When you logged in Tuesday, June 6th, chances are you saw three notifications from Twitch, all updates of their current terms.
This is a summary of the changes from what I understand.
Hella disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer or providing any kind of legal advice here. Hell, I’m not medically cleared to be on jury duty because I’m not “sound of mind.” So take this article with a grain of salt. I’m just a goblin on the struggle bus trying to understand the changes that happened.
Second disclaimer: There are abso-fucking-lutely sponsored/affiliate links in this article. You know, because content creators need to get paid. Twitch. We need MONEY to afford to STREAM.
Sponsored Content Takes the Biggest Hit
Most of the changes that streamers are pissed about revolve around paid sponsorships, which Twitch calls branded content in its Terms of Service.
Generally, if you would not need to check the “Branded Content” box in your stream info settings, you don’t need to worry about the branded content issues.
75+% of Your Stream Work is Off-Stream
Sponsored brand overlays are now heavily limited. This doesn’t apply to your personal logos, but it’s seriously annoying.
The removal of the ability for streamers to put in their own sponsored ads incredibly uncool. This will hit bigger organizations like Critical Roll, who have breaks in their stream to run their own sponsored content.
Worth noting, if you just do a silly video series with your friends and play it, this doesn’t apply. Likewise, Tiefling Melissa’s fabulous video showcasing her own 2.0 model and personal Twitch updates were fine to showcase on her channel. This is specifically for branded content. However, if you’re putting personal content up, I’d recommend making it hella obvious that it is NOT branded content.
The restriction applies to video, display, and audio ads.
Summary
If you don’t have paid content on your stream, this doesn’t impact you yet.
Should you stop streaming on Twitch completely? In my opinion, unless you have…. over a thousand views per stream, you should at least do some of your streaming on Twitch, because they’re just too big.
Should you stream on other platforms? Abso-fucking-lutely. IMHO, you should have already been diversifying your streaming. Twitch has been headed towards fucking over streamers for a long-ass-time and I have BIG opinions on Amazon as a company.
What is Branded Content?
If you were compensated to have it on your stream, even if it’s just a product you got for free in exchange for having it on the stream, it’s branded content.
Branded Content is Not:
- Your own stuff
- Things you bought and are just showing off
- Anything you like and are not paid/gifted stuff to talk about/show off
Other Options for Streaming:
- Fansly (NSFW)
- Youtube