Streamer outrage forces Twitch to drop planned changes to branded ad rules

Twitch recently revealed its changes to how streamers must disclose and place adverts on their channels while live, and after a scorching retaliation from content creators across the world, the company has now decided to drop the new guidelines.

“We recognize that streamers want to collaborate with brands, but as outlined in the Terms of Service we maintain the exclusive right to sell, serve, and display advertisements on the Twitch Services,” said Twitch of its new branded content guidelines on Tuesday (June 6)

“This means that you may not insert, embed, or ‘burn in’ prerecorded advertising units into your livestream,” added the streaming giant. This was not received well, with streamers levelling sarcastic responses at Twitch’s new rules and expressing their disappointment at Twitch’s apparent restrictions on how they should make their money.

Soon, Twitch conceded that it had “missed the mark with the policy language” and would be revising what the new guidelines would be in order to placate the rising tide of resentment. Yesterday (June 7), the streaming service announced its amendments and admitted the previous iteration was “bad for you and bad for Twitch.”

“Sponsorships are critical to streamers’ growth and ability to earn income. We will not prevent your ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors – you will continue to own and control your sponsorship business,” it continued. “We want to work with our community to create the best experience on Twitch, and to do that we need to be clear about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We appreciate your feedback and help in making this change.”

While it might have looked like the dust was settled, streamers noticed that the paragraph specifying when an individual is cleared for simulcasting (simultaneously streaming on Twitch as well as another live streaming service) is still present. Streamers must ask for advance written permission if they are to do this. Moreover, parts of the original branded content policy seems to have been reintegrated into Twitch’s terms of service under Section 12, Advertisements.

Last month, the recipients of StreamElement’s Creator Diversity Program were revealed. All 16 individuals were awarded £2,398 ($3,000) in funding to spend to boost their careers and presences on their streaming platform of choice.