Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Twitch has started automatically running ads in the middle of streams for some viewers. It’s been very careful to frame the move as an experiment, probably because the company knows backlash from the community is coming.
Here’s what you need to know. The ads will run across affiliate and partnered channels; creators will get paid for every ad that runs; and picture-in-picture viewing is enabled for all channels, so theoretically the ads won’t be too disruptive. If you pay to subscribe to a channel, you won’t see these ads, and if you pay to subscribe to Twitch, using Turbo, you won’t see them either.
Anyway, here’s an artist’s rendition of what the experience might look like in practice, courtesy of Twitter user @GottaBeHenry.
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