Gone are the days of Twitch partner exclusivity. Twitch told participating broadcasters in an email this morning that the platform was lifting a long-standing exclusivity agreement that denied partners the ability to stream on other services. Partners will now be able to stream to YouTube, Facebook Live and other platforms – although in some cases Twitch is still limiting what they can do.
“Starting today, you are now allowed to create live content on other platforms,” Twitch wrote to the operators.
In the email, Twitch recognized that the players use multiple platforms to connect with their communities and said the move would give them more flexibility to grow these audiences off the platform. Creators can now live stream on other platforms as long as they are not also live on Twitch. This allows them to reach more people and possibly bring them to watch on Twitch.
However, Twitch places restrictions on simultaneous broadcasting of live broadcasts to many “Twitch-like” platforms. Live stream creators are not allowed to broadcast their Twitch streams to YouTube or Facebook for “extended periods of time”. Twitch says that simultaneous broadcasts to mobile services like TikTok and Instagram Live are allowed.
“We believe that dealing with two streams simultaneously can result in a suboptimal experience for your community,” the email states. Twitch digs deeper into what this means for partners with its new FAQ page over here.
This move realizes that the days of relying on a single platform are over. This might also be a way to prevent the platform’s notable content creators from being drawn away by YouTube, as was the case with broadcast creators like Dr. Lobo And others.
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