Video screenshot of Mark Fischbach in the Markiplier video Try Not To Laugh Challenge, October 2016. — AFP Relaxnews
Amazon's Twitch and the Disney Digital Network have struck a deal that will see YouTube stars Jacksepticeye, Markiplier, Strawburry17 and LuzuGames broadcasting live on Twitch.
Four of Disney's biggest YouTube personalities could be bringing some of their viewership to rival platform Twitch.
Specialising in livestreamed video with a core audience of video game fans, Twitch.tv was bought out by Amazon in a 2014 US$970mil (RM3.81bil) deal.
Since then, it has expanded to cover not just video gaming but creative pursuits (October 2015) and general real-life video blogging (March 2017).
And, as YouTube has tightened revenue-earning criteria in the fallout from various high-profile scandals, Twitch has been building on its status as a standard fallback option for video content creators.
Now it is recruiting four of YouTube's biggest channel hosts in a deal with management group Disney Digital Network.
Mark Fischbach ("Markiplier") and Seán McLoughlin ("Jacksepticeye") are two of YouTube's biggest individual star hosts, both of their channels among the service's top 50 most subscribed.
They are both well known for larger-than-life personas and video game playthroughs, as well as more general commentary and material; Spanish-language YouTuber Borja Luzuriaga Vázquez, who plays via LuzuGames, uses LuzuVlogs for other topics.
Meghan Camarena broadcasts as Strawburry17 and moved into broadcast television in July 2017 through the Disney XD channel's weekly Polaris Primetime show.
She'd been involved in late 2017 Twitch live adventure game show Power Rangers HyperForce, teaming with Jacksepticeye to host part of Disney's D23 Expo that same year.
While YouTube has its own livestreaming component and a dedicated gaming subsite, none of the quartet are new to Twitch.
Even so, the Amazon platform is timing this new deal to attract both viewers and content creators from elsewhere.
The Disney announcement breaks as Twitch launches a suite of Video Producer tools, which let creators take a step closer to the sort of pre-recorded content that YouTube is associated with.
Twitch channel hosts can create Premiere events for pre-made video, while archival access broadens with Past Premieres and Reruns. — AFP Relaxnews
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