Twitch, the world’s leading live-streaming website for games and other activities is under the line of fire over a public service announcement that has recently started popping up in front of the users during live viewing sessions, as reported by TheVerge.
It all began when several users used UBlock, an ad blocker to block ads during live streaming. Suddenly, Twitch not only broke or disabled UBlock, but it also started showing a public service announcement every 10-20 minutes apart, for the users of UBlock. This message informs the users that they may be using some third-party ad-blocking tool or browser extension that is impacting the performance of the site. This message would appear after every little while in front of the users and it looked like a site-triggered midroll ad.
Now, the users very justifiably got annoyed and they accused Twitch to be using this midroll ad to ‘punish’ them for using the ad-blocker, UBlock.
However, a spokesperson from Twitch had a different story to tell. As per them, it is the users’ fault that they are using some third-party ad-blocking tool and that the site never changed its overall ad density. It means that the only automated ads that are running on the site are prerolls, not midrolls, and live streamers can easily disable them for their subscribers. As per this spokesperson from Twitch, the site is not targeting the users for using ad-blockers by showing them more ads, so this accusation is kind of preposterous!
Now, there is a lot of hostility between the users and the site, and not to mention that the environment is not very smooth between streamers, who do not like to run ads, and viewers, who do not like to view ads! The problem is that ads are actually important for the site to generate revenue. So, their beef with this matter makes sense. As per Lowco, a Twitch partner, the site should try to make ads that work in the favor of the streamers also. The problem here is not that Twitch is targeting users for using ad-blockers, because this could be something that is a part of Twitch’s business plan. But forcing ads on the streamers is not right. This is a forceful implementation of ads and nobody would like to endure it. So, Twitch must come up with a better line of action for ads on its platform by making these ads skippable, or with better inline ads that can appear seamlessly and do not interfere or interrupt a live streaming session with constant pop-ups.
It all began when several users used UBlock, an ad blocker to block ads during live streaming. Suddenly, Twitch not only broke or disabled UBlock, but it also started showing a public service announcement every 10-20 minutes apart, for the users of UBlock. This message informs the users that they may be using some third-party ad-blocking tool or browser extension that is impacting the performance of the site. This message would appear after every little while in front of the users and it looked like a site-triggered midroll ad.
Now, the users very justifiably got annoyed and they accused Twitch to be using this midroll ad to ‘punish’ them for using the ad-blocker, UBlock.
However, a spokesperson from Twitch had a different story to tell. As per them, it is the users’ fault that they are using some third-party ad-blocking tool and that the site never changed its overall ad density. It means that the only automated ads that are running on the site are prerolls, not midrolls, and live streamers can easily disable them for their subscribers. As per this spokesperson from Twitch, the site is not targeting the users for using ad-blockers by showing them more ads, so this accusation is kind of preposterous!
Now, there is a lot of hostility between the users and the site, and not to mention that the environment is not very smooth between streamers, who do not like to run ads, and viewers, who do not like to view ads! The problem is that ads are actually important for the site to generate revenue. So, their beef with this matter makes sense. As per Lowco, a Twitch partner, the site should try to make ads that work in the favor of the streamers also. The problem here is not that Twitch is targeting users for using ad-blockers, because this could be something that is a part of Twitch’s business plan. But forcing ads on the streamers is not right. This is a forceful implementation of ads and nobody would like to endure it. So, Twitch must come up with a better line of action for ads on its platform by making these ads skippable, or with better inline ads that can appear seamlessly and do not interfere or interrupt a live streaming session with constant pop-ups.
Twitch is targeting viewers using ad blockers by running frequent ads in an attempt to annoy them into submission. You'll have to disable your ad block to stop these otherwise they'll run every ~10 minutes. pic.twitter.com/70CevtuugF
— Lowco (@Lowco2525) November 2, 2020
Featured photo: Thomas Trutschel via Getty Images
