YouTube Drops Dislikes on Shorts, Forbes Creators, Cannes 2026, + Are Twitch Ads Getting Longer?
Hello! July is upon us, and with it, half of 2026 is in the rearview mirror. But, really, the second half ot the year is when all the excitement happens! For example... Are prerolls and midrolls on Twitch getting longer?
Well, for a few weeks now, I've been getting reports from people experiencing ad breaks longer than 3 minutes and prerolls longer than 30 seconds. I noted it, but wasn't able to find any direct confirmation (and asked them to take a screenshot if they saw it again). I quickly started to get those screenshots. And then I got a 3:30 midroll ad. This was no longer a rumor; it was clearly happening as the evidence stacked up. The question now was: is this a full release or an experiment? I reached out to Twitch Support to see whether this was intentional or an error, and, to my surprise, they confirmed this is a new update. They provided reasonable details about the new update: Prerolls up to 90 seconds and Midrolls up to 4 minutes.
Now I had lots of individual experiences, my own experience, and direct confirmation from Twitch. So I posted it. This is where the story gets intriguing. 90 minutes later, Twitch Support on Twitter replied that it was inaccurate, there had been no changes to extend the ads, and they weren't sure why Twitch Support said that. Well, while that may be the official comms, it doesn't seem to align with reality. Since then, I've confirmed that I spoke with a human support agent (and not an AI hallucination) and have dozens more screenshots, as well as videos of longer midrolls and prerolls. The evidence clearly points to a real change, so I suspect we are going to hear more from Twitch, perhaps this week or, more assuredly, by the next episode of Patch Notes. Interesting times. If you do see prerolls longer than 30 seconds, or midrolls longer than 3 minutes, please take a screenshot and reach out to me!
Streamlabs Alerts just got a big upgrade!
1. A new live preview tool to see your changes in real time.
2. Finer control over positioning and scaling of your alerts.
3. Alert Text now has customizable intros/outros.
And you can use them with Twitch, YouTube, Kick, and others!
🟪 TWITCH
- Soundcloud partnered with Twitch for a 12-hour DJ event that featured an emote drop: BopDrop.
- Twitch may be testing the monetization of tags with custom logos.
- New Badges: 💰Gray Zone, 💰Evo 2026, 💰DOA6LR, 💰MSI 2026
- The Twitch Ads Situation is Confusing! My video summarizes the above.
- Dan Clancy addressed Safety Concerns at Twitchcon San Diego, mentioning a more structured approach to meet-and-greets.
- Twitch's Cannes Creamery had creator-themed flavors.
- Twitch is aiming to reinvent sports viewership.
🟥 YOUTUBE
- Notices on YouTube will now make it easier for creators to see any issues with their videos.
- YouTube removed the dislike button on Shorts and replaced the thumbs up with a heart.
- YouTube content creators are appearing in AI search results over 25% of the time, according to a new study.
- YouTube now has AI comment moderation and comment search.
- Channel Moderators now get a Shield Icon beside their name in comments.
- YouTube Shorts now has a Clear Screen Mode that temporarily hides all icons and text.
- YouTube cleaned up the Vertical mobile viewing experience.
- YouTube is aiming to reinvent sports viewership.
⬛ TIKTOK
- TikTok is aiming to reinvent sports viewership.
🟦 OTHER PLATFORMS
- Kick now has ~1,000 staffers, 10M weekly visitors, and $1B in investment since it started. More details in this article.
- Riot Games is now distributing its esports on Kick.
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