21 August 2018
Twitch Prime Dropping Ad-Free Viewing, Game Discounts
By Michael Kan/pcmag
Bad news for Twitch Prime subscribers: Your days of enjoying ad-free video streaming and game discounts are coming to an end.
On Monday, Twitch said it will drop its "universal ad-free viewing" experience on the Prime program starting on Sept. 14. Existing monthly subscribers can enjoy the perk until Oct. 15; annual subscribers will have it until their next renewal date.
It's also changing another attractive perk: Twitch Prime is doing away with a 20 percent discount on eligible game pre-orders and replacing them with a $10 credit that can be used on Amazon.com, accordingto an email it sent to customers. The promotional credit only lasts for 60 days and is limited to products sold directly sold by Amazon, not by third-party retailers.
Twitch said it dropped the ad-free viewing experience to generate more money, but not necessarily for itself or for company parent, Amazon. It'll help streamers on the video platform generate more funding for their channels, much like what ads on YouTube do.
"Advertising is an important source of support for the creators who make Twitch possible," the Amazon subsidiary said. "This change will strengthen and expand that advertising opportunity for creators so they can get more support from their viewers for doing what they love."
Despite the change, Twitch said subscribers can still enjoy an ad-free viewing experience. But they'll have sign up for Twitch Turbo, another subscription program that costs $8.99 a month.Although Twitch is dropping the ad-free perk, it's promising new "premium benefits" to the Prime program in the near future. "We're just getting started, and the community can continue to expect more and better free games with Prime and in-game loot every month, monthly channel subscriptions, exclusive badges, along with new benefits and surprises," it said.
"Additionally, Twitch Prime subscribers can still get channel-specific ad-free viewing as part of Prime by using your monthly subscription token on a channel that has ad-free viewing for subscribers turned on," Twitch added.
