In a move that may anger some users of Twitch Prime, Twitch has decided to remove universal ad-free viewing from the membership benefits.
As of September 14, Twitch users who sign up to Twitch Prime will no longer able to watch streams without advertisements. If you are a monthly subscriber to the service, you will be able to watch Twitch streams ad-free until October 15. As for those who sign up to Twitch Prime membership annually, if you already have an existing subscription, or upgrade to an annual subscription before September 14, your streams will continue to be advertisement free until your next renewal date. Other Twitch Prime benefits, such as monthly channel subs, monthly channel games and loot, will not be changing.
In a post made on the Twitch blog, they reveal why they are removing the ad-free viewing benefit from Twitch Prime memberships. "Advertising is an important source of support for the creators who make Twitch possible. This change will strengthen and expand that advertising opportunity for creators so they can get more support from their viewers doing what they love," the blog post states.
"We want Twitch to remain a place where anyone can enjoy one-of-a-kind interactive entertainment, and ads allow us to continue making Twitch the best place for creators to build communities around the things they love and make money doing it."
Ad-free viewing hasn't completely disappeared from Twitch. If Twitch viewers wish to remove advertisements from their streaming experience, they can sign up to a monthly subscription for Twitch Turbo. Alongside Twitch Turbo, Twitch Prime subscribers can use their monthly subscription token to remove advertisements from a specific channel, that is if that channel has ad-free viewing for subscribers activated.
This move by Twitch seems to be motivated by provided streamers with a more stable source of income. Removing the ad-free benefit from Twitch Prime could see that happen. But, it also allows Twitch to gain more advertisers by guaranteeing that their ads will be seen by a larger audience. It will be interesting to see whether Twitch Prime users will welcome this change, or if they will be vocally against it.
