April finished with the NFL Draft and large numbers of viewers on many platforms.

Congratulations to Twitch as the focus on these NEW channels (listed below) and massive Twitch 'Front Page' promotion plus featuring Twitch veterans such as The Kyle King Show, Josh "Toofpete" Beard, Seth Everett and 104.5 The Zone in Nashville, the numbers were through the stadium roof!

These channels (and the new ones below) brought over one MILLION viewers to Twitch in the Thursday and Friday of the NFL draft. Amazing!

Thank you to Chris, Josh and Jesus at Twitch for the front page love and Jane for believing in this from the beginning.

Welcome to the new NFL channels. They are ALL worth the follow.......

Trey Wingo & Mark Schlereth Twitch.tv/WingoAndStink

(Congrats Mark on your new contract with Beasley in Denver)

Adam Caplan - Twitch.tv/TheAdamCaplanShow

Bucky Brooks - Twitch.tv/BuckyBrooks

Will Blackmon - Twitch.tv/WillBlackmon

Aaron Schatz - Twitch.tv/FBOutsiders (Special thanks to Casey).

Dr. Jen Welter - Twitch.tv/DrJenWelter

And to the other NEW channels in May....

Mo Bounce is a radio DJ from the New York area. Amazingly creative and I can't wait to see how he takes Twitch to the next level. Follow the channel.

Ashley Docking is an incredibly strong talent from the GTA and I'm excited to see and hear what she brings to Twitch. She's very connected to the NBA and knows a lot of people in the media industry. Very worthy follow.

Sports Riot Live with 3 very funny guys. Barry, Michael and John. This is also a very worthy follow as it involves sports, the issues of the day presented in their own manner, and comedians.

Welcome to the new channels.

I said here to not be surprised if FOX wished for an early end to TNF. Well, it happened.......so, 2022 now for Amazon (Owners of Twitch) Prime to grab an additional 15 games.

No idea what this means for the football loving Twitch broadcasters - maybe more side casting - maybe watch parties - maybe something totally new? We will have to wait an see. But I'm sure it will be good and fun.

So, you've decided to jump on Twitch. Think about these trends as you get to work.

NBC will have a dedicated Twitch channel for this partnership. Don't look to see the events live but rather a daily highlights show and athlete interviews.

I'm looking forward to seeing NBC bring the wacky side of Olympic "style" competitions.

I'm sure some streamers will be involved and it should be fun. Watch for it from July 23rd through August 8th. The channel will go live one week before the games start, so around July 16th.

Thanks Sports Business Journal for the logo.

U.S. spending on gaming reached $14.9 Billion dollars in the first quarter of 2021.

Watching people on Twitch - gaming and entertainment resulted in 2.1 BILLION hours of content....so take that Bill Maher who calls Twitch a waste of time.

Many in the media business also like to game.......here's a stat for you; "Call Of Duty spinoff "Warzone," released just a year ago, now has more than 100 MILLION players.

CRTL+ is an Extension inside Twitch and is a great way for new viewers to discover who you are and what you do. Download it free in the EXTENSIONS on the backend of your Twitch channel. Watch this video of CTRL+

I'm soooo downloading this. On the way this summer.......realistic lawn mower simulator.

Polls on Twitch are a great way to engage your audience. I highly recommend them. Here's a link from Alphr on how to do them. How To Make A Poll On Twitch . Polls work! Channels that run polls have 10% more viewers engaging when chat is visible.

A great way to promote your channel is by publishing highlights. You should send the highlights to several other social media platforms and drive your audience back to your Twitch channel. It's easy to do. Here's a great link from Tom's Hardware. How To Publish Highlights Of Twitch to You Tube or FB or Twitter.

A great way to enhance your channel is with Overlays. Talk Esports has a few hints. Adding Overlays to your Twitch channel

You can set up channel points very easily on Twitch. Alphr does a great job on this.

You can email your Subscriber list directly from Twitch. A terrific way to tell your most important fans what is going on with you and your Twitch show. Take advantage of it. It works!

