Twitch Plans to Make Original Reality Shows: Report

It might create game shows and dating shows, for starters

by
Rob LeFebvre
Rob LeFebvre
Senior News Editor
Rob LeFebvre is the Senior News Editor for Lifewire. He has been a freelance technology writer for more than 10 years with articles appearing in 148Apps, Cult of Mac, Engadget, and more.
our editorial process
Rob LeFebvre
Published May 7, 2020 04:47PM EDT

If you're a gamer (or a fan of reality-style programming), Twitch may soon have some content for you to watch while you stay at home during the pandemic.

Laptop showing Fortnite streaming on Twitch
Original image: Unsplash

According to Bloomberg, an internal document at Amazon-owned game streaming platform Twitch shows the company developing new, unscripted reality show-style television content to stream alongside its gaming videos.

Pandemic: Twitch allows for a game streamer to film themselves from home playing video games. The service is incredibly popular, and some streamers make a living from doing so. This kind of entertainment is relatively inexpensive to produce, and any reality-style shows could take advantage of the at-home process. It's also something that can be created right now, while some more traditional, studio-based content cannot be.

Plans: Bloomberg says that Twitch plans to spend between $50,000 to $250,000 per week on unscripted series, which could include four to ten hours of content. That's a relatively inexpensive investment for Twitch, making the plan easy to scrap if unsuccessful. For comparison, HBO spent between $8 to $10 million per episode in the first season of its scripted hit show, Westworld.

Big picture: Twitch needs to find new ways to differentiate itself from more recent competition, like Microsoft's Mixer and YouTube Gaming. A new stream of compelling content that appeals to Twitch's core gamer demographic could only help.

Via: PCMag

Learn More About Streaming

Was this page helpful?