As livestreamers take over the creator economy, NexTide Media is looking to build advertisers’ confidence in the format with a new brand safety tool.
NexTide bills itself as a “modern media network,” facilitating partnerships between brands and a roster of 783 creators across Twitch, Kick and YouTube Live, including big names like Krystalogy. Today, October 29, the company is launching Liveguard, a new product that uses AI to monitor creators’ livestreamed content in real time. The tool auto-transcribes the audio feed from creators’ streams, assigning them a brand safety score that advertisers can use to guide their spending on livestreaming platforms. It does not yet monitor creators’ visual feeds, although NexTide founder and CEO Alexander Guerrero told GamesBeat that this was on his product road map for 2026.
“On YouTube in 2010, you didn’t know what your app was next to. You could be next to Nyan Cat or next to the craziest video you’ve ever seen in your life. DoubleVerify comes in to make sure that’s protected,” Guerrero said in an interview with GamesBeat. “Same thing with livestreaming. Now, you could be next to Asmongold or you could be next to Nick Eh 30. With this, you have that control and confidence to be able to buy at scale.”
Ahead of the launch of Liveguard, GamesBeat caught up with Guerrero and NexTide chief product officer Jonathan Liebig for an annotated Q&A about the state of brand safety in livestreaming. Here are some of the key takeaways.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
On the impact of AI on Liveguard’s development
Jonathan Liebig: “Only since AI really took off could we do it in a low-latency fashion, where the transcription was really accurate. We’re getting some special sauce in there to really make it stick — brands and gaming context is not super easy — and then we feed it into an LLM, which means now the whole pipeline is super fast. We’re at 1.5 seconds of analysis.”
GamesBeat: Advertisers have long been concerned about the potential brand safety challenges of livestreamed content, with some brands wary of showing up alongside frenetic, unscripted IRL streams. Even livestreams that start off with a well-defined brief can go off the rails, sparking angst among sponsors. AI monitoring has empowered advertisers to track the brand safety levels of livestreams in real time, and Liebig said that advertisers using Liveguard can fine-tune their brand safety guidelines to avoid specific topics such as politics or alcohol use.
On advertisers’ current attitudes regarding brand safety in livestreaming
Alexander Guerrero: “You have a lot of brands — Hims, Liquid Death, the game companies — that are getting a little more loosened up. I think maybe even some of the clothing companies might be loosening up a little bit more. But some of these true Fortune 100 companies that have these massive media budgets and these traditional media agencies and the big moving machine — they’re still looking at live as a scary place, because they don’t know what can happen.”
GamesBeat: Guerrero acknowledged that some marketers have started to become more comfortable with livestreamed content, with certain brands loosening their brand safety guidelines as livestreamers like Kai Cenat and IShowSpeed soak up an increasing amount of attention and engagement. However, he said that NexTide’s decision to develop Liveguard was a direct response to feedback his network of creators had received from larger, more mainstream advertisers whose brand safety guidelines have not budged. As livestreaming grows, Liveguard is a bet that these advertisers will desire more guidance as they increase their spending on livestreamers.
On NexTide’s future plans for Liveguard:
Alexander Guerrero: “We want it to scale. We want this to plug into your Amazon DSP or your [Google Display & Video] 360, right? We want it to be very easy, so that way, the platforms themselves can scale their inventory. Advertisers are still scared of content like this — so if we can build something that then helps the platforms and the talent agencies and esports teams scale, that just helps the ecosystem as a whole.”
GamesBeat: Currently, Liveguard is only available to brands and creators in NexTide’s network. The company is automatically rolling it out to its network and does not plan to charge a premium for the service. However, Guerrero said that NexTide plans to offer the product to creators outside the NexTide network if the initial rollout goes well.