Twitch to launch series of new ad features in 2023
Twitch has unveiled a number of new commercial features it is planning to release over the first half of 2023, to improve user experience for creators and advertisers.
The interactive livestreaming service shared plans to update its Ads Incentive Program, launched in 2022 in an open-letter from chief product officer, Tom Verrilli and chief monetisation officer, Mike Minton.
The Program allowed streamers to earn a more reliable income from ads, with the feature set to become more flexible in 2023, allowing creators to remain opted in and adjust the number of ads they are running.
Given the live nature of Twitch streaming, updates will also be made to Ads Manager to give creators more visibility and control over the timing of ads, as not to interrupt their stream abruptly.
An ad-free tier is also underway, with ‘Twitch Turbo’ to offer a range of premium features for users including ad-free viewing, chat upgrades and badges.
In addition, Twitch has also laid out plans to make two changes to improve the way ads work for viewers and channels, first by changing the way disabling pre-roll works for channels.
First, running three minutes of ads per hour in any way will disable pre-roll advertising, updating previous rules that required spots to be split into 90 second ads every 30 minutes.
Second, the platform will explore ways to give viewers a heads-up when ads are about to start, ad give them the ability to snooze video mid-roll ads.
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