Like many big tech companies, Amazon is trying to cut costs. Recently his Twitch section (over 500 employees) and now takes a cut of streamers’ earnings from each Twitch Prime subscription.
Every Amazon Prime member can throw their Prime subscription in the direction of their favorite Twitch streamer at no extra cost. Since that program debuted in 2016, streamers have charged Twitch Prime subscribers the same amount as a basic paid subscription. This is changing, though.
Effective June 3, Twitch is transitioning to a flat-rate model where Prime payments are based on a Prime subscriber’s location (and how much they pay for Amazon Prime). We’re doing this to ensure that monthly Twitch subscriptions are a long-term, sustainable benefit to the Twitch community,” said CEO Dan Clancy .
Clancy says that for most countries, the rate of payment decreases by less than five percent, but there is . For example, a US viewer’s Prime sub will soon cost $2.25 per streamer, up from $2.50. That’s a 10 percent reduction. A Prime sub for someone in the UK will soon cost $1.80, while a viewer in Turkey will pay just 9 cents to the broadcaster.
As Clancy points out, Prime subscriptions are just one of the ways broadcasters make money on the platform, along with tips and regular paid subscriptions. He also announced some changes designed to give smaller creators a bigger slice of the pie.
Twitch makes it much easier for creators to benefit from improved revenue sharing. Until now, they had to maintain at least 350 paid subscriptions for at least three months. This will allow 50 to 70 percent of substances to be cut over the next 12 months.
From May 1, the platform changes Partner Plus to two levels Plus program based on a point system. A base $5 subscription is worth one point, a $10 Tier 2 sub is worth two points, and a $25 Tier 3 sub is worth three points. Gift and Prime subscriptions don’t count toward points, but broadcasters who qualify will get better returns from gift subscriptions.
When a streamer earns at least 100 Plus points for three consecutive months (points reset on the first of each month), they will receive 60 percent of subscription revenue from the next 12 months. If they keep 350 Plus points, that revenue share goes up to 70 percent in their favor. Clancy says the changes will allow three times as many broadcasters to qualify for improved revenue sharing. While giving those hovering around 300-350 points a little more cushion instead of falling into a 50 percent revenue share, it should result in a substantial increase in earnings for many of them.
Twitch has announced another change to its revenue sharing model. This gets rid of the $100,000 limit on the 70-30 revenue split for high-earning creators. The change, implemented last year, saw the split drop to 50 percent after a broadcaster hit $100,000 in subscription revenue. This won’t change anything for the vast majority of creators, but it could help Twitch convince high-profile streamers to stay on its platform instead of moving to sites like YouTube or Kick.
After being fired, Clancy said Twitch was still around (streaming live video to millions of people at the same time isn’t cheap!), so something had to give. While Twitch Prime’s changes were hard to swallow for some streamers, they weren’t as persistent as the advantage was. A reduction in fees is better for creators than a complete suspension of the program. Twitch will also hope that improved revenue sharing will force creators to convince their viewers to opt out of paid subscriptions instead.
