Report: YouTube Buying Twitch.tv For $1 Billion

Variety reports that Google's YouTube unit has reached a deal with Twitch.tv to buy the game-streaming service for $1 billion. From the article: "The deal, in an all-cash offer, is expected to be announced imminently, sources said. If completed the acquisition would be the most significant in the history of YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion. ... YouTube is preparing for U.S. regulators to challenge the Twitch deal, according to sources. YouTube is far and away the No. 1 platform for Internet video, serving more than 6 billion hours of video per month to 1 billion users worldwide, and the company expects the Justice Department to take a hard look at whether buying Twitch raises anticompetitive issues in the online-video market."

Re:Twitch is not exactly a money maker

[Anonymous Coward]

well using numbers from 2013 when i was hanging a lot with streamers twitch pays per 1000 views of an ad between 3 to 5 dollar (depending on the ad shown and the viewer location and other factors) to the streamer most streamers run about 3 ads in a block and do it between 1 to 3 times per hour.

sub buttons on the other hand is a one time fee per month of 4,99 of which you get 2,50

ads are actually way more profitable then the sub button for the streamer and for twitch

sub buttons are also pretty easy to get its almost to the point of create channel message twitch staff you want a sub button and once you filled in your paperwork and send it in it will appear within 2 weeks. subbing to a stream usually gives you nothing but vanity items like a special icon in front of your nickname in chat and the ability to chat when the channel gets put into sub only mode. All the other "benefits" are made by the streamer like sub only give-aways or other competitions and prices

beeing a partner (ability to run ads) is more difficult you need a certain number of average viewers and a certain number of subscribers to your channel then its the same type of paperwork as the sub button.

beeing a twitch partner also gives you benefits IF your channel is popular enough like having the ability to switch quality (mobile,low,medium,high, source) but what i heard is that twitch doesnt like to give out high quality options to low popularity partners which can cause problems with more growth of your twitch channel. I have heard horror stories where streamers that where partners only got the option to choose between source and low quality and if you stream very high quality source that leaves a portion of your viewers stuck with low quality as the only option without skipping frames.

There is also a less discussed 3rd option which is called Twitch Turbo which costs the twitch user 8,99 per month gives nothing to the stream your watching, no advertisements and a icon. Most streamers hate the turbo users because they are pretty much paid ad blocking and taking revenue out of the pocket of the streamer. To the defence of those Turbo users they usually get turbo and also buy a subscription to their favourite channel(s).

All of Twitch is a 'Copyright Violation'

[Sarusa]

Since by YouTube's standards, everything on Twitch is a 'copyright violation' (streaming footage of a video game and completely ignoring that most of it is Fair Use with added content) I really have to wonder how they intend to deal with the corporate trolls who are now going to descend on Twitch like the vultures they are.

I imagine that will involve giving most of the money currently going to the content creators to the copyright asserters. The RIAA model.

What does this mean for justin.tv?

[BitterOak]

I know Twitch TV and Justin TV are closely linked. I think in fact that Twitch is an offshoot of JTV and the user accounts are shared. Is YouTube buying JTV as well, will JTV go on independently, or will JTV be shut down?

Re:Why is twitch popular?

[EvilSS]

I kind of wondered the same thing until I started watching. I originally went there to look at actual game play footage for a game I was thinking of picking up. In the process I found a few streamers who I actually enjoyed watching. They were funny, interactive with their viewers, and pretty good gamers to boot. Now I go back pretty much every day to watch while I work or surf. It's replaced some TV and podcasts as my "background noise".

Keep in mind most of the smaller streamers (and those tend to be the more entertaining to watch) are not e-sports try-hards. Their play is more casual. I tried a few of the bigger streams but yet, just watching someone team grind to keep their K/D is boring as watching golf.

Re:Wow a fucking billion dollars aint shit today

[EvilSS]

Twitch.tv are pretty big. They can get 50-100k live viewers on dota 2 streams, which are typically hours long. That has to be worth something.

Or League of Legends. That game can pull in over a million live viewers at times. Hell the "finals" last year pulled in over 32 million. Most TV broadcasts outside the Super Bowl can't pull that off.