The newly appointed Twitch CEO, Dan Clancy, has made some announcements concerning Twitch’s setup with pre-roll ads. For those not in the know, Twitch has a pretty robust ad system, to say the least. Every time you click on a Twitch stream, ads will roll before the stream starts for you. That’s called a pre-roll ad. In addition, sometimes “ad breaks” will appear during a live stream, claiming that the streamer is on an ad-break. This isn’t true in the slightest, but that’s just another way that Twitch gets you to see a few ads.
Recently the Twitch CEO promised to bring about some significant changes to the platform’s ad practices. This also includes those pesky pre-roll ads. He summarized his ad update goals and how they’re presently in development. Dan mentioned the fact that not only did he recognize that the pre-roll ads are invasive but described his own experiences with them. He mentioned that while browsing Twitch, “I thought let’s have this live, so I can see the chat, and I saw an ad,” he said, continuing on to describe how ads were damaging to the user experience.
Will Twitch Pre-Roll Ads Be Eliminated In The Future?
To help address and amend these issues, Dan claimed that Twitch has started measuring what changes need to be made. These include reducing or altogether eliminating pre-roll ads for users in Discovery mode. That way, they can browse relatively uninhibited and discover new streamers to follow. The decision to take away pre-roll ads was met enthusiastically by both fans and streamers. Users have frequently complained about how the ads are imposing, interrupting, and jarring the watch process. This jarring effect is especially true on mobile, where the ads almost entirely cover these screens during streams.
However, don’t get too excited yet. With the rise of competitors like Kick, it’s unlikely that the ads will be removed completely. However, it’s still good that at least some moderation is coming into play, especially for the mobile fans of the platform.
