FTC Disclosures for streamers

What streamers need to know about FTC Disclosures

The FTC a couple years ago released a guide on .com disclosures which you can find on the following URL:
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/plain-language/bus41-dot-com-disclosures-information-about-online-advertising.pdf

Here is my opinion on what streamers need to know about FTC disclosures. Also a important disclaimer note; DaOpa is not a lawyer.


Instances that generally require disclosure:

• Sponsors / Giveaways
  
  • If a company is giving you a product to giveaway on your stream
  • If a gaming company / developer gives you a free copy of a game to review / play on stream
• Affiliate Programs
  
  • If you have links and or images going to affiliate related programs
• Twitter / Facebook / Social Media Promotions
  
  • If a company is paying you to play their game or show their products
  • If a entity is paying you to tweet a message
• Loyalty Systems / Programs
  • Similar with sponsors and giveaways
•  Employee of Company
  
  • Talking about your companies products and services

Here is my Twitch Panel Disclosure notice that I currently use because I have affiliate links on other panels.

Twitch also discloses sponsored streams and advertisements by using a special badges and coloring.

 Check out their blog with more details of "Transparency in Sponsored Content and Promotion".

Also remember as per Terms of using Twitch: "You, and not Twitch, are solely responsible for any endorsements or testimonials you make regarding any product or service through the Twitch Service."

Bandwidth Testing tool

Twitch Bandwidth Testing Tool

How to test your bandwidth to Twitch.tv's ingest servers.

Step 1.

Download the following app
Twitch Bandwidth Test
Created by OBS Developer R1CH

Step 2.

Unzip the zip file, go to the folder and click on the TwitchTest.exe application file.

Step 3.

Enter your steam key in the provided space.

Step 4.

Click off the nearest Region, remove all others.

Step 5.

Press the start button.

After the test is completed it will show you, the ingest server name, the max bandwidth to the server, the rtt and quality.

Start up OBS or whatever streaming software you use and select the ingest server that has the best quality, highest bandwidth and lowest rtt.

RTMPSockBuf_Fill, remote host closed connection

OBS Pop up message:

Could not access the specified channel or stream key. This could be because the key/channel is invalid, or because the server still thinks you are logged in.

RTMPSockBuf_Fill, remote host closed connection

Steps to take to fix this issue:

• Reset your stream key
  
  • Go to Dashboard on Twitch and click on option "Stream Key"
  • Click button "show key", then "I understand"
  • Copy the new stream key
  • Go to OBS, Settings, Broadcast Settings
  • Paste the key into Play Path/Stream Key section, then apply and ok
  • Try go to live and see if that worked
• Disable all firewall programs
  
  • Sometimes firewall programs will block obs from working correctly
  • Disable any firewall / malware program and see if it works
• Make another Twitch account, use other key
  
  • Create another twitch account and use that key in obs
  • This will determine if your main account is locked up
  • Locking up is rare to happen but it has occurred a couple times for my account.
• Verify your network connection / Internet is working correctly.
  
  • Check your upload speed
  • Run the Twitch Bandwidth Testing tool
  
   

8400+ Streamers for Overwatch Launch

Overwatch Launch had over 8,400 concurrent streamers on Twitch.tv!

A mind blogging 8,400+ streamers at the time of this post were live streaming Overwatch on Twitch TV for launch day. And over 230,000+ viewers are watching the streamers in a impressing showing for a new game  title.

Here is snip showing some of the many streamers on the directory:

Click on image to enlarge! 

DaOpa's Opinion: 

Overwatch launch is total streamer cannibalization, I never seen this many people streaming a single game on Twitch before. The question I would have to ask is how long will this hype train last?


Usually when a new triple A title comes out, viewership spikes then slowly dies out after a week or so. And with a majority of the top tier streamers all joining the bandwagon, floating viewers will get soaked up fast.

Observing the directory, showed some interesting tidbits:

• Many top tier streamers are working together, forming teams and battling against others.
• Tons of click bait titles
• Lots of questionable giveaway's and promotion advertisements by streamers

 This is just really bad news for a small time streamer like myself, which is a reason why I wont be streaming this game anytime soon.

One streamer telling another "Your doing it wrong"

This is going to be a opinion piece on the latest twitch.tv drama. A popular twitch streamer starts to go on a rant on twitter about donations and overlays.

He notes the following:

• A new streamer should not have donations
• Should be doing streaming for "fun" 
• Should be doing it as a "hobby"
• Don't quit your job or whatever else.. 

First question right off the bat is why would this caster all of a sudden care about other streamers and what they do, especially new broadcasters on twitch.tv?

My answer would be he doesn't care one bit and is using this rant to generate free PR.

There is nothing wrong with having donations, layouts in your setup. If you are choosing that way to monetize yourself go for it. And there is nothing wrong with making your stream a business from day one. Do not let anyone saying "Your doing it wrong" discourage you from streaming.

Lately on Twitch.tv I've noticed alot of the Top Tier streamers make a change from game related content to more drama driven (talking badly about other streamers, make false accusations, break twitch tos / roc constantly etc). It seems the novelty of twitch + gaming has worn off and they are seeking ways to drive viewers into their channels. The more elaborate the gimmick or rule breaking the bigger the buzz and viral spreading it will get which results in a positive viewer boost for them.

