Twitch Goes Commercial-Free for a Day… Sort of

Today, Twitch.TV users will be blessed with a 12-hour grace period from commercials. Well, kind of.

Starting at 9am PST, if you visit the Twitch website, you will have to view a bump explaining the “Commercial-Free” day and a short commercial. After that, Twitch will remember you (yay for cookies), and you will not have to watch another commercial until 9pm PST.

But why is this happening?

Sony. That’s why. Sony wants to promote the PlayStation 4, so they paid Twitch to keep videos commercial-free for one day. The bumper will explain that videos are commercial-free, and the one commercial that will be playing is forty-five seconds long. Who wants to guess what they’re going to be advertising?

Did you guess Sony? The PlayStation 4? Then yes, you’re correct. It only makes sense, too. If they’re paying enough money to keep other commercials off the air for 12 hours, they might as well make sure that everyone sees their company’s advertisement. It’s sound logic, and frankly, I’m not really seeing a downside. A day of Twitch without annoying commercials? I can’t wait.