> I mean at the very least they should hand controls to the streamer to run an ad: right now it’s the algorithm that does it.

They do: as a streamer, you've got a button to trigger an ad break at any time. But the streamers rarely push it, for the reasons already mentioned. Video ads pay so little that it's not worth it to streamers to annoy their audience that way, when direct monetization methods which depend on happy viewers (subscriptions, shout-outs, merch) are much more profitable to them.

There's a real problem of incentive misalignment between the streamers and the platform re: monetizing the stream by sticking ads in it, and I don't think it can be resolved; hence the layoffs.

They do give streamers a button to run an ad break, but they force ads on you if you don't run them often enough. That is very common for many streamers, because the ad breaks hit a large fraction of your viewers and it sort of kills the conversation for everyone.

Twitch should have offered a merchandising business via Amazon. It feels like Twitch should have understood how their streamers make money, and ensure that all of that monetization happens via Amazon in some way shape or form, whether that’s a print-on-demand business or facilitating product placements.

We never did find out why they banned doc.

I first bought YT premium after I found out the YT model of ad-free is ONLY the equivalent to buying Twitch turbo. A membership to the channel will still get you ads.

And having YT premium changed the game of how I consume all media.

Thanks, Twitch.