KickKICK CEO Eddie Craven has confirmed that ads are coming to the livestreaming platform in the near future, but won’t commit to a concrete release date yet.
Just like with television, YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms have had their content interrupted by adverts. There are, of course, ways to get around the ads, including sticking your hand in your pocket and purchasing a premium subscription to a platform.
Since launching, though, Kick has been ad-free. You don’t get any interruptions when you load up a streamer’s channel, nor will you miss an important part of the broadcast due to an ill-timed advert.
The Stake-backed platform is planning to have advertisements in the near future, but they don’t want them to kill viewer enjoyment.
Kick boss Eddie confirms ads are coming
“Kick will have ads at some point, so enjoy the ad-free experience while it lasts. At some point, Kick will have to add ads,” Craven said during an episode of Kick Talks on December 13.
“At the moment, Kick loses a little bit of money and, sure, thats whatever, right but at some point it does aim to have ads. So, enjoy it while they’re off. There’s no release dates for ads at the moment, but they’re going to come.
“I think the goal for Kick is to add ads in a way that isn’t overtly intrusive and doesn’t kill that viewer experience. That’s a challenge to us, adding ads in a way which doesn’t completely destroy your ability to enjoy livestreaming. So, leave that with us. We’re very conscious that we can’t just throw 1000 ads at people and assume they’re going to stick around.”
Craven added that Kick “respects” the users who currently use the service, noting that the ad-free experience is a “big” reason why they do.
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Their rivals, Twitch especially, have come under plenty of criticism for ads over the last year or so. Streaming star xQc claimed that ads could be the ‘killing’ blow for Twitch as the number of them per stream appears to have ramped up.