Twitch updates rules to compete with Kick: changes in simultaneous streaming with YouTube

The streaming world is always changing and adjusting. Now that the world is coming out of the pandemic and most people are spending less time in their homes, it’s easy to see that some viewership and user numbers are down. Additionally, for platforms as large as Twitch, having a competition like Kick also means losing some of their strongest streamers, causing them to adjust their own policies to keep their content creators and attract new ones.

Twitch changed its policies in favor of simulcasting

This past weekend, Twitch revealed the change on its social media, announcing that streamers can “simulcast on ANY live streaming service!”

Previously, Twitch had a very strong policy against streaming on multiple platforms at the same time, especially if there was already some sort of agreement between the content creator and the platform. However, in order to “ensure that the Twitch user experience is not compromised,” there are a number of guidelines that must be followed to keep the party even with the streaming platform.

The simulcast rules include ensuring the quality of the user experience on Twitch, i.e. that Twitch is no lower in quality than streams on other platforms. Do not provide links to your community outside of your Twitch stream, or use third-party tools and services that combine the activities of other platforms or services with your stream to ensure that the Twitch community is included.

These guidelines apply to all types of streamers on Twitch. With these rules, the platform seeks to maintain the quality of users who watch within the platform, so that the content, interaction, and community are maintained within the service.

For now, streamers on Twitch don’t need to do anything about this until a feature is added to the Stream Manager to indicate whether your stream is a simulcast or not, to provide transparency to viewers. More details on this will be announced at a later date.