There's an ongoing battle for control of livestreaming online, with Twitch undeniably well ahead of its competition on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and elsewhere. This war is being fought via content creators signing exclusive contracts, which is becoming increasingly competitive between platforms. Twitch is having to try new things to keep partners happy and signing new contracts. Its latest effort is particularly inspired, as Twitch will remove its exclusivity clause and allow streamers to stream on other platforms.

Platform exclusivity has long been looked at as the key reason for partner contracts. But as competition grows Twitch has decided that allowing partners to visit other platforms is fine so long as they call Twitch home. As such, Twitch partners will now be able to stream on any platform other than Twitch, including YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram Live. There are, however, still some restrictions regarding how Twitch partners can stream on other platforms.

To be more specific, Twitch has placed some restrictions on "web-based" streaming, which refers to platforms including YouTube and Facebook. The restriction is that Twitch streamers cannot multi-stream on these web-based platforms. The reason cited is that simulcasting leads to a "sub-optimal experience" for streamers' communities because they have to engage with their viewing audience across both platforms at the same time. Multi-streams are allowed on mobile services, though, which include TikTok and Instagram Live.

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For those wondering today Twitch announced the end of our exclusivity clause in Partner contracts!

This means you can:

- do singular streams to YouTube or Facebook
- do multi streams (streaming at the same time as you are live) on Instagram Live or TikTok

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— Dylan (8Bit) 🏳️‍🌈 (@8bitdylan) August 23, 2022

Beyond that, Twitch streamers have free rein to stream on other platforms. A Twitch streamer is freely able to log off of Twitch and then log onto YouTube. Twitch is even encouraging its partners that choose to stream on other platforms to use the opportunity to encourage viewers to check them out on Twitch. Twitch is also fine with partners advertising their other channels on Twitch, too. Links to YouTube and Facebook in major Twitch partners' panels will certainly be odd, though.

Twitch affiliates may be wondering whether these changes also apply to them, but they don't have to worry. That's because Twitch affiliates have never had an exclusivity clause. They were able to stream elsewhere as they please already. As such, the new rules won't change anything for Twitch affiliates.

Odds are this won't lead to any significant changes for a majority of top Twitch streamers. Twitch is where they make their money, after all, so they'd likely want to foster that community over others. But there may be some Twitch streamers who choose to explore YouTube and other platforms, if only to try and build their community. As for why Twitch is willing to take the risk, perhaps it's confident that it won't hurt the platform. Or perhaps it thinks it'll make more streamers come to Twitch. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.

Posted: Aug 28, 2022 8:01 am
Related Forum: Media Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/twitch-ending-partner-exclusivity-clauses/