Stream to YouTube, Twitch and Kick at Once

One file, three audiences, no extra work. It is the most obvious thing to want from an always-on channel, and it is allowed — but Twitch attaches three conditions that almost nobody applies correctly.

Yes, it is allowed. That changed in October 2023.

Before then, simulcasting was restricted by Twitch's exclusivity terms. The Monetized Streamer Agreement of June 2023 removed the exclusivity clause, August opened simulcasting to mobile services, and on 20 October 2023 Twitch announced the rest: "As of today, you can now simulcast on any live streaming service." Both Affiliates and Partners may simulcast to any platform, with no exclusivity clause at either tier.

The exception: creators who have signed an individual exclusivity agreement with Twitch. If you have not signed one, you have not got one.

Twitch's three conditions

1. Quality parity — the one that catches 24/7 channels

Twitch's Terms of Service require that "the quality of Twitch users' experience of your simulcast is, at a minimum, no less than the experience on other platforms or services, including by your engagement with the Twitch community, for example, via chat."

So it is broader than video: the experience has to be no worse, chat included. But video is where it is measured, and Twitch's own example is explicit — reducing the size or quality of the video on Twitch below what other platforms get is a violation.

This is the rule that quietly breaks multi-platform setups, and here is why it matters more for an always-on channel than for a live one:

A 24/7 channel is configured once and then left alone. If your setup sends 1080p to YouTube and 720p to Twitch — because Twitch's rerun mode caps at 720p, or because you configured the destinations separately on different days — you are in breach continuously, for months, with nobody watching the dashboard.

The fix is structural, not manual: send the same encoded file to every destination. Then parity is not something you maintain, it is something you cannot accidentally break.

2. No directing viewers away

This one is narrower than it is usually reported. Links to your other platforms are allowed in your bio and panels — Twitch says so directly: "Links to social media profiles in your bio (About Me) or your panels, including links to live streaming platforms, are allowed."

What you may not do is actively push viewers to leave. Twitch lists the ways: "links in your Twitch bio, banners, QR codes, stream titles, go-live notifications, chat commands or other means." Large banners or messages promoting another live platform count, even in a panel.

For a looping channel this mostly means: check your overlay and your stream title. An "also live on YouTube" banner burned into the file you loop is not a link someone can ignore — it is on screen permanently, which is the case Twitch describes.

3. No combined activity on the Twitch stream

You must not display merged activity from other platforms inside the Twitch video — combined chat being the usual case. A unified dashboard for your own use is fine, and Twitch confirms it in as many words: asked whether third-party tools combining activity from other platforms may be used "for personal use only", the answer is "Yes, you can use these tools for personal use." The restriction is about what appears on screen.

Kick has a separate catch, and it is not about simulcasting

Kick does not restrict simulcasting. But its help centre lists pre-recorded content among the grounds for refusing or revoking verification and Partner status.

So a looping channel can run on Kick, but it works against you if Partner is part of your plan. We wrote that up in full: is a 24/7 rerun channel allowed.

YouTube is the permissive one

YouTube places no restriction on simulcasting and no maximum broadcast length. The rules that matter there are about whose content it is, and the 12-hour archive boundary — both covered here: 24/7 on YouTube without OBS.

How to actually run one file to three platforms

There are three shapes, and they are not equivalent.

Your own machine, three encoders. OBS with a multi-output plugin sends a separate encode to each destination. It works, and it puts your upload bandwidth and your CPU under three times the load. It is also where quality parity goes wrong most often, because each output is configured independently.

A relay service. You send one stream up, their servers fan it out. This solves the bandwidth problem, and parity holds as long as the service does not transcode differently per destination.

Cloud playout from a file. You upload the file once; the server loops it and pushes the identical encode to every destination. Nothing runs at your end at all, and parity is guaranteed by construction — there is only one encode.

That third shape is what PulseCast does.

What PulseCast does here

Upload one MP4. Paste the RTMP URL and stream key for YouTube, Twitch, Kick, or any other RTMP destination. The same encode goes to all of them, continuously, from our servers.

Three things that matter for this specific job:

One encode, so parity is automatic. Twitch receives exactly what YouTube receives. You cannot drift out of compliance by editing one destination and forgetting another.

We check your keyframe interval on upload. Twitch and YouTube both want a keyframe every 2 seconds. Most editors export them much further apart, and both platforms will accept the stream, show you as LIVE, and degrade playback badly without telling you. Since September 2026 we detect that on upload and re-encode if your file is out of spec — here is why that matters.

Automatic reconnection. Twitch ends every continuous broadcast at exactly 48 hours. We detect the drop and come back in about six seconds, unattended.

Pro is $29/month for three channels at up to 1080p — which is the plan that fits this exact use case, one destination each for YouTube, Twitch and Kick.

Worth knowing before you compare: Streamloop, the cheapest service in the category, cannot do this at all. Their own FAQ, checked in September 2026, says: "Not yet, but multi-destination streaming is on our roadmap. For now you can run separate streams." Our full comparison has the rest.

Sources

Twitch simulcasting eligibility and the three conditions: read from Twitch's own Simulcasting Guidelines FAQ and the simulcasting clause of its Terms of Service, September 2026, not from third-party summaries — two of the three were reported inaccurately in the ones we started from. Kick's grounds for refusing verification and Partner status: help.kick.com. Streamloop's single-destination limit: their own FAQ. Prices: each vendor's own pricing page, September 2026.

Something wrong or out of date? Tell us: pulsecast.tv@icloud.com

One encode to all three, so parity holds by itself. See what it costs