Earlier this week social video platform and gaming community Twitch announced it would make subscription options available to affiliates, so they can start earning recurring revenue from their subscribers. In addition to the Twitch Prime free subscription, affiliates can set pricing at $4.99, $9.99 or $24.99 a month. They’ll get one subscriber emoticon, subject to approval, for all subscriptions plus two more slots for $9.99 and $24.99 subscriptions. Like partners, affiliates will also be able to offer sub-only chat, says Twitch.

In an article for Bleeding Cool, Ethan Evans, SVP of Commerce and Developer Success at Twitch commented on the new program:

“We designed the Twitch Affiliate program as a stepping stone to our Partnership program, which includes providing several means of monetization to those creators aspiring to reach the next tier in their career,” Evans said. “By enabling Affiliates to use Cheering, sell games, and now offer subscriptions, we are leading the industry in offering monetization options to creators.”

Here are excerpts from the official announcement:

“For streamers, subscriptions are an important tool to help grow their community and build steady income from their channel. For viewers, subscribing is a rite of passage. When you find that community you can really connect with and a streamer that makes you feel welcome, it’s the natural next step to subscribe and help sustain that community if you are able to. Once you do, you’ve got sub emotes in common with a circle of friends that share the same inside jokes. Subscribing signals to the rest of the community that you are there to stay and makes you part of the streamer’s inner circle. And now you can be one of the first to subscribe to an Affiliate starting this week…

Many Twitch Partners can remember with crystal clarity the first time someone subscribed to them. They talk about how humbled they were that someone was willing to step up and offer ongoing support. Today we congratulate all the Twitch Affiliates who will now have the opportunity to forge those lasting connections with their new subscribers.”

On Twitch, an affiliate is a content creator who is not part of the partner program. Twitch affiliates and partners both get access to monetization and video tools, but partners get more features and preferred terms. To qualify for the affiliate subscription program, they must meet the following criteria:

• Have broadcast at least 500 minutes in the last 30 days
• Have at least seven unique broadcast days in the last 30 days
• An average of three concurrent viewers or more over the last 30 days
• At least 50 followers

Once approved and set up, they can earn revenue in a couple of ways: they receive $0.01 per bit used to “cheer” their channel, revenue from game sales and game items that originate from their channel page, and now subscriptions. Cheering is a way for Twitch users to show support for their favorite streamers in chat and to share moments with others in the community. Cheering happens in chat. When someone cheers on a streamer, a corresponding emote pops up in the chat window (to cheer, you buy Bits). The more bits you pay to cheer, the bigger and flashier the emote.  Users earn badges for cheering, while the affiliates earn money for receiving cheers.

Insider Take:

With 9.7 million daily active users and more than 2 million unique streamers a month, this new affiliate subscription program is a great opportunity for content creators to earn additional revenue. It’s also a good way for affiliates to test the waters with Twitch before becoming partners. Affiliates get many of the same benefits, but partners have extra features, perks and opportunities. With such a huge fan base, this type of program is also good for the subscription industry as a whole. With nearly 10 million users every day, even having a small fraction of those users subscribe supports the idea that people are willing to pay for what they value.