Including removing the ‘save forever’ option for past broadcasts
Twitch is changing the way it handles video on demand and that’s going to mean the end of the “save forever” option for past broadcasts on the site.
Broadcasts that are cut down into highlight clips can still live on the site forever, but full-length broadcasts will only be hosted for 14 days (or 60 days, for Partners and Turbo Subscribers). And under the new system, highlights can only be up to two hours long.
In other words, broadcasters who want their shows to be viewable in full will need to export their stuff to YouTube or elsewhere. That also goes for existing broadcasts stored on the site, as those will be removed beginning three weeks from now.
Why all the changes? According to Twitch, “80 percent of [its] storage capacity is filled with past broadcasts that are never watched.” Which isn’t shocking given how poor the current video-on-demand system is in terms of discoverability. It can be difficult to find old broadcasts, and even then, the playback experience leaves a lot to be desired.
The upside is that Twitch is planning for better video-on-demand quality for international viewers, support for VOD viewing on mobile, “secure storage of your past broadcasts (with triple redundancy),” and easier highlight exporting to YouTube. These moves also represent “a step toward conceptualizing new features like DVR, matching quality options from live to VOD, and better VOD discovery.”
Changes To VODs On Twitch [Twitch]
