Good and unexpected news for streamers who have opted for Twitch as an issuance platform and who, at some point, have obtained partner status, commonly known as partner, of the platform. If you don’t know exactly what being partnerlet’s start with a clarification of the three levels, within the platform, they are the following:
- User: You may not know it but, by the simple fact of having a user account on Twitch, you already have your own channel (although not the obligation to use it, of course). At this first level, it is not possible to monetize the direct ones with the systems offered by the platform for this purpose, that is, subscriptions or bits. However, income can be obtained through other services. It is the level of those accounts that broadcast direct very sporadically, but also the entry level to later reach the following ones.
- affiliate: As a general rule, although there are specific exceptions, users must meet certain objectives set by Twitch to obtain affiliate status. At this point, they will be able to use the monetization systems and will be able to keep previous live shows. Going from user to affiliate is quite simple, it just takes a little perseverance.
- partner: This is the highest rank a streamer can reach on the platform, and the one that offers the best conditions (except in the case of the big stars, in which case custom contracts are usually established). This jump is much more complicated, especially for those who do not previously bring a large audience from other media, as is the case with many successful YouTubers. For example, in the case of my friend Anaïs, it took about two years, with almost daily streams, to get it.
Prior to the pandemic, a growing interest on the part of users could already be observed in the stream with respect to the consumption of videos on platforms such as YouTube, and confinement triggered the adoption of direct, as well as the proliferation of platforms that sought to compete with Twitch. The problem, for the partners, is that they couldn’t try their luck in these new services. That is, yes they could do it, but this meant the loss of partner status.
However, as we can read in The Verge, Twitch has decided to end the exclusivity, allowing from now on that its partners make broadcasts in other services without this implying the loss of the partner. In this way, if they wish, they can explore the possibilities offered by other services such as YouTube Gaming without compromising what has been achieved on Twitch.
There are some limitations, yes. For example, Simultaneous transmission of a direct by Twitch and another platform is not allowed during «long periods of time«. In other words, the streamer can go live on Twitch and occasionally connect with a YouTube gaming channel, but not for long periods of time. On the other hand, what is allowed is simultaneous transmission on Twitch and on platforms belonging to the mobile ecosystem, such as TikTok and Instagram.
With this move, Twitch claims that the time for exclusivities is over. However, we will have to wait to see the response to this movement by the rest of the platforms.
