean-boys will quickly u-turn on ad idiocy. But sheeple won't uninstall, will they? sigh...

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by epitaxial on Monday September 21 2020, @12:16PM (1 child)

      by epitaxial (3165) on Monday September 21 2020, @12:16PM (#1054361)

      Why would I want to watch some windbag play a game when I could play it myself. Watching actual sports I understand as its a strenuous activity for top athletes. Anyone can sit in their special chair mashing buttons for hours.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @03:03PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @03:03PM (#1054442)

        They're entertainers, not athletes.

  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday September 21 2020, @12:46AM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 21 2020, @12:46AM (#1054161) Journal

    Twitch adding ads to the middle of live streamed videos.

    I heard AT&T is also looking at this [soylentnews.org] for cell phone interactions.

  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Monday September 21 2020, @01:16AM (2 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Monday September 21 2020, @01:16AM (#1054168)

    General rule of thumb: When a web site or product starts bombarding you with advertising, it is getting ready to go out of business.

    Time to abandon ship.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @01:47AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @01:47AM (#1054176)

      I really doubt that Twitch will go out of business anytime soon, having had won over the last rival in the space recently.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:53PM (#1054917)

      "General rule of thumb: When a web site or product starts bombarding you with advertising, it is getting ready to go out of business."

      YouTube, are you listening?

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Monday September 21 2020, @01:48AM (3 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Monday September 21 2020, @01:48AM (#1054177) Journal

    When one service goes bad, quickly switch to another and don't look back. There is no shortage.

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 21 2020, @01:54AM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday September 21 2020, @01:54AM (#1054181) Journal

      You'll get a pay cut. Amazon has thrown free money into Twitch to some extent.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 21 2020, @02:07AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 21 2020, @02:07AM (#1054186) Journal

        You'll get a pay cut.

        You'll get a paycut anyway. "Pray that I don't alter it any further" style.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 21 2020, @02:05AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 21 2020, @02:05AM (#1054185) Journal

      When one service goes bad, quickly switch to another and don't look back.

      Problem is your audience may not know where you just moved.
      And a streamer without audience is nothing.

      There is no shortage.

      [Citation... errr.... references needed]
      Don't tell me about FB Live, Instagram or LinkedIn.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @02:47AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @02:47AM (#1054197)

    Twitch already reversed this after everyone hated it.

    https://www.gamespot.com/articles/twitch-removes-automatic-mid-roll-ads-for-now/1100-6482381/ [gamespot.com]

    • (Score: 4, Touché) by stretch611 on Monday September 21 2020, @05:57AM (1 child)

      by stretch611 (6199) on Monday September 21 2020, @05:57AM (#1054260)

      Twitch already reversed this after everyone hated it.

      Oh, they may have stopped it temporarily...

      But I'm sure it will come back, after a few months and the controversy blows over. It will have a minor tweak, along with different branding and they will expect it to sneak through without much comment.

      Of course, even if the 2nd attempt fails, there will be a 3rd and as many attempts that are needed for it to finally sneak through. (and it will eventually, after people leave twitch, or learn that their complaints do nothing in the long run.)

      And why do I know it will come back like this... Simple... every other company does the same exact thing.

      --
      Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @10:09AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @10:09AM (#1054322)

        Exactly ... they want people to become desensitized to it little by little.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @07:42AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @07:42AM (#1054284)

      Management have more long term influence than customers.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @05:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @05:00PM (#1054506)

      Meet the new Beta, same as the Fuck Beta.

  • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Monday September 21 2020, @06:07AM

    by Magic Oddball (3847) on Monday September 21 2020, @06:07AM (#1054261) Journal

    I don't watch any major streamers since I mostly watch people play vintage games, but I've seen ads crop up a few times, and discovered that refreshing the filter lists for uBlock Origin kills them right away. Exactly the same situation as over on YouTube: the only time ads appear is if my filters are outdated.

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