Beginning next month, Twitch Prime members will no longer be able to benefit from the universal ad-free viewing feature. The news came from an official blog post from the streaming service stating that as a result of some "re-evaluation of some of the existing Twitch Prime benefits, ad-free viewing will no longer be part of Twitch Prime for new members".

This change takes into effect starting September 14 for new members but if you already have a monthly subscription, you will still be able to enjoy ad-free viewing until October 15. Annual subscriptions will benefit from this experience until the next renewal date but you can also opt to upgrade to an annual subscription before September 14 should you want to take advantage of the disappearing feature.

Nevertheless, the blog post states that "all other Twitch Prime benefits, like monthly channel subs, monthly games and loot, and chat badges are not changing".

As for the reason behind this change, the blog post reads the following:

Advertising is an important source of support for the creators who make Twitch possible. This change will strengthen and expand that advertising opportunity for creators so they can get more support from their viewers for doing what they love. We want Twitch to remain a place where anyone can enjoy one-of-a-kind interactive entertainment, and ads allow us to continue making Twitch the best place for creators to build communities around the things they love and make money doing it.

Ad-free viewing experiences will still be available via the service's other offer, Twitch Turbo, at the monthly fee of $8.99. Additionally, Twitch Prime subscribers can get channel-specific ad-free viewing as part of Prime by using their monthly subscription token on a channel that has ad-free viewing for subscribers turned on.

What do you make of this piece of news? Will it affect your subscription plan?

SOURCE

 

[Reploid]

Oh well lol

 

[Chary]

More importantly, Amazon US is losing the 20% off pre order bonus too :/ that one sucks way more

 

[ThoD]

So basically, even what is basically "premium" is gonna have ads... that's sad really... What's next? No viewing at all unless you get extra deluxe premium?:/

 

[shaunj66]

Wow, that is awful and pathetic how they're trying to spin it as a good thing.

I would hope members vote with their wallet.

 

[Costello]

so what exactly do you get with a paid subscription ? I assumed you gained the right to watch ad free, but since that's no longer the case... what incentive do they offer?

all other Twitch Prime benefits, like monthly channel subs, monthly games and loot, and chat badges

meh?

 

[SkittleDash]

Sucks but I didn't get Prime for Twitch. So I don't really care. But this may encourage people to start using ad-blockers. GG, Twitch.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Watching ads for those bits aren't even good to watch, and also ads during vod is annoying. Now they trying to make ads more relevant in exchange for more ways to siphon money. If ads wasn't as intrusive or more targeted to the viewer's preference, it wouldn't be so bad. (some ads aren't even a ad, lasting 2 minutes sometimes 10 or even more rare 30 minutes)

 

[FAST6191]

To some it is an inevitable thing with pay for no ads type setups -- anybody that pays is clearly in possession of disposable income, possibly even quite a bit, and thus prime advertiser material. They naturally then put down bigger and bigger numbers and eventually some business wonk makes a case, especially for a costly site (profitable user made video streaming services... yeah).

That said it does suck. Can't say I use the service (I like at least the possibility that things will be scripted and tightly edited) but principles and all that.

 

[Viri]

It's okay, I never bought Amazon Prime, and I just adblock everything.

 

[Deleted User]

Twitch is a terrible platform anyway, real shame they own the monopoly of the streaming market. I mean shit like streamers get banned for things their chat says is just stupid, why should streamers do the site mods work for them?

 

[Deleted User]

I would hope members vote with their wallet.

That honestly doesn't seem to work anymore, since people just keep spilling money out of their wallets at whatever keeps their attention. It's extremely shitty but I don't see them changing their ways unless the backlash is extreme.

 

[limpbiz411]

my adblocker works great, thanks twitch

 

[tech3475]

I think Amazon needs to re-evaluate prime and stop these kinds of sporadic changes.

All its doing is p***ing people off.

 

[DinohScene]

Seeing the speed Twitch grows with.. they need the advertising revenue to continue delivering a smooth experience.
Idk, it could be a whole lot worse tho, like that ancient invention nobody ever watches anymore, you know the one, telly!

 

[Localhorst86]

Seeing the speed Twitch grows with.. they need the advertising revenue to continue delivering a smooth experience.
Idk, it could be a whole lot worse tho, like that ancient invention nobody ever watches anymore, you know the one, telly!

Interesting to see you bring up television.

Because in the past, if you had pay-per-view, (comparably to twitch prime), you'd be free from adverts on these PPV programs. Ads were something only "Free-TV-peasants" would have to endure.

Or so I thought *dramatic drummroll*, until I realized it is common in most countries to pay for Free-TV as well in the form of cable TV fees to cable companies. And even with satelite TV the providers seem to have found a way to get people to pay for the priviledge of receiving their ad-filled networks in the form of HD+.

So in a sense, paying to receive ad-filled content is nothing new at all. Amazon/twitch learned from the established content providers.

 

[DinohScene]

Interesting to see you bring up television.

Because in the past, if you had pay-per-view, (comparably to twitch prime), you'd be free from adverts on these PPV programs. Ads were something only "Free-TV-peasants" would have to endure.

Or so I thought *dramatic drummroll*, until I realized it is common in most countries to pay for Free-TV as well in the form of cable TV fees to cable companies. And even with satelite TV the providers seem to have found a way to get people to pay for the priviledge of receiving their ad-filled networks in the form of HD+.

So in a sense, paying to receive ad-filled content is nothing new at all. Amazon/twitch learned from the established content providers.

You do realize that that last part is sarcasm right?

 

[Localhorst86]

You do realize that that last part is sarcasm right?

do you, too?

Twitch Learned from the best and might join them in their ranks

 

[kuwanger]

Like others, I got Twitch Prime incidentally from Amazon Prime. And I only use Twitch Prime to get the free games. There's very few sites which I stay logged in to and none I log in to just to try to avoid ads. Sort of like the comment about "clearly in possession of disposable income", all staying logged in does (or using the same browser session as one you've at some point logged in, thanks to tracking) is help better build a profile of you which they'll try to monetize somehow--what better way to build an Amazon's suggest list? Of course some sites generally do have a commitment to offering a premium, ad-free experience without any bean counter able to sway it into something more questionable, but I'd consider those sites the exception.

 

[DarthDub]

What the bloody hell?