Also take in the factor of twitch's growth rate. It's not the same as it was in the past couple of years. Things are slowing down alot and consolidating. The following screenshot is concurrent viewers on twitch from 2013 to 2016, if you see the growth rate from 2015 to 16 viewership is going more sideways then up.

Click to enlarge image

Perhaps many top streamers are peeking out and in order to gain anything anymore they need to create drama, a narrative to get people talking about them (good or bad).

I've said to myself, use Twitch as a service, Twitch needs you, you do not need Twitch. There are many other streaming platforms out there just as good as twitch. The different between them and twitch is currently twitch is more popular which may provide more floating viewers boosts.

I think alot of new broadcasters are relying on twitch to bring viewers in the door when you should be doing this exact thing externally from twitch. The way Twitch.tv is setup, its layout, its directory only really benefit the streamers on the top of the lists. 

If there is anything to take away from this broadcasters rant, its that you can see how a rant can create buzz and go viral which will further increase a streamers brand recognition. Which in turns brings in more viewers to their channel on twitch.tv.

Ad-Free Viewing for Subs

Ad-Free viewing for subs coming soon for all partner broadcasters on twitch.tv

During the Pax East Twitch town hall they announced a new feature that will be available to all partner broadcasters which will incentivize viewers to subscribe to channels to receive ad-free viewing.

Raid & Hosting guide

How to host or raid another channel on Twitch.tv using simple commands!

To host a channel its pretty simple, go to your chat room from your channel and type /host Channel




Replace Channel with the one you want to host.

If you do this successfully, the channel you are hosting will get a message show up in chat saying "*Channel* is now hosting you for X viewers."

Another way to know if you are currently hosting a channel is to check on your broadcaster dashboard page. It will show a box in the chat window saying, "hosting channel".



If you are receiving a host by many channels and what to know which, you can check this by looking at the dashboard page for the host panel.  Click on the "Host" and a list will show all the channels.



Its recommended not to randomly host others with out permission first.  Ask the broadcaster if they want to be hosted before you trigger it.

Here is a list of pros and cons of hosting.

PROs

• Great for team building between different channels and different timezones.
• Team groups can boost members ahead of non teams casters for the gaming category.
• Can be use to influence other broadcasters for networking.
• Coupled with loyalty systems, hosting can be turned into a weird legit viewbot boost tactic.

CONs
If you do not have permission before hand and host a channel that didn't want to be hosted they can report you.

Other
Be very aware of casters who use loyalty systems and host your channel. Loyalty channels have a huge amount of viewers who will sit in channels just to collect tokens. These casters know this and use this to influence or in a sense bribe other channels for a vast variety of things.

 Update 11/14/2017

How to raid a twitch.tv channel?

A new command has just been introduced called RAID and is available to be used by all broadcasts on Twitch.

The new command is similar to the /host command, but instead of /host channel name its /raid channel name.



Viewers will see a countdown progress meter to which they can join the raiding of the target channel.


All the PRO's and CON's that were previously listed for hosting apply to raid also, since its basically the same mechanic.

If you want to prevent raids to your channel, they have added the option to do that in the dashboard.

Go to your Dashboard, then click on SETTINGS, then RAIDS under Raid Preferences.



Other additional options:

• Allow all incoming raids
• Allow only raids from friends, teammates and followed channels
• Disable incoming raids

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Some update to this posting since some things have changed over the years with how raiding and hosting works on twitch. The commands all still work exactly the same as listed above and twitch has made more UI related tools for both raids and hosting channels.

Both hosting other twitch.tv channels and raiding can be done in your dashboard now via the quick action buttons. The buttons look like this:

 

If you do not have these buttons on the dashboard, you can add them in by clicking on the + button.

When you click on either the raid channel or host a channel quick action button, it will pop up a window with a search text box that lets you enter in the channel you want to send your viewers.

Whats the difference between raid vs host?

Raiding sends your viewers into the targets channel and chat room. While hosting lets viewers see the targets live stream but does not send viewers into its chat, they stay on your chat room.

Additional settings for raids is available on your settings section via the side menu on the dashboard.

 Click on settings, then Stream and you will get the following options for raids.

• Allow all raids
• Only allow raids from friends, teammates, and followed channels
• Block all raids

How do you auto host channels on twitch?

If you want to automatically host channels, twitch has a bunch of options to do that via the settings sections on the creator dashboard. Go to settings, then channel and click on the section called featured content.

Then go to the section called "Auto Hosting" from there you will have the following options available.

• Auto host channels
  
  • Automatically host channels from your host list when your offline
    
• Host team channels
  • Include team channels in your host list
• Host pre-recorded videos
  
  • Include channels streaming pre-recorded videos like reruns
    
• Hosting priority
  • Host channels by the order they appear in the list
  • Host channels randomly from the list
• Host list
  • Add and manage your hosting channels
    

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If you have any questions or comments about this guide fill free to post them in the comments section below!