Despite being the destination for live streamed content, Twitch never fails to make a massive misstep that stokes the ire of its community.
The latest in a long, long line of problematic choices isn’t finalised and is still very much unconfirmed, but it’s just ridiculous enough to think “Yeah, Twitch would do that”.
In a report from Bloomberg, sources told the publication that the platform is considering a change which could see creators earning less while also running more advertising.
Perhaps most egregious is the suggestion that Twitch will change how much money a creator in its partner programme earns from a subscription.
These changes would seemingly only affect the top creators who would see the 70 percent share they get from subscriptions brought down to 50 percent. There will also be more incentives to run advertising and reportedly, new tiers that would determine how much you earn from subscriptions.
Now, this would bring bigger players on par with the average Twitch streamer, but we have to wonder whether that would do more harm than good. According to Bloomberg, one carrot Twitch could offer in order to keep high-profile streamers on its platform is by ditching exclusivity restrictions.
Ultimately, this looks rather good for YouTube.
As TechCrunch reports, YouTube projected revenue of $7.51 billion for the first quarter of the year but missed the mark and only brought in $6.87 billion. However, this isn’t as bad as it seems at first glance.
During an earnings call this week Google and Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat said the reason for this decline is thanks to a dip in Play revenue brought on by pricing changes. When it comes to subscriptions, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music and YouTube TV are gaining subscribers and as a result, revenue.
Furthermore, advertising revenue was still 14 percent higher than the same quarter in 2021, so while it missed its projections, advertising revenue isn’t a problem for Google like it seemingly is for Twitch.
Of course, the changes that Bloomberg have reported on could simply be the C-Suite kicking ideas around on how to bring in more revenue. Unfortunately, this move doesn’t look good for creators and while this would only affect those in the upper echelons of the partner programme, those aren’t voices you want to anger.
Beyond that, who’s to say that Twitch won’t filter these changes down to smaller creators and take a greater share of the revenue they bring in.
If you are a content creator, it may be a good time to start exploring your options and seeing what the likes of YouTube and Facebook Gaming offer compared to Twitch.
