Rolling Stone’s Twitch Averaging 2.6 Million Views a Month

One year after launching a dedicated channel on the live-stream platform Twitch, Rolling Stone is seeing its efforts gain traction, proving the platform can serve as an on-ramp for younger audiences and the advertising budgets that chase them. Since March 2021, the Rolling Stone Twitch channel has reached 32 million total viewers, averaging about 2.6 million views per month, according to data provided by the publisher (confirmed by measurement site TwitchTracker). While it's not a direct comparison, one of the most popular streamers on the network—Ninja—has garnered 37 million views on its channel over the same period. The five-person team at Rolling Stone responsible for the effort, led by executive producer Chris Cruz, has hosted 260 streams, totaling more than 600 hours of content. Viewers have watched more than 1.73 million hours of its broadcasts, which air live Monday through Friday from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. The content is a mix of live music performances, gaming and discussions with Twitch viewers. Chris Cruz, left, oversees the Rolling Stone Twitch channel. Most publishers with Twitch channels, such as The Washington Post, use the platform infrequently or with an unpredictable cadence, making it hard for fans to tune in routinely. This makes consistency vital to building an audience on the platform, said Ben Abt, svp, group media director at Mediahub. As the publisher enters its second year on the platform, it hopes to capitalize on its established following to secure more sponsorship and introduce the Rolling Stone brand to younger audiences, Cruz told Adweek. It also plans to go mobile, using the livestream team as a source of exclusive on-site content: in February, the crew traveled to Los Angeles to broadcast live from the Super Bowl and, in March, they head to South by Southwest. The channel secured two sponsorship deals in its first year from Coke Zero and DoorDash—and it aims to attract more brands keen on connecting with the Twitch audience. The young demographic of the platform, where 70% of viewers are between the ages of 16 and 34, reflects the future of video consumption, said Tom Morris, an insights analyst at audience research firm GWI. “The television landscape is changing and online television, like YouTube and Twitch, has grown massively since the pandemic,” Morris added. The Twitch and Rolling Stone partnership Rolling Stone has a key advantage over other publishers in its Twitch ambitions: the publisher signed a multi-year commitment with the Amazon-owned platform in 2020, in which Twitch pays Rolling Stone to produce a minimum number of hours of weekly content to help bulk up the platform's music content, according to Cruz. He wouldn't share the financials. This led to funding the hires of hosts Jon Weigell and Charlie Cooper, as well as a technical director and talent producer. The channel is not profitable on its own, currently, but Rolling Stone aims to make its Twitch channel self-sustaining by the end of its second year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The publisher declined to share how much revenue the channel has generated through either its sponsorship efforts or on-platform advertising. Charlie Cooper, left, interviews the band Laundry Day during a February broadcast. Together, the five-person team schedules a two-hour livestream broadcast five days a week, at least two of which feature a musical performance. The shows follow a loose structure, though none of the conversation is scripted. The format mixes Rolling Stone reporting and music-centric discussion, such as ranking the Metallica discography. In the second half of the show, the hosts welcome musicians for Q&A, live performances and sometimes to play video games, to help appeal to the gaming fans that make up much of Twitch. Growing sponsorship on the channel The channel has not been a significant source of traffic to the Rolling Stone website, and it does not aim to directly boost the subscriber efforts of the publisher, Cruz said. Instead, it acts as one element in a larger, publisher-wide strategy to reestablish itself as a bible of youth culture. Coke Zero sponsored a battle of the bands contest, while the DoorDash campaign delivered food to the hosts while they livestreamed. Both were standalone deals, rather than add-ons. Brand safety challenges can deter marketers from working with Twitch, as the freeform nature of the platform can prove challenging to moderate, said Abt. But the industry prestige of Rolling Stone helps reduce that risk—and the expanding ambitions of the team make it a venture to watch. “We spent a year fine-tuning in studio production,” Cruz said. “Our goal now, which kicked off with the Super Bowl, is to get this on the road.” Rolling Stone Names Gus Wenner CEO as the Legacy Title Expands Its Focus

Streaming & OTT

One Year in, Rolling Stone’s Twitch Channel Is Averaging 2.6 Million Views per Month

The 5-person team helps the publisher reach younger viewers via the channel

Mark Stenberg

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Mark Stenberg