When Microsoft announced last month that Xbox One players will be able to broadcast their live gaming sessions via the Twitch.TV platform, many people could have been forgiven for asking: “Twitch who?”
But the announcement was a crowning for the former Justin.TV, the livestreaming service that was so often home to illegally-streamed content. Now the company, which pivoted two years ago and which lets gamers stream their gaming sessions to audiences around the world, looks on a growth trajectory.
Twitch had 40 million unique viewers in June, claims 600,000 users broadcasting each month, averages 90-minute daily viewing sessions and is preparing to close a third investment round as it builds its own in-house ad sales team, chief revenue officer Jonathan Simpson-Bint tells Beet.TV in this video interview.
“The partnerships with the console manufacturers are potentially game-changers for us,” he says. “Up until now, to broadcast from a console has been quite difficult.”
Already, Twitch.TV’s 50/50 ad revenue split has proved popular enough that around a dozen broadcasters earned around $100,000 from it last year, Simpson-Bint claims. But now Twitch.TV is hiring to build its own US regional ad sales force after ending its relationship with CBS, which previously sold its ads.
“We want to be the ESPN of this environment,” he added, trailing an upcoming software developers’ kit that will allow iOS games makers to bake Twitch.TV broadcasting abilities in to their titles.