Friday at 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET is the best day and time to be on Twitch. You will hit the maximum number of viewers on the platform in that window.

Streamers on Twitch made 30% MORE money in 2020 than 2019. A 30% raise sounds good, right? This stat came from GlitchCon (The virtual TwitchCon Conference)

Using bright background colors on your channel and keeping your broadcast screen as clean as possible results in the viewer sticking around longer.

If you can get your viewers to watch you for a minimum of 5 minutes, there is a 30% chance that viewer will be back tomorrow. Get them to comment in the chatroom and that increases even more.

BOTS aren't all bad. Check these ones out from Dot Esports. The Best NightBot Commands and here is more on Bots - The best chat BOTS.

In addition to the main massive gaming players on the platform, Sports on Twitch helped the platform hit another record - 2.1 BILLION hours watched in April.

Twitch Sports cracked the 10 million hours watched in April. First time for that.

A couple cool stories here. Thanks to Stream Elements for the image.

Great to see females are finding success on Twitch. I'm really excited to welcome Crime And Cookies with Andrea Duffy and Ashley.

Brand new to Twitch, Ashley Docking, former morning show host on FAN 590 Sports radio in Toronto who now delivers the goods about the NBA on a Podcast and here!

Sue Tyler from Kelowna, B.C. is another great talent on the platform who will be coming back with shows soon. (I miss her).

Kelly Smith and Paranormal Collective - from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Kelly is a teacher and ghost hunter....I know - CRAZY. They are climbing out of the quarantine and Kelly will be bringing more great shows to get freaked out about.

Taylor Kaye - a promo and marketing genius from the GTA.

Kristen, one half of the Nick and Kristen Show in Portland, Oregon.

And, Dr. Jen Welter......a former coach in the NFL and a rock star on the platform already.

I am very proud to have great female representation with DK Media and will continue to work on establishing a stronger female presence on Twitch.

Please read the articles below. Imane Anys, (pictured above) who goes by the name Pokimane and has 7.7 million followers on Twitch. She is part of a long list of females on the platform.

TuneIn CEO Richard Stern says this,

Radio continues to push talent to the curb. The same talent that brings the platform the dollars to survive.

I challenge radio stations and radio companies to look beyond their world and think digital.....sure, I think Twitch is fantastic, but there are other platforms too, however the message is.....each and every day you stand on the sidelines and don't do anything......you are miles behind the leaders. (BTW - Having a website and Twitter account for your station doesn't count as a digital strategy).

Be like Galaxy Media in Syracuse with all three radio stations on Twitch, 104.5 The Zone in Nashville, ESPN Radio in Houston. Nick and Kristen - Mornings in Portland, or Bubba The Love Sponge in Florida. ALL ARE LEADERS in digital.

Thank you to Richard Stern for the message. Thank you to Matt Shapo - VP Of Digital Content at All Access for the weekend read.

Twitch's new misconduct policy looks to handle bad behavior away from its platform, but it opens some questions, writes Giovanni Colantonio. (Link below)

2VStream launched their Swag Shop and it looks killer! Nice job done by Joe and Kaylib. Here's the deal....you put no money out - you provide the logo and pick the gear.....and.....BAM! You make money. It's that simple. Quick turnaround and quality product. Here is the link to use: https://www.radioswagshop.com/ref/2/

Fill out the "Start Now" form and expand your brand on many items. (THIS IS FOR U.S. CLIENTS ONLY). Canadian clients will use Streamlabs Merch.

Sean will be including this link on all new Twitch channels. Existing channels, I encourage you to add it or ask Sean for help in adding it to your landing page ASAP.

Adam Epstein of Quartz did a great job on this. It's everything you need to know about Twitch - the entire history and the numbers......and they are astonishing.

As Radio, TV, and Sports talent look to expand their brand.....this article makes it an easy decision on why Twitch should be the preferred choice.

I will leave that with you......read on.