Twitch promises transparency on sponsored content

Live-streaming service Twitch has vowed to be complete open about sponsored content and promotion.

In a post on the firm’s blog VP of marketing and communications Matthew DiPietro said that any sponsored content will be clearly marked.

This comes as Steam says that its users need to declare paid-for content on their curator list.

"An increasingly large part of the gamer/platform/media/advertiser equation, particularly in the video game industry, is what we commonly call ‘influencer campaigns’,” said DiPietro.

Influencer campaigns are one way for an advertiser to leverage the celebrity of a content creator on various video platforms to drive awareness and purchase intent for the advertiser’s brand or product.

Sometimes though, because of a lack of clear best practices and shifting regulatory guidelines, coupled with a sometimes less-than-transparent sponsor relationship, these kinds of campaigns have become a bit of a dark corner in the industry, and that’s bad for everyone.

For these reasons, gamers can tend to look skeptically on the ecosystem because they don’t know what is paid-for content and what is not. It also opens influencers to potential criticism.

While we have always encouraged our broadcasters to acknowledge if they are playing games as part of a promotional campaign, we are now establishing a much more transparent approach to all paid programs on our platform and hope that it sets a precedent for the broader industry. Simply put: We want complete transparency and unwavering authenticity with all content and promotions that have a sponsor relationship.”