Tense exchange between a streamer and Twitch director speaks to the state of streamer-platform relationships
Tensions between Twitch and its biggest streamers reached a new high last week when the platform announced, then quickly walked back, new restrictions on how ads are embedded in streams. The planned changes would've prohibited streamers from using «burned-in» video ads that circumvent Twitch's ad network, as well as limiting on-screen logos to just 3% of the total screen space.
Streamers hated the now-canceled changes, not only because they would've made it harder to secure branding deals that represent a lot of their revenue, but because many streamers agree that Twitch's official revenue streams are lackluster.
Twitch's monetization problems were among the subjects of a recent Just Chatting stream by Harris Heller, a longtime Twitch streamer who also made the copyright-free music library StreamBeats, that ended in an awkward exchange with a senior Twitch employee.
Heller criticized Twitch for not implementing «proper monetization strategies,» citing its «crazy» 50/50 stream revenue cut and intrusive, mandatory pre-roll ads. Heller cited a tweet from Elgato general manager Julian Fest offering to become Twitch's CEO for a year to «help fix things.» It was around this time that Twitch creative and editorial director Seth Hendrix, who up to this point had chimed in with minor comments like "..." and «lol» in Heller's chat, spoke up to push back against Heller's diagnosis.
«Harris, I love you. But I would love to talk to you 1:1 sometime,» Hendrix said.
Heller said he'd love to talk with Twitch, but also recalled past experiences working with Twitch to brainstorm solutions or features that'd eventually get «shot down by executives.»
You have so many assumptions that are so way off.
«It was always a bummer, but I love
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