Twitch is considering changes to ad-based creator pay

Twitch is making plans to implement monetization changes that could affect content creators who are part of the Partner Program. As reported by Bloomberg, anonymous sources who are familiar with the plan said that the changes are in the discussion phases. One of those changes involves giving top streamers incentives to play more ads during their livestreams.

Twitch already implemented the Ad Incentives Program in February, guaranteeing a select few Affiliate and Partner-level streamers a minimum monthly amount of ad revenue based on a set number of ads run per hour and the total number of hours streamed. In other words, the more ads they run, the more money they earn every month.

Another change Twitch is proposing to implement is cutting streamers’ revenue share from 70% to 50%. Partnered streamers currently receive 70% of revenue from their subscribers — between $3.50 to $5 per 1,000 depending on where they live — but the thought of seeing their revenue decrease by 20% is already proving controversial. By reducing the amount of revenue streamers receive in order to increase company profits, Twitch is running the risk of alienating the star streamers it helped create, such as Pokimane and Ninja, and forcing them to leave the platform to stream elsewhere.

The last change Twitch is considering is removing the exclusivity clause. Currently, streamers who are in Twitch’s Partner Program are not allowed to stream on other platforms, such as YouTube Gaming or Facebook Gaming. However, once the exclusivity clause is removed, they’ll be free to make as much money on those aforementioned sites as they do on Twitch. The sources said that Twitch may implement those changes as early as this summer, or they may be scrapped entirely.