New Minimum Broadcasting Requirements — Coming Soon
Twitch Broadcasters -
In the near future, we’ll be implementing technical broadcast standards for all streams on the Twitch network. These standards will be put into place as we continue our march towards a fully HLS video network, and are a requirement for the system to function properly. Not only is HLS the future of Twitch video, which will lead to features such as DVR-style capabilities and seamless synchronized quality switching, but complying to these standards will ensure that your content will be available on our growing array of platforms, including mobile and consoles.
The vast majority of broadcasters will not be affected, because most of you already meet or exceed the minimum requirements. We’re also working with the developers behind the most popular broadcast software to ensure that meeting these standards will be even easier before we put them into place. The upcoming updates to XSplit and OBS will default to “Excellent” settings. For the small percentage of you who don’t currently meet the requirements, please review this article in the Twitch Support Center.
To help you better manage your broadcast settings, we’ll be releasing a Stream Configuration Quality feedback feature in your Broadcast Dashboard that will alert you to your stream quality, and help you optimize it. You’ve probably already seen it, and it looks like this:
Keep in mind that these standards have not yet been put into place, and that the Stream Configuration tool was simply providing you with feedback (it’s how it shows, what you humans call, “love”). We encourage you to explore your broadcast settings and future-proof your stream for the impending awesome of our HLS network.
Thanks to you, we’ve experienced incredible growth since launching two years ago. We’re reaching more than 38 million unique gamers a month, thanks to our more than 600,000 broadcasters, and we’ve even become the second-fastest growing startup on mobile. We want your streams to reach as many people as possible, and by implementing a minimum goal for broadcast settings, we can more easily determine what is possible and get your face in front of the faces of the entire Twitch audience across all platforms.
As always, we want to hear from you and we’ll be making a follow-up post this week with your most frequently asked questions. For now, feel free to comment here, or drop a line at feedback@twitch.tv with any further concerns.