Livestreaming platform Twitch will pay its creators more of the revenue they generate from May, under new plans announced.
The new deal, called Twitch Plus, will see any streamer with more than 100 paid subscribers received 60% of the funds fans pledge, rather than the 50/50 split after fees that is currently operating.
Currently, the fee to subscribe to a channel starts at £3.99 per month in the UK.
The move is seen as a plan to keep popular streamers on Twitch, rather than migrating to other platforms. Twitch needs to retain popular streamers as it is currently struggling to be profitable, as the platform’s chief executive Dan Clancy recently admitted in a stream.
Indeed, Amazon, which owns Twitch, recently announced that more than 500 Twitch employees will be made redundant – about a third of its workforce – to help boost efficiency and profitability.
Under the Twitch Plus programme, Twitch says that three times as many streamers will benefit from having a better revenue share than under the current model. Also, currently streamers with more than 350 subscribers enjoy a 70/30 revenue split, and in the new programme that will apply to all with 300 subscribers or more.
And, in a nod to those who are ultra-successful, the long-standing rule that anyone who earns more than $100,000 sees their revenue split go back down to 50/50 is being abolished.
Clancy said in a blog post that he hopes the new programme will create a long-term, transparent framework that rewards and encourages creators who are committed to live streaming.
Twitch will also hope the new programme will help it to combat competition from other platforms such as Kick, which has poached some streamers from its site recently. Kick gives streamers 95% of the money they generate through subscribers. Likewise, Twitch is fighting against YouTube, where YouTubers receive 70% of subscription revenues, although it takes 30% of fan-made donations, whereas Twitch passes it all to streamers